Kaiser laying off 114 workers near Spokane over holidays
Crew will be back on job in January
December 22, 2001
The Associated Press
SPOKANE - Kaiser Aluminum Corp. says it will temporarily lay off 114 Steelworkers at its Trentwood rolling mill after warning it expects fourth-quarter losses.
The company said it expects to lose as much as $36 million during the fourth quarter because of soft sales and poor aluminum prices.
The company blamed the slowdown for the Christmas-week layoff of Trentwood workers. Most of the crew will be recalled in early January.
"You have to put everything into the context of this earnings warning," company spokesman Scott Lamb said from Houston. "We're operating under extremely difficult conditions throughout the company."
Steelworkers Local 338 President Dave Carlson called the layoffs a tactic to avoid paying holiday wages.
By scheduling the temporary layoff during the week of Christmas, Kaiser has to pay the workers for 16 hours of holiday pay, he said. Had the company scheduled the layoff on a different week, it would have owed the workers 32 hours of pay, he said.
After losing nearly $25 million during July, August and September, Kaiser expected flat results for the rest of the year. Now, Kaiser expects to lose $28 million to $36 million for the October-December period.
Kaiser shut down its smelters in Mead and Tacoma last year as power prices soared.