Managers Preparing For Strike Kaiser Official Says Plans Made To Operate Plant As Walkout Looms

With a strike looming, management employees at Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. may be in for a long week.

Managers at Kaiser’s Mead smelter were told Sunday to bring sleeping bags and three days’ worth of clothes when they report to work today at 2 p.m., according to a management employee who asked to remain anonymous.

Kaiser spokeswoman Susan Ashe would not say what the company’s plans are.

“We’re making plans to continue to operate our facility in the event of a work stoppage, at least partly,” she said. “I don’t want to get into details now. We don’t know what’s going to happen until 4 p.m. (today). But we have to take precautions in the event of a work stoppage.”

More than 2,000 members of the United Steelworkers of America have been ordered to go on strike at Kaiser’s Mead and Trentwood plants at 4 p.m. today.

Union members narrowly rejected a proposed four-year labor contract, it was announced Friday. Their old contract expired Oct. 31.

Plans call for Mead managers to be divided into two 12-hour-per-day shifts that would operate as many production lines as possible, the Mead official said.

About 1,000 Steelworkers work at Kaiser’s smelter in Mead and about 1,000 others work at the Trentwood rolling mill in the Spokane Valley.