Steelworkers return to Kaiser

BITTERSWEET: 2-year lockout over, but 'temporary' summer cuts keep numbers down to only handful of former force

Barbara Clements; The News Tribune

After picketing for two years outside the Kaiser Aluminum plant in Tacoma, locked-out workers returned to their jobs Monday morning, driving past about a dozen cheering and clapping supporters.

Only about 40 Steelworkers union members, out of an original work force of more than 370, returned to work at the plant's rod division. Kaiser cut 281 jobs at the plant in June, citing rising energy costs.

As one worker left the plant Monday after completing his shift, he said the inside seemed vast and empty compared with two years ago.

"I hope they can either bring us all back or let these guys get on with their lives," he said before he drove into the dusk.

It was unclear Monday whether those jobs would ever return to the plant.

"It was announced as a temporary curtailment," said Kaiser spokesman Susan Ashe. "Those jobs coming back are contingent on a number of things, including reasonable energy prices."

But for those Steelworkers who did return to work - they were picked on seniority of 25 years or more at the plant - there was apprehension along with a sense of relief as they stepped back into the Kaiser parking lot.

Some participants in a training session in Tacoma Friday said they feared managers at the plant would retaliate for their two-year absence.

Members of the United Steelworkers of America at the Tacoma plant and four other locations walked off the job during a contract dispute on Sept. 30, 1998. The company locked out the workers in early 1999 and hired replacements. Those replacement workers left their jobs early Monday morning, so as to not cross paths with the returning Steelworkers.

The day was largely uneventful, according to union leaders reached late Monday afternoon.

On Friday, some workers had worried that would not be the case.

Sherman Albert, a Kaiser Steelworker for almost 28 years, said that after a short 10-day strike six years ago, the workers returned to find hostile managers.

"They treated us like dogs then," said Albert, who declined to give specifics.

"We're going to try our best to make this work," Albert said. "There's a lot of bitterness still, but it's a relief to be going back, too."

Steve Comstock, who has worked at the Tacoma plant for 29 years, said he doesn't buy the company line that the layoff of 281 workers in June was a result of high energy prices.

"It was because of the management, not because of electricity," he said.

Over the weekend, Steelworkers returned to work at other Kaiser plants, including the two near Spokane. Kaiser also has plants in Gramercy, La., and Newark, Ohio.

No incidents were reported when workers returned to Kaiser's Mead plant near Spokane on Saturday. But as in Tacoma, fewer returned to the job.

The new five-year labor contract calls for cuts of more than 500 jobs from the 2,900 employed before the dispute. About 600 Steelworkers are expected to be called back at Mead, down from the 950 who were working there when the labor dispute began.

Other Steelworkers will be returning through mid-November.

Still pending is a trial next month on a National Labor Relations Board Charge that the company's 1999 lockout was illegal. The union contends that the company could be on the hook for some $337 million in back pay. An administrative law judge is scheduled to hear the NLRB complaint on Nov. 13 in Oakland, Calif.