Everybody wins but the workers

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Is there really an energy crisis? I guess we'll find out years from now. Meanwhile, the damage will already be done. The jobs will be gone. Domestic aluminum production will be a thing of the past.


The good news is that the Bonneville Power Administration will have filled its coffers, politicians will have gotten what they were promised and Kaiser will have its $500 million.


The losers, of course, will be the workers who manned the Northwest aluminum smelters and all the businesses that supported those smelters.


Of course, all the big corporation CEOs and presidents who become owners and partners in new foreign smelters will be very happy. Pay the workers a couple of chickens a week, ruin their environment and health but make someone in an American high-rise very, very rich.


Unfortunately, the company I work for thinks it's bigger than government. It turned its nose up at BPA, put the money in a Houston bank and said there are no laws or agreements saying it couldn't, so there. Phooey on all you Northwest lowlifes.


I'm a 33-year Kaiser Steelworker. What boggles my mind is that Kaiser now says I'm part of a valued, skilled work force the company doesn't want to lose. Funny, I remember being locked out of my plant (Mead) for two years. Must be the way they treat everything they value. They also talk about family wage jobs they don't want to lose. Whose family are they talking about?

Dan Russell
Spokane, WA