Kaiser Requests Contract Talks Company Says It Will Offer A New Contract Proposal

Kaiser Aluminum and its striking steelworkers will resume bargaining next week in San Francisco.

Kaiser officials said Friday that the company is willing to meet with the United Steelworkers on Dec. 17.

The two sides have met formally only once since a strike that idled 3,000 workers - including 2,100 in Spokane - started more than two months ago.

At the first formal meeting, Dec. 1 in Minneapolis, the union presented a contract it said would meet Kaiser’s productivity demands as well as ensure job security for Steelworkers.

The company said that proposal was unacceptable, but until Friday had not proposed or agreed on a date to meet again. The union’s chief negotiator, David Foster, has publicly criticized Kaiser for its unwillingness to bargain.

Kaiser officials, however, said not a week has gone by in which they haven’t had some contact with the union. “We’ve been in constant communication,” said Susan Ashe, a spokeswoman for the company.

Now that Kaiser has set a date to resume talks, a union spokesman said, the Steelworkers are somewhat relieved.

“We’ll be there with bells on,” said Steelworkers spokesman John Duray. “It’s good that we’re talking.”

At the meeting, the company plans to “respond formally to the proposal the union presented to the company,” and “deliver a detailed and comprehensive proposal to the union for a new collective bargaining agreement.”

A federal mediator has been notified of the meeting.

“It’s good that they can actually, hopefully, get it together to put a proposal on the table,” Duray said. “What will be in it, I don’t necessarily have high hopes for … I would not expect a settlement on Thursday.”

Hourly workers at five Kaiser plants have been on strike since Sept. 30. The presidents from all five union locals said they would attend the San Francisco meeting.

The company has also offered to continue the meeting through Friday, if necessary.

“Any time the two sides are able to get together is a good sign,” Ashe said.

Representatives from one of Kaiser’s largest new customers, Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, finished an audit of the Trentwood plant Thursday. They were examining the quality of the flat-rolled aluminum that had been produced by salaried and temporary replacement workers. Results of the visit will be available next week, Boeing said.