Layoffs on their minds:
Aluminum workers fear the worst is
inevitable
 |
The Alcoa Wenatchee Works
plant has shut down two of four operating potlines in the past month. Don Johnson, a
30-year Alcoa employee, said he feels sorry for the most recent new hires. "Some of
them quit jobs to come here because they felt they had a future," he said. |
By Marco Martinez, World staff writer
MALAGA -- The cash register at Malaga Market was busy Thursday afternoon -- $2 for a 32-ounce Pepsi and a bag of Fritos, $7 for a half-case of beer, $1 for a bag of sunflower seeds, $4 for a pack of cigarettes.
Store clerks chatted with the regulars, many on their way home after putting in a full day at the Alcoa Wenatchee Works plant three miles down the road.
Business as usual? Not quite.
Store manager Jami Powell said the mood of many of her Alcoa customers has changed since two of the plant's four operating potlines were shut down in the past month, the most recent on Wednesday. Alcoa has cut back production by almost half so it can sell power back to the Bonneville Power Administration during the current energy shortage.
Layoffs aren't expected for at least six months, according to plant officials, but Powell said many of her customers are already thinking about whether they'll be one of those who keep their jobs.
"They're all bummed out about it," she said. "It's their bread and butter. It's no fun when you have a family to feed and you don't have a job.
"Some of them kid around and ask if I'm going to have any openings when they're laid off."
Plant officials aren't saying much. The company raised the possibility of layoffs Jan. 6 when it announced the deal with BPA. But Alcoa and union leaders have not said whether any of the plant's 641 workers will be laid off.
But Wenatchee City Councilman Steve May, an Alcoa medical technician, said Thursday night in Wenatchee that about 150 hourly employees and about 35 salaried employees are slated to be laid off at the end of June. May said company and union officials are negotiating now to determine who will lose their jobs, although seniority is expected to be a major factor for hourly workers.
For the time being, employees no longer required for production work will be reassigned to other jobs at the plant.
Steve DeShazo, a 27-year Alcoa employee who stopped at Malaga Market Thursday afternoon, said the most likely candidates to lose their jobs are people who have worked at the plant for three years or less.
"They were told when they were hired on that things were good in the aluminum industry and that they would probably be kept on," said DeShazo, a potroom crane operator. "Now it's come down to this."
Dan Heimbecker, a potline head tapper at the plant, said he's been laid off three times during his 23 years working at the Malaga plant. Each time he was given 72-hours notice that he was being laid off.
"These guys have six months to get their lives together and get bills paid off before they're let go," he said. "That's not much consolation, but it's better than 72 hours notice like the rest of us got."
Heimbecker said his longest layoff was 15 months during 1982-83 before he was called back to work at Alcoa. During part of that time, he worked as Santa Claus at Kmart. "That's where I met my wife. She worked in the shoe department."
DeShazo and Heimbecker said talk around the plant is that the number of people who will be laid off at the end of June depends on how many long-term employees accept an early-retirement package.
"I don't think it matters to the company which end employees come off -- either through retirement or the new guys," Heimbecker said.
Jay Dee Houston, a plant supervisor and 28-year Alcoa employee, said he believes the eventual layoffs will have a ripple effect on the already struggling local economy.
"This whole valley better take a look and see how we go about turning things around," Houston said.
"This is pretty serious stuff."
Don Johnson, a 30-year Alcoa employee, said he feels sorry for the most recent new hires.
"Some of them quit jobs to come here because they felt they had a future," he said. "The last group was hired in September and they'll be gone in June. That's not much of a future."
Johnson said many new hires were excited to land a job at Alcoa -- excited to be have a good-paying job with benefits and a retirement plan.
"Some of them go out and buy things like pickups, boats or an RV," he said. "Now, they have some serious decisions to make."
Johnson doesn't blame Alcoa for deciding to reduce production.
He blames the energy crisis, especially California for its power shortage that has forced other states to ship power to avert massive blackouts.
"As far as I'm concerned, they could cut California off and let it fall into the ocean," he said. "I feel we're hurting because of them."