Smelter proposal riles some
By M.L. Madison and James Tedford The Daily News
A proposal to pay laid off Reynolds Metals workers state unemployment benefits is heating up public debate as the plant's potlines go cold.
Employees said Wednesday that the plant will be totally shut down by the end of the week. Several hundred employees were laid off last week, and all but a handful of workers, in security services and at the waste water treatment plant, will be laid off, workers said.
Employees are exiting into an uncertain future. McCook Metals LCC, which will pocket $225 million from the sale of power the plant isn't using, is asking the state to pay unemployment benefits to 725 union workers. McCook says it will pay the difference between unemployment and workers' regular pay for 40-hours a week.
The arrangement would cost the state unemployment fund about $10.4 million over 30 weeks. A decision could come today.
The idea got both praise and condemnation around town Wednesday.
Kelso barber Bill Ammons, 59, thinks it's "ridiculous" to pay workers unemployment while McCook profits by selling the plant's power back to the Bonneville Power Administration.
"It's been the talk of the shop this morning," said Ammons, owner of the Pacific Barber Shop. "Everybody's mad as H about it. If you're going to do that (subsidize McCook employees), what about people that have been laid off at the mills? I just think they (McCook) are basically selling out to greed. It shouldn't be up to the taxpayers to pay the bill. It should be up to McCook."
Veteran aluminum worker Marvin Morse, a-60-year-old Longview resident with 28 years in at the mill, shares Ammons' view.
"I don't understand why Governor Locke and our representatives are allowing the state of Washington to pick up the tab and allow them (McCook) to walk away from this," Morse said. "We were under the impression that BPA would stipulate pay (during a shutdown), not unemployment."
Longview student Chris West, 20, however, says it's "the state's responsibility" to pay the workers while the plant is shut down to sell power back to BPA and ease the region's energy crunch.
The maximum weekly unemployment benefit would pay workers about $478 for up to 30 weeks, according to Jim Wilkins, the lead negotiator for the state Employment Security Department. This would pay each worker a maximum of $14,340, bringing the state's tab up to $10.4 million.
"I think it's a good deal," said Frank Strong, 57, of Clatskanie, who works for Georgia-Pacific Corp. "My way of looking at it is there's no guarantee about the job. It's better than a lot of places that close down and don't pay the workers anything."
Ronald "Red" Rheaume, 58, of Kelso, agreed that "they (McCook) could close down the plant altogether, and not offer them a thing." Rheaume is a field representative for the Carpenters and Millwrights Local Union No. 1707 in Longview.
But Joe Grant, a 19-year-old student from Woodinville, Wash., said the state "shouldn't be responsible" for paying unemployment.
"It's the company that's making a profit," he said. "If it's making $225 million (from power sales), they can use it to pay peoples' salaries."
"Tax money shouldn't go for things like that," agreed Bill Loyer, 67, a retired mason from Longview. "Nobody subsidized me when I was in business."
Diane Buckner, 49, of Longview, has a different view.
"It's not like it (unemployment insurance) is coming out of our pockets: The company and workers paid into it, and they're entitled to it," said Buckner, who works at a dental clinic. "The state has the money. They've been paid. And as far as Reynolds making money and selling the power back, that's what they call capitalism, isn't it?"
Longview resident Dan Powell, 39, said he thought it was "just bad business to put people out of work to make money."
"They should put the community first," said Powell, an auto body painter, who also said he thought the state "should pay it all."
Les Levin, 80, called the deal "a boon for the workers."
"Otherwise, they'd just be laid off and not get anything but unemployment," said Levin, a Longview business owner.
Lou Vancouver, 62, doesn't think so.
"I think it's wrong for the state to subsidize Reynolds," said the self-employed Rainier resident. "They (McCook) are doing it for a profit, and if they can't offer (compensation) on their own, the state shouldn't do it."
Sound technician Eugene Davis, 21, of Longview said he thought the compensation "should be a mutual thing" between the state and McCook.
"It seems totally fair to me," he said. "That's what I'd want them to do if I was working there."