Kaiser Injuries Increase Union Officials Cite Osha Figures From Four Plants

Making aluminum is hot, dirty and dangerous work. Wednesday, the United Steelworkers charged it has gotten a whole lot more dangerous since a labor dispute began five months ago.

Serious injuries have jumped 138 percent at four Kaiser Aluminum plants over pre-dispute levels, according to data compiled by the Steelworkers nationally. Less serious injuries are up 320 percent. At the Tacoma plant, injuries that did not cause lost time or restricted duty were up 1,833 percent.

“We have no love for the replacement workers who have taken our jobs, but at the same time we don’t want to see them maimed, injured and losing fingers,” said Wes Beck, president of Local 338. He called on Kaiser managers to end the lockout “before they kill someone.”

The union based its statistics on safety logs Kaiser is required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to keep and required to share with the union.

Kaiser officials “certainly acknowledge that we’ve had an increase in injuries in the first two months of the strike,” spokeswoman Susan Ashe said. But she said most were minor burns, scrapes and cuts, along with conditioning-type injuries such as blisters and strains among the replacement workers.

She said all five plants have experienced a marked improvement in safety due to a “round-the-clock emphasis on observations, auditing and coaching.

“In some plants the injury experience has declined by a range of 25 to 300 percent from November’s peak levels,” said a company statement Ashe provided.

But the Steelworkers said that based on the safety statistics in the final quarter of 1998, injuries involving lost time had risen 163 percent at Mead; 25 percent at Trentwood, and 609 percent at Tacoma.

The Mead increases occurred although the plant is operating at a reduced capacity with two of the eight potlines down. The Steelworkers also provided statistics on the Newark, Ohio, plant. A fifth plant, in Gramercy, La., is covered by the Mine Safety and Health Act.

Safety has been a major issue since the union went on strike Sept. 30. The 2,900 Steelworkers offered to return to work Jan. 13 but the following day the company locked them out.

The safety logs contain scant detail but do list such injuries as chemical exposure, burns, back injuries and amputations.

The company said the union is overstating the seriousness of the injuries, by saying, for instance, that there were 100 serious injuries in the final quarter when the Kaiser managers tallied six.

The Steelworkers counter that the logs actually understate the number of injuries. Union members say they know people who were hospitalized who don’t appear on the logs, and that they’ve tallied ambulances coming and going from the plants which are not recorded in the logs.

The Washington state Department of Labor and Industries can shed little light. The agency monitors safety at three Kaiser plants in Washington, tracking all deaths and “catastrophic injuries.” It reviews the OSHA safety logs, but does not retain them.

Agency spokesman Bill Ripple said there has been no deaths or impalements at any Kaiser plant since the dispute began. There have been at least two amputations in Spokane including a “degloving” in which a replacement worker’s hands were caught in equipment at Trentwood.

Inspectors have visited the Kaiser plants nine times in 1998, at least four times since Oct. 1. In three investigations, no violations were found. A fourth investigation resulted in a $3,600 fine for violating safety rules with the 2-high mill at Trentwood in October. A fifth investigation, into the degloving incident, is on-going, Ripple said.