By LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / January 4, 1999

GRAMERCY – Is an end near to the Kaiser Aluminum strike? Kaiser officials insist a new meeting is planned Jan. 7. But union officialsdisagree.

“It’s totally untrue,” spokesman Sam Thomas of United Steel Workers of America Local 5702 replied. “I wish it were true.”Kaiser’s website quoted Scott Lamb, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications, as saying the company has agreed to meet on that date, the sixth since the walkout on Sept. 30.”It’s definitely scheduled for Jan. 7 in Chicago,” Lamb said Thursday. Headded the meeting will include senior members of both the company and the union’s negotiation team, but he said he did not yet have confirmation on the attendance of the federal mediator. He did, however, anticipate themediator would be present.

At the Dec. 17 meeting between union and company representatives, Kaiseroffered a new package by way of the federal mediator. Union negotiators,however, had already walked out of the meeting.

Kaiser’s new package includes a $1,000 ratification bonus, an average hourly wage increase of $3.13, the elimination of antiquated work rulesand a contract dated to Sept. 30, 2003.Still a bone of contention is the planned elimination of 700 jobs throughout Kaiser’s five plants.

Approximately 3,000 Kaiser union employees walked out after contract negotiations broke down and the previous contract expired.

“We’ve been working through the mediator to get meetings started again,” Thomas commented, insisting no meeting had yet been confirmed.

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