Members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) locals 5724 and 5760 have been involved in a months-long fight for a contract with the aluminum company. Steelworkers at Ormet's Hannibal reduction plant voted to approve a new pact 624-429 on May 11. The same day, members of Local 5760 at the rolling mill voted 443-96 to reject the proposed contract. Informational picket lines continue at the Rolling Mill, which is adjacent to the reduction plant.

With the ink barely dry on their new contract, the company announced May 18 it would be shutting down two pot lines, laying off 270 workers.

In a press release the company said it plans to sell excess electricity to industries in the Midwest during the summer months when supply is tight. "The decision to curtail production at this time ultimately came down to three economic factors," the press release stated. These are "low aluminum prices, higher than usual alumina prices, and higher electrical energy prices in the peak summer months."

"The layoffs won't stop at 270 people, that's my feeling," said Charlie Meyer, a crane operator in the Cast House. "Now I'm driving a fork truck when I'm not in the crane. Over the next few weeks the company is going to try to push job combinations. Now we are really in for a ride!"  
 
Two-tier wage imposed
A concession in the contract, which workers in both plants objected to, was the company imposition of a two-tier wage structure for the first time. Workers hired after Feb. 1, 2000, will start at 80 percent of full pay. It will take them two years to reach full rate.

Workers in the pot room, where most new hires start, "ought to be the highest paid in the plant," said veteran Steelworker Virgil Ash. "It is hot, heavy work. Ormet built a hospital in the plant with rehabilitation facilities to keep the carbon setters working." Ash is one of three Local 5724 members fired during the year-long contract fight, which is being fought by the union.

"Our solidarity is stronger now, we are really sticking together," said John Bellville, "but I hate to see new hires get their wages cut."

Over the life of the new four-year agreement workers will get a raise of 77 cents plus $1.18 in cost-of-living additives. The contract also includes a $4 increase in the pension multipliers over the course of the agreement, a $500 signing bonus, and eliminates profit- and gain-sharing payments.

Most Local 5724 members interviewed on the day of voting were convinced that approving a contract would not end their struggle at Ormet. "We'll just have to go back and fight him [Emmett Boyle, Ormet's president and CEO] again in two years," said Jeff Willey. "That's how its been every contract."

"Back in 1983, when Boyle came in cutting jobs, there was no response. Now we're are working together more," explained Ash, pointing to how the local has been strengthened through their contract fight. "Five years ago we couldn't have gotten people to stick together like this."

Local 5760 president Alan Hunt characterized Ormet's proposal for a 60-cent wage increase over three years as, "a standstill offer, if not a concessionary one."  
 
Competition in industry
The union struggle at Ormet takes place within the context of growing consolidation in the aluminum industry as a result of sharp competition for market-share. Alcan Aluminum of Canada announced a $4.7 billion agreement June 1 to buy Algroup of Switzerland, creating a company second in size only to Alcoa of the United States, the global market leader.

Alcoa announced it had reached a preliminary agreement to acquire all publicly held stock of Howmet International Inc. for $21 per share. The deal, worth some $23 million, is expected to help Alcoa expand its business in the auto engines industry.

This fierce competition is fueling the tough negotiating stance of other bosses in the aluminum industry as well. Workers from five Kaiser plants went on strike in September 1998. They were locked out by the company in January 1999 after offering to return to work.

Their contract fight is over Kaiser's demands to cut retiree health insurance benefits, weaken seniority, and eliminate hundreds of jobs through contracting out. The lockout affects 2,900 workers.

In a company press release in response to the contract vote, Boyle said, "Given our difficulties with productivity, meeting customer requirements and a lack of profitability at the rolling mill, we felt that the contract proposal...was more than fair."

Steelworker Ed Carlton, who has worked in the rolling mill for 36 years, said he "didn't see anything good in the whole contract. Its a concession contract, really, and that's why we rejected it. It is harder now because of Local 5724's approving their contract, but you have to take a stand sometime."

In addition to instituting two-tier wages, the company raised the co-payment on prescriptions for nongeneric drugs to $15 and proposed a cap on medical benefits for retirees based on their average expenses for the previous year. The company dropped their original demand to impose mandatory 10-12 hour shifts in the mill.

"The company is really playing hardball with us since rejecting the contract," Carlton continued. "They sent a letter to us at home saying that no reading materials will be allowed in the plant unless it pertains to the job, because papers lying around create a fire hazard. Jack Horner was fired May 31 for reading a newspaper. They even took the partitions down in the men's bathroom on the hot rolling side of the mill, so we can't write on the walls."

Pro-union signs dot Route 7 along the way to the Ormet plants, honks and waves from passing cars and trucks greet the pickets, and in the bakery in neighboring Clarington you can buy a Steelworkers T-shirt with your baked goods. These are a few of the signs of the deep support the Steelworkers have won through their fight.

Local 5724 member Butch Blake said that even though they now have a contract, "We have to support Local 5760 100 percent. One day, probably next contract, we really are going to have to fight this guy."

Salm Kolis is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 1557.  
 
 
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