LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / September 20, 2000

GRAMERCY – Kaiser Aluminum’s locked-out steel workers have spent two long years of walking a picket line through rain, darkness and impossible heat.

The walk is finally over.

Kaiser Aluminum and the United Steelworkers of America, working through an arbitrator, agreed this week on a new five-year contract and ended their two-year dispute.

An official, back-to-work date has not been decided, but should be soon, according to union spokesman Sam Thomas.

“It would be hard to determine a back-to-work date, as they have to take physicals and some off-site refresher training,” Thomas said. “It shouldn’tbe long.”Raymond Scroggs of LaPlace, whose family’s struggles with the strike were documented by L’Observateur, said, “I’m anxious to get back to work. I’mhoping by next week to be on some kind of payroll.”The strike dates back to Sept. 30, 1998 and had several major events duringits two-year course including the Jan. 14, 1999 lockout after Kaiser refusedthe union’s back-to-work offer while negotiations continued and the July 5, 1999 explosion which rocked the St. James Parish community and openedKaiser up to litigation from neighbors and fines from the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

In addition, on June 30, 2000, the National Labor Relations Board formally charged Kaiser with illegally locking out the USWA members.

The new contract, which runs through Sept. 30, 2005, calls for a 2.6percent average annual increase in overall wages and benefits and reduces the number of hourly jobs at Kaiser’s five plants across the country by 19 percent, or from 2,800 to 2,260 jobs.

“This has been an epic struggle for our union and the labor and environmental movements in the Americas,” said David Foster, director of USWA District 11 and chairman of the negotiation team for the union.

He said union members should begin receiving special assistance payments from the company immediately and, over the course of the next month, will return to their jobs.

Foster said that while the union is still pursuing the $337 million back-pay issue in court, “We hope that our members can quickly restore Kaiser to its former state of profitability.”Raymond J. Milchovich, president of Kaiser, commented, “I am grateful thisdispute is over, as I’m sure everyone is. The gains from the new contractthat resulted from negotiation and the arbitrator’s decisions will ensure that these operations will remain competitive for years to come.”The company expects its third quarter financial report to reflect a one-time pretax charge of $30-40 million to reflect the non-recurring impacts of the labor settlement, largely offset by the sale of electrical power.

“On balance, we believe this labor agreement is fair and reasonable for our employees – and very good for Kaiser Aluminum,” Milchovich said.

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