With fingers crossed
Mead Steelworkers leave smelter with mixed feelings about future
John Stucke - Staff writer
Bill Warren brushed the snow off his pickup truck and said, "That's it."
A 22-year veteran Steelworker, Warren looked around at the near-empty parking lot at Kaiser Aluminum Corp.'s Mead smelter, put a foot inside the truck cab and said he expects his drive out the gate will be his last.
"I'll be real surprised if they bring us back," he said.
Feelings among Steelworkers were mixed Saturday as they logged their last shifts for at least 10 months. The skyrocketing price of electricity prompted Kaiser executives to close the power-hungry smelter until October.
Instead of using electricity to make molten metal, the company is selling its power load to net hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Mead Steelworkers will share in the windfall -- most are poised to receive full pay through at least January without working -- but short-term paychecks can't soothe a lingering worry.
The Northwest aluminum industry is in trouble. Enormous amounts of cheap electricity are needed to make aluminum, all at a time when demand for power is at record levels and supply hasn't kept pace.
"I hope I'm wrong about this place," Warren said. "I'd like to come back to work somehow next year. But I have this gut feeling."
It was just about two months ago that Steelworkers returned to their jobs after a protracted labor dispute, driving their cars and trucks past throngs of cheering supporters. Better times were ahead, they believed, after eking out a living on meager strike pay for about 23 months.
About 734 union members at Mead were locked out of the smelter in 1998. In October, only about 600 came back to work, because of production curtailments.
Then more power problems set in. Kaiser decided to sell its electricity and initiated two more waves of layoffs. The first took effect Dec. 1 and affected about 145 workers. The second came Saturday and put another 400 out of work.
Between 25 and 40 Steelworkers will still report to work, mostly those in maintenance.
As late afternoon skies dulled and parking lot lights flickered on, Rick Allen and Steve Van Buskirk walked out the smelter gates and through the snow to a car.
Allen is an optimist. He has to believe the smelter will reopen next year, he said, because the alternative isn't palatable.
"I've heard all the rumors out there. But I'd like to believe we'll start back up," he said.
His wife needs back surgery and there are bills to pay, he said.
For now, though, he'll draw his paycheck and cross his fingers.
Meanwhile, inside the cavernous smelter, Allen said, a quiet chill was settling in.
There was just a handful of maintenance workers and foremen on the floor, the compressors were silenced and the potlines idled. By 7 p.m., the layoffs were complete.
"What's it like inside? Brrr," Allen said. "Everything is going dead in there, and there's no heat."
There is reason to believe the jobs will return, however.
Kaiser spokeswoman Susan Ashe said the potlines are being maintained in anticipation of restarting in October. Allen backed up that statement and said the company's actions offer a glimmer of hope.
October is when Kaiser's new electricity contract with the Bonneville Power Administration begins. The company said BPA will sell it enough power to run at 40 percent strength. If the company wants to operate at full capacity, it will have to buy its remaining power needs from a private utility, acquire a generation source or rework its new BPA deal.
Starting in October, Kaiser will not be able to resell its allocation of BPA power for a profit as it does now.