Industry-busting BPA policy will leave us all the poorer
Guest column
Jack Dayley - Special to The Spokesman-Review
Today I tacked a for-sale sign on my family's dream home on Loon Lake. I am one of the lucky few from Northwest Alloys. I was able to use my skills, learned during 25 years at the Addy plant, to find a job elsewhere. Soon, my daughter will be pulled out of Chewelah High School, my wife will watch strangers move into her family home and I will depart the area of my youth.
However, my family is more fortunate than the dedicated, hard-working men and women we are leaving behind, whose livelihoods are being threatened by the Bonneville Power Administration's irrational plan to idle Northwest smelters.
While the BPA was busy manipulating the aluminum industry -- and you, the consumer -- with this scheme called "blended power" (Sure, they're going to pass off the savings to you!) and while the American government was trying to decide whether it will continue to let China, Russia and Israel pour cheap magnesium into the country, do you know what the workers inside the Northwest Alloys magnesium plant were doing? They were voluntarily undergoing a blistering safety inspection by four state safety officers enforcing the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act, known as WISHA. And you think the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is tough! At the conclusion of the inspection, the Addy plant was recommended for one of the most prestigious safety awards in the United States, the Voluntary Protection Program "Star" certification.
As the inspectors left, one of them turned and said to me -- "You have the finest and safest work force I have ever encountered."
The following week, Northwest Alloys' business unit president paused during a visit to the Addy smelter to present a plaque to the work force for having implemented the Alcoa Production System. That is a manufacturing excellence program. Only two out of the 500 Alcoa plants received this award.
In other words, while being delivered a one-two punch from the BPA and foreign imports, we delivered one back _ safety and manufacturing excellence.
If the Addy plant is shut down, what happens to the price of magnesium and hence, aluminum? Remember, there are only two magnesium plants in the U.S. and the other one is as likely as ours to shut down. Are you willing to trust foreign enterprises to supply U.S. aluminum smelters and steel mills with the same cheap magnesium? You can bet that the price will rise and that U.S. manufacturers that use magnesium alloys and aluminum to make our cars, boats, planes, buildings, electronics and appliances will pass the higher cost on to consumers.
And when the price gets so high that we quit buying, they will move their businesses overseas, like thousands of other U.S. companies, and use cheap foreign labor with minimal environmental expenditures to make their goods.
Let's not forget the enduring words of Thomas Jefferson in our Declaration of Independence, where he wrote, "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes."
The employees at Northwest Alloys have worked long and hard to be the best. Let's not undermine their achievements and helplessly watch the degradation of this beautiful place in northeast Washington.
Write or e-mail your congressman, your governor and your president. Check out www.nwpower.org on the Internet and join our fight to preserve the availability of magnesium and the preservation of the American worker!
Jack Dayley, a native of Chewelah, is safety and health manager at Northwest Alloys Inc. in Addy. He is moving his family to Wenatchee, where he has accepted a position as safety manager at the Alcoa aluminum smelter.