Kaiser Claims Union Ordered Work Stoppage Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against Steelworkers

Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. is going to court against its union.

The aluminum processor has filed a suit in U.S. District Court accusing the United Steelworkers union of having Kaiser employees hold a one-day sickout and a 70-minute work stoppage.

Kaiser got a temporary restraining order Friday to keep workers from doing it again. This is the first time in at least a decade that Kaiser Trentwood has gotten a temporary restraining order against the Steelworkers.

The federal court complaint says the sickout and work stoppage were a violation of the contract between Kaiser and the union and cost the company a total of $100,000.

“We simply want to enforce the collective bargaining agreement between the company and the union, which provides a process where legitimate differences may be addressed,” said Kaiser spokeswoman Susan Ashe.

The union denied organizing the events.

“That so-called sickout was the first nice day we had of good weather,” said Wes Beck, president of Local 338.

“The work stoppage is in dispute because no one was told by the union to stop work,” Beck said. “We don’t do that.”

The alleged worker unrest came after Kaiser announced it would lay off about 30 hourly employees in maintenance and production at the Trentwood rolling mill.

The two-week restraining order, granted by Judge Fred Van Sickle, prohibits the union from having workers stop work. The union and its lawyers will have a chance to respond to Kaiser’s complaint on May 15.

According to the complaint, about 40 percent of the employees in Trentwood’s casting department called in sick on April 20. The sickout supposedly was spurred by Kaiser possibly contracting out maintenance work while employees were being laid off.

Then on April 27, workers on the hotline at Trentwood stopped working for 70 minutes.

Kaiser wouldn’t say how many workers were scheduled on those lines during the alleged sickout and work stoppage.