Kaiser workers cheered at Trentwood gates
Return to work ends era of Kaiser labor strife
| Hannelore Sudermann - Staff
writer Spokane _ Kaiser Aluminum and the Steelworkers had
their last first day on Monday. They drove through a gantlet of supporters stationed at the company gates. At first, people lined the shoulders of the two-lane road, but as the Steelworkers came through, the crowd closed in to form a human tunnel for the cars. |
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Supporters clapped, waved and shook hands with the drivers who rolled down their windows,
honked horns and sometimes pounded the side of their cars. One woman with a bullhorn
hailed the workers, saying, "God bless you."
Mickey Kinswa, an 11-year Kaiser worker who retired during the labor dispute, brought nine
of his children and grandchildren to share in the moment. They wore matching Steelworker
sweat shirts
Dorris Meyer, whose son Mike is a foreman for Kaiser and whose other son Norman is a
Steelworker, stood with her daughter-in-law clasping balloons and a small U.S. flag.
"It was pretty hard on the Steelworkers and pretty hard on the people who stayed in
and worked," she said. "I'm glad it's over."
Meyer met her husband Norman at Trentwood where she worked for 11 years and he for 36. She
waved as her son Norman Meyer drove through.
"It's a good day," she said. "I'm just sorry it took so long."
Another woman in the crowd was more exact. "It's been two years, three weeks and two
days."
The Trentwood hourly employees are the last Steelworkers at the five Kaiser plants in the
labor dispute to return to their jobs. They left the plants on strike Sept. 30, 1998, when
the company and the union couldn't agree to a labor contract.
That strike became a lockout in January 1999 when the company rejected the union's offer
to return to work under the old contract until a new one could be decided. Since then,
Kaiser has operated with the help of temporary workers. And many of the Steelworkers found
other employment, did odd jobs or retired.
"I was ready for it," said Ray Erickson. "But I wasn't ready for 18 months
(of being locked out of Kaiser). Still, we didn't do as bad as some."
Erickson, who had held a Kaiser job for nearly three decades, found work as a security
officer at the Airway Heights Correctional Center. His brothers, Randy and Gary, who
worked at the Mead plant, also found ways to get by. But all three -- with more than 70
collective years of Kaiser experience -- went back to their jobs at the company.
Through binding arbitration, the company and the union reached an agreement Sept. 18. The
Steelworkers at the Mead plant in north Spokane were the first to go back to their jobs on
Oct. 7. And from what some Mead workers say, the period of adjustment with new work rules
at the plant has been rocky.
Some of them carry notebooks with them, said Cathy Gunderson, one of the Mead union
members. "It's to write down the directions you've gotten so when someone else comes
and tells you something different, you have a record," she said.
According to Kaiser, the transition from temporary workers to Steelworkers is going well.
With workers at the Mead and Tacoma plants on Oct. 7 and the Newark, Ohio, employees back
on the 16th, Trentwood and Gramercy, La., Monday were the last to open their doors to the
workers.
While the company has fewer jobs to offer at Mead and Trentwood, leaving a few hundred
Steelworkers out of work, the plants in Newark and Gramercy have come up short, said Scott
Lamb, spokesman for Kaiser. "We are in a hiring mode at both of those plants,"
he said. "The first priority for any of the open positions is that we give them to
the Steelworkers at the other Kaiser plants who may have been affected by job
reductions."
He also said the company is looking ahead to its future with the Steelworkers. "We're
very pleased to have the labor dispute behind us and we're pleased to have the folks back
in the plants," Lamb said.
Not everyone was thrilled with the Steelworkers' return Monday morning. One man, who those
at the gate said was a manager, gave the thumb's down to the crowd as he drove through.
Other managers and salaried workers, though, rolled down their windows and waved.
"They've still got to live with us," Erickson said.
"It's been a long time coming," said Wes Beck, president of the union local.
"The people are pretty upbeat. The majority are glad to go back."
For the next 55 days, the company has control over the work rules and the managers can
join the workers at their jobs and change things as they see fit.
"It's going to be bumpy," Beck said.
And a lot of workers who lost their jobs are hanging on with the hope that the company may
have room for them in the next few months.
"It's not quite over yet," Erickson said. "But we've been through hard
times. We can handle it."
