The Militant - Vol.64/No.30 - July 31, 2000 -- Unionists back plan to end Kaiser lockout
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A socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people
Vol. 64/No. 30July 31, 2000

Come to the Active Workers ConferenceCome to the Active Workers Conference
 
Unionists back plan to end Kaiser lockout
 
BY SCOTT BREEN  
SEATTLE--Members of the Steelworkers union overwhelmingly voted in favor of an agreement with Kaiser Aluminum that will end the 18-month-old lockout and return most of the union workers to their jobs by the end of September.

Union members ratified the plan by a 74 percent majority of the nearly 2,300 members who voted July 12 and 13. The deal allows United Steelworkers of America (USWA) officials to continue negotiations until July 29 with Kaiser on a five-year contract. According to the agreement, if no contract proposal is reached for the membership to vote on, they must submit unresolved issues to binding arbitration. The government-appointed panel would decide on those issues by September; the union and the company pledged to accept the ruling.

Some 2,900 Steelworkers at five aluminum plants in Louisiana, Ohio, and Washington State struck Kaiser in September 1998 to win an acceptable contract. Kaiser locked them out on Jan. 14, 1999, and hired replacement workers after the unionists offered to return to work under the old contract while negotiations continued. Since then the workers have continued their picketing as well as traveling around the country, winning widespread support in the labor movement for their fight.

Most workers interviewed by the Militant who voted for the agreement didn't like the proposals, but wanted to get back to work. Buck McGowan, a Steelworker at the Tacoma, Washington, plant for 20 years, explained why he voted yes: "We've been out a long time. I don't really like the contract, but I'd rather have something I'm not comfortable with and a job, than not have a job at all."

Others felt the agreement signified that Kaiser had lost. John Goodman, a worker at the Spokane, Washington, plant who has been a leading activist in the union's "corporate campaign," told the Spokane Spokesman-Review, "We should be rejoicing. We took a multimillion dollar company right to the edge." He felt their 22-month fight had severely wounded Kaiser and forced it to back off from its worst takeback proposals.

When announcement of the agreement was first made, Mike Yeager, a Spokane Steelworker, stated, "My take is that the company, backed against a wall, defeated on all fronts, facing certain defeat in every respect, blinked and has lost across the board."

David Foster, USWA District 11 director and chairperson of the union's negotiating committee, praised the agreement. "This is a great day and a significant victory for the Steelworkers in convincing Kaiser to accept finality to the labor dispute."

Dinno Hess, who has worked at Kaiser's Tacoma plant for 10 years, voted against the accord. He said he had to read the 22-page summary of the agreement "three or four times to realize that we're not really gaining anything." He, like many of the unionists, is angry at Kaiser. "The company just wants to take, take, take. I'd rather the union shut them down than take their crap," he declared.

Clint Wells, a Steelworker in Mead, Washington, echoed that sentiment at a Militant Labor Forum he spoke at a week before the vote. "I'm so bitter against Charles Hurwitz [CEO of Maxxam, Kaiser's majority owner], a fair contract isn't enough. I want to crush him," he said.

The agreement was opposed by two of the five local union presidents on the negotiating committee, those representing the Newark, Ohio, and Trentwood, Washington, locals. Workers at Newark rejected the agreement 135-60. According to Wes Beck, president of the Trentwood local, under this agreement "we'll lose 400-some jobs [at the Trentwood plant]. That's not a victory." Trentwood is Kaiser's largest aluminum facility, with more than 1,000 workers.

Floyd Pleger, a Trentwood electrician, was at the union hall urging co-workers to vote no. He was convinced that with only 12 years at Kaiser, he's sure to lose his job there. "If we cast a 'no,' maybe we'll get a better deal," he said.

In a cover letter to the union members attached to the summary, district director Foster urged them to accept the job losses, stating, "There is no question that the company will run the plants with fewer people. However, with a few limited exceptions, those people will all be Steelworkers, not contractors."

Some retirees also spoke out against the agreement because they must now join a "health maintenance organization" to keep their benefits, or pay a monthly premium as a "penalty" to stay with their current plan.

According to Foster's letter to the Steelworkers, Kaiser had dropped 90 percent of its particular contracting-out proposals, eliminated a proposed cap on paying retiree medical costs, and agreed to amnesty in all cases of discharges for strike-related misconduct and that all replacement workers would be fired when the union members returned to work. The company also offered buyouts of up to $25,000 for any laid-off Trentwood employee, and restored use of seniority in promotions and layoffs.

As a further incentive to vote for the agreement, Kaiser agreed to immediately reinstate health insurance for all locked-out Kaiser workers and their families if the plan was passed.

Unresolved issues include wage raises, contract benefits, and the exact number of workers who would lose their jobs at the Trentwood rolling mill by Spokane due to job combinations, "restructuring," and power-related layoffs at the Mead and Tacoma plants.

In recent weeks Kaiser has cut back on aluminum refining at its Mead and Tacoma plants, laying off hundreds of replacement workers. It has cited huge increases in electricity rates on the West Coast to justify its shutdowns.

Many Steelworkers believe it has been their fight that forced Kaiser to make a deal. Throughout their 22-month struggle, the workers maintained their 24-hour picketing at Kaiser's plants, and won official support from the union movement.

They organized marches and rallies, reached out to other unions for support, and joined other labor fights that broke out around the country. They exposed Kaiser's major owner, Charles Hurwitz of Maxxam Corporation, for his antiunion, anti-environmental stances, taking their struggle to California and Houston, where the headquarters of Kaiser and Maxxam are located. They organized public campaigns to force other manufacturers to cease buying from Kaiser Aluminum, and protested the federal Bonneville Power Administration for selling Kaiser cheap electricity.

On June 30, in face of this gradually accumulating public pressure, the National Labor Relations Board formally charged Kaiser Aluminum with illegally locking out the Steelworkers. It set a hearing date of November 13 and threatened Kaiser with having to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to workers in back pay if the company lost. According to the USWA, the agreement will not stop the NLRB case from going to trial.

Scott Breen, a member of International Association of Machinists Local 751, is the Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate in Washington State.

 
 
 
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