Longview Aluminum lays off 41
By M.L. Madison The Daily News
Longview Aluminum has laid off 41 salaried workers, saying the cuts were "directly related" to the sagging price of aluminum.
The move is a reversal of Michigan Avenue Partners Chairman Michael Lynch's claim last month that "everyone (at the plant) who wants to work will work." MAP bought the plant from Alcoa Inc. in February.
The new owners shut down the plant to sell power back to the Bonneville Power Administration for $225 million. At that time, BPA stipulated that "workers be fully compensated" as part of the power deal, a condition that apparently doesn't apply to the plant's 200 non-union workers.
BPA spokesman Ed Mosey said the contract between his agency and MAP "is not specific enough that it distinguishes between salaried employees and union employees."
"In all past contracts, we've relied on the steelworkers to negotiate or accept an agreement, which they have done," Mosey said. "To my knowledge, the issue of salaried workers and their compensation has not come up in the past. There is nothing legally in the contract, as far I know, that we can do."
Mosey said BPA hadn't received any formal complaints from salaried workers, who were laid off this week. If and when they do, BPA would respond.
McCook Metals spokesman Paul Frank said the employees were getting "a very generous severance package that includes full pay and benefits" for an average of six months. McCook Metals is a subsidiary of MAP.
Frank said employees were forewarned that there would be layoffs.
"Previous statements may not have been accurate. However, we have been straightforward with all of the employees since the day we purchased this plant," he said. "People know exactly what the future holds. We're not trying to shut anybody out; we're trying to run an honest and open business."
Frank said some of the laid off workers had access to job retraining and possible job placement with McCook.
Several workers said they were forbidden from discussing the layoffs, because of confidentiality agreements, at the risk of losing their severance pay.
"I just think it's an underhanded way of doing business," said one worker who had been laid off, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I just don't think it's a fair way to treat people. I wouldn't run a business that way. It's not 'what made this country great.' You've got to be a little bit predatory to do this stuff."
Of the 925 workers at the plant prior to the shutdown, 725 were represented by the United Steel Workers of America International Union Local 305. The union signed an agreement with MAP that would pay them a combination of unemployment insurance and money from MAP totaling 40 hours a week in February. When the unemployment runs out -- after 30 weeks -- MAP has agreed to pay the full 40 hours a week until part of the plant reopens in April 2002.
The south plant will remain closed for an unknown time after that, Frank said.
The former employee noted that most people at the plant don't believe that it will start up again as MAP has promised.
"Bonneville has never once put themselves in the peoples' position to see how it would feel. Nobody's looking at the fact that to keep the light bulbs burning, we've had plants shut down," the former employee said. "What happens after 12 months? There's no unemployment, nothing," the former worker said. "There are people out on the street with nothing. "