Kaiser, union begin job shuffle

Company must decide how to get crews back into the plants

Hannelore Sudermann - Staff writer

Spokane _ While Kaiser Aluminum reached out to Wall Street Tuesday, the United Steelworkers Union reached in to its members.

Now that they have a new labor contract, the two sides in a two-year labor dispute are taking the next steps to return Kaiser workers to their jobs at five plants.

In a conference call, Wall Street analysts praised Kaiser's CEO Ray Milchovich and the company's negotiating team.

"Congratulations gentlemen on the perseverance in sticking this out," said Anthony Rizutto, an industry analyst with Bear Stearns.

During the one-hour call, Milchovich took pains to tell the analysts that, though the dispute has cost the company, Kaiser had achieved all its goals in the labor struggle.

"Kaiser has achieved what we believe are sweeping productivity improvements," Milchovich said.

The contract, which expires Sept. 30, 2005, will cover about 2,100 jobs that remain at the plants in Spokane, Tacoma, Gramercy, La., and Newark, Ohio. Some 1,756 workers will be called back now, while another 356 at Mead and Tacoma still are idled by closed potlines.

But the big questions remain: With about 540 jobs being cut, who will come back and how will they be chosen?

Using seniority and qualification testing, people will be selected for different jobs, Milchovich said.

But first the company and the union must learn who wants to return to work. Already, more than 200 Spokane Steelworkers have opted to retire.

"We have to determine the pool of interested people," Milchovich said. "Once that occurs, then we've got very, very explicit training requirements."

If there's a shortage of Steelworkers for certain jobs, the company may look outside, Milchovich said. It may be the case that some temporary workers who are laid off when the Steelworkers return will have a chance to come back to the plants, he said.

Now its a matter of days and deadlines.

The Steelworkers have 14 days from Sept. 18 to tell the company whether they want to return to their jobs.

Then the company expects to have the qualified workers back in the plants within a month.

Kaiser will then have 90 days to fit the old Steelworkers in with the new productivity improvements, said Wes Beck, president of the Trentwood plant's union local.

During that time many job rules will be on hold while both parties adapt. After that, the contract rules go into place, Beck said.

Currently, the two sides have arbitrator Seymour Strongin's decision only on the six unresolved issues. Within 14 days, he will file a document detailing why he made those decisions.

In a somewhat cheerful mood, Trentwood's Steelworkers streamed into the union hall Tuesday to learn more details about the agreement and to pick up notification forms to let the company know if and when they want to return to work.

"There's been a bundle of people through here," Beck said. "It's a very important day. This is something new to them. It's their future."

Frank Unterseher left with a box of homegrown tomatoes shared by a co-worker. "I'm just looking forward to getting home," said the grinning furnace operator.

After more than a decade at Kaiser, Unterseher had to leave town to find work with his brother-in-law's business installing truck scales. He estimates he has traveled more than 10,000 miles in the past year, "staying in motels, campgrounds, wherever you can find a place," he said. The 42-year-old is pretty sure he'll get his job back, and he's glad to be spending more time with his wife and family.

By early afternoon Tuesday more than 600 Trentwood workers and 200 Mead workers had picked up their return-to-work notification forms.

The sooner they fill them out, the sooner they can start collecting weekly payments from the company. The checks total $200 the first two weeks and grow to $500 in the fourth week.

Some, like Jerry Vensel, didn't want to wait to turn in his notification. Though the Mead veteran has worked several decades at the plant, he hadn't set foot on the Mead property for nearly two years. On Tuesday morning, he walked through the gate to hand deliver his form.

"By and large, the majority of the people realize this whole thing is behind us," Milchovich said. "Yes, it was a hard-fought dispute. ... but I think the return-to-work transition is better than most people believe it will go."