Kaiser Employee Kills Himself After Mill Injury Despondent Replacement Worker Found Hanged In Park

A Kaiser replacement worker who was “de gloved” in a New Year’s Eve accident in Spokane hanged himself in a popular California park on June 18, apparently despondent over his injuries.

Philip C. Autio, 39, was a Kaiser technician at the company’s Center For Technology in Pleasanton, Calif., when he was assigned to fill in at the Trentwood rolling mill during the strike late last year, said Martin Blake, a family attorney.

Autio had been working at the mill about a month when, on Dec. 31, his hands were caught in a piece of equipment used in the aluminum operation. He suffered degloving injuries and had fingers amputated on both hands, Blake said.

Degloving is a term used by aluminum workers to describe when rolling equipment strips the skin, muscles and tendons from bone.

Washington Department of Labor and Industries is investigating the accident. The findings are expected today or Thursday, said agency spokesman Bill Ripple.

After Autio was injured, he was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where a hospital spokesman said he remained until Feb. 14. He returned Feb. 22 for surgery, and was released March 2 to a skilled nursing facility.

Autio returned to the Pleasanton area to recuperate, said Susan Ashe, Kaiser’s Northwest manager for public affairs. He lived in nearby San Leandro and was not married.

The Pleasanton operation provides research and development for Kaiser in such areas as casting and rolling to improve the aluminum. Blake said the metalworker would have been unable to do that work again due to his injuries.

On June 18, a relative who received a note from Autio called police. Based on the note, officers and the East Bay Regional Park District Police went to a wooded part of Lake Chabot Regional Park, where Autio had hanged himself.

Lake Chabot is a popular hiking and fishing park southeast of Oakland. Autio was found about a quarter-mile from a well-used hiking trail and a half-mile from a residential area.

Detectives concluded that he had purchased the rope and that the death was a suicide, said Park Police Lt. Pete Small.

They also indicated that Autio’s injuries from the industrial accident “seemed to be a major part of his problem,” said Dan Apperson, a supervisor with the Alameda County Coroner’s Office.

Autio’s death is the first related to the 9-month-old labor dispute between Kaiser Aluminum and the United Steelworkers.

On Sept. 30, 3,100 Steelworkers at five Kaiser plants in three states went on strike when their contract expired. In January, the company rejected the union’s unconditional offer to return to work and locked out the Steelworkers.

There are no negotiations scheduled between the two sides, who last met May 25. Kaiser has answered questions concerning its latest offer, which union officials are currently reviewing in Minneapolis.

Throughout the dispute, the five plants have continued to operate using hundreds of Kaiser managers and temporary replacements.

According to accident logs required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Autio was one of two salaried employees injured in December at the Trentwood plant. Another 19 temporary workers were also injured at the mill that month.

Earlier, the company admitted injuries had risen in the first two months of the strike due to the inexperienced work force, but Kaiser said that most of the injuries were minor and safety had dramatically improved.

Kaiser spokeswoman Ashe declined to comment on any aspect of Autio’s accident but said his death was “a terrible, unexpected loss.

“We are certainly saddened by our loss, and our heart-felt sympathies are