Aluminum Industry Labor Relations

Five Kaiser Plants Struck: The United Steelworkers union struck five Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. plants Monday, idling nearly 3,000 workers, union and company officials said. Two-thirds of the workers walked off their jobs at two huge plants near Spokane, Wash.--the Mead smelter and Trentwood rolling mill--each of which employs about 1,000 unionized aluminum workers. The strike also affects smaller plants in Tacoma, Gramercy, La., and Newark, Ohio.

Five Kaiser Plants Struck: The United Steelworkers union struck five Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. plants Monday, idling nearly 3,000 workers, union and company officials said. Two-thirds of the workers walked off their jobs at two huge plants near Spokane, Wash.--the Mead smelter and Trentwood rolling mill--each of which employs about 1,000 unionized aluminum workers. The strike also affects smaller plants in Tacoma, Gramercy, La., and Newark, Ohio.

Aluminum Co. of America said it will take a fourth-quarter pretax charge of about $50 million because of retroactive profit sharing and bonus provisions contained in new contracts reached with three of its unions. Alcoa said new 43-month labor agreements have been ratified by its major unions, covering about 15,000 employees at 14 plants. The unions are the United Steelworkers of America, the Aluminum, Brick & Glass Workers International Union and the United Automobile & Aerospace Workers.

For all the shock, it is a blue-collar lament heard many times before: A once-bustling factory shuts its doors and a swarm of jobless workers hits the streets. But if each shutdown is its own tale of agony, the impending death of Alcoa's 56-year-old Vernon Works plant, near Downtown Los Angeles, is extraordinary nonetheless. Because in the dreary litany of plant shutdowns in Southern California, it appears that this one factory might have stayed open--the jobs saved and the anguish avoided.

If I were a gambling man who gets a kick out of making unusual bets, I might have been tempted last year to wager a few bucks that 1,700 workers would win their dispute with Ravenswood Aluminum Corp., which is part of a mysterious complex of corporations operating in 40 countries. Many things seemed to be going for the workers, even after dozens of armed, helmeted company security guards removed them from the aluminum plant in the small town of Ravenswood, W.Va.

For all the shock, it is a blue-collar lament heard many times before: A once-bustling factory shuts its doors and a swarm of jobless workers hits the streets. But if each shutdown is its own tale of agony, the impending death of Alcoa's 56-year-old Vernon Works plant, near Downtown Los Angeles, is extraordinary nonetheless. Because in the dreary litany of plant shutdowns in Southern California, it appears that this one factory might have stayed open--the jobs saved and the anguish avoided.

If I were a gambling man who gets a kick out of making unusual bets, I might have been tempted last year to wager a few bucks that 1,700 workers would win their dispute with Ravenswood Aluminum Corp., which is part of a mysterious complex of corporations operating in 40 countries. Many things seemed to be going for the workers, even after dozens of armed, helmeted company security guards removed them from the aluminum plant in the small town of Ravenswood, W.Va.

Aluminum Co. of America said it will take a fourth-quarter pretax charge of about $50 million because of retroactive profit sharing and bonus provisions contained in new contracts reached with three of its unions. Alcoa said new 43-month labor agreements have been ratified by its major unions, covering about 15,000 employees at 14 plants. The unions are the United Steelworkers of America, the Aluminum, Brick & Glass Workers International Union and the United Automobile & Aerospace Workers.