McCook promises workers full pay
By M.L. Madison The Daily News
Workers at Longview Aluminum will continue to receive 40 hours of pay per week from McCook Metals after their state unemployment insurance runs out, state and McCook officials said Tuesday.
The plant's 925 employees, including 200 salaried workers, will receive a combination of unemployment insurance and pay from McCook while the plant is shut down to sell power back to the Bonneville Power Administration, said McCook spokesman Paul Frank.
Idled workers must actively seek work while receiving unemployment, according to the state Department of Employment Security.
Unemployment insurance can last a maximum of 30 weeks in Washington. When the benefits expire in October, McCook has agreed to pay the entire 40 hours per week. The plant will partially reopen in April 2002, Frank said. BPA will start selling 100 megawatts of power back to the plant at that time.
It's unknown what compensation, if any, idled workers will receive after April 2002. Frank said McCook will "be bringing workers back in stages until the plant is back up to full capacity" at a later date.
Whether or not the state should OK unemployment claims -- versus having McCook pay the workers' entire salaries during the shutdown -- has been a point of contention. BPA has stipulated that workers be "fully compensated" during the shutdown.
Frank noted that unemployment security "is an insurance fund that employers like Longview Aluminum pay into, and their premium will go up because of the amount of claims being filed."
"Longview Aluminum is not getting a 'free ride,'" he said. "It's important to keep in mind who pays for unemployment insurance. It's a benefit they (Longview Aluminum) are paying into."
Last month McCook bought the plant, formerly known as Reynolds Metals Co., for an undisclosed sum from Alcoa Inc. According to documents filed with the Cowlitz County Auditor's Office, McCook borrowed $155 million two days before the sale of the plant.
Citing confidentiality agreements with McCook Metals, salaried workers said they could not discuss the terms of their offers.
Bob Hughes, a program manager for the state's Employment Security Department, said similar agreements had been negotiated at Kaiser Aluminum in Spokane and Golden Northwest Aluminum in Goldendale, Wash., where companies have sold power back to BPA so it can meet the region's energy needs.
McCook will get $225 million from the sale to BPA. At other plants that have power resale agreements built into their contracts with BPA, such as Alcoa's Troutdale, Ore. smelter, companies have simply shut down to sell power on the lucrative open market, leaving workers without jobs or compensation.
Hughes said McCook had committed to pay all of the plant's 925 employees "waiting week" pay while their claims were processed.