Vol.64/No.19 May 15, 2000
Kaiser workers plan May 23 protest
BY SUSAN LAMONT
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — In a boost to the Steelworkers fight against Kaiser Aluminum, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced at the end of April that it will file unfair labor practice charges against the company for an illegal lockout over the past 15 months. If upheld by administrative judges, Kaiser could be ordered to pay more than $200 million in back wages.
"We felt from Day 1 that there was a basis for the charges we filed against the company," stated Sam Thomas, a member of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 5207 at Kaiser's Aluminum's Gramercy, Louisiana, plant. "We're planning a march and rally in Houston May 23 to bring attention to our lockout."
The action will take place in Houston the day before a meeting of the shareholders of Maxxam Inc., Kaiser's parent company. "We expect union members from all five locked-out Kaiser plants," said Thomas, who also encouraged other unionists to attend. The Kaiser workers held a similar successful action last year in Houston.
Some 2,900 USWA members have been locked out at five Kaiser plants in Washington state, Louisiana, and Ohio since January 14, 1999. They had gone on strike in September 1998. Three and a half months later, when the union offered to return to work and keep negotiating, the company locked them out.
Central issues in the contract fight include company demands to cut retiree health insurance benefits, weaken seniority, and eliminate hundreds of jobs through contracting out.
In addition, the federal Department of Energy and Bonneville Power Administration in Washington state proposed last week that discounted electricity rates could be denied to Kaiser's two plants in Spokane, Washington, where 2,000 members worked, because of Kaiser's actions in locking out the union members.
The union has been waging a campaign calling attention to the fact that Kaiser was receiving cheaper electricity rates. Public comment is being taken on this proposal.
The NLRB decision comes on the heels of the March 15 federal Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) decision to fine Kaiser Aluminum $533,000 for safety violations at its Gramercy alumina refining plant. A massive explosion at that plant, which was being run at the time by scab labor, occurred on July 5, 1999, and led to the MSHA investigation. The plant has been shut since the explosion.
Negotiations with Kaiser will resume May 10-12. For more information on the May 23 rally, please call USWA members Wayne Trapp or Sam Thomas at (713) 960-9660.
Susan LaMont in a member of the United Steelworkers of America Local 2122 in Fairfield, Alabama.