Kaiser Talks Will Resume Negotiations Will Be First Since Lockout On Jan. 15

Kaiser Aluminum and the United Steelworkers union have agreed to resume negotiations April 5 in Denver.

In nearly simultaneous announcements late Monday, the two sides said they will meet for a five-day bargaining session on a new labor agreement. A federal mediator will be present.

The negotiations will be the first since talks ended in Chicago on Jan. 14.

The company rejected the Steelworkers’ offer to end a 106-day strike at five plants on Jan. 15 and locked out nearly 3,000 workers at Trentwood and Mead in Spokane, and in Tacoma; Gramercy, La.; and Newark, Ohio.

The strike had been called when the Steelworkers’ contract expired Sept. 30. The company has been operating the plants since then with salaried workers and temporary replacements.

Monday’s announcement comes after an exchange of information between the company and the union earlier this month.

“We’ve been willing and ready to go back to the table,” said Dan Sampson, a Steelworker from Local 338, which represents Trentwood workers. “If they are negotiating in good faith, we’re there and willing to do it and get it done. We’re ready to work.”

The talks will involve negotiating teams from all five local unions.

Kaiser will have a full negotiating team, as well, said spokeswoman Susan Ashe.

“Anytime the parties are able to get together at the bargaining table and have substantive negotiations, it’s a good sign,” Ashe said.

Union members picketing outside the gates of the Mead smelter agreed, but kept their optimism in check.

“You don’t get your hopes up until something actually happens,” said picket captain Dave Burkart. “I don’t expect anything out of it.”

Union officials have spent the last few days sifting through 12 boxes of materials from Kaiser, union negotiator Dave Foster said in a radio interview. Kaiser submitted the information in response to questions about the 1,200-page contract proposal handed to the Steelworkers in December.

“There are a lot of things we find objectionable,” he said.

Employees, he said, remain willing to go back to work under the terms of the old contract pending the outcome of talks.

Foster estimated replacement worker turnover at some plants was 70 percent, and added that productivity and quality are suffering.

The company denies productivity and quality problems.

“At what cost are we going to prolong this thing,” asked Local 329 Vice President Larry Strom.

“I’m positive about the meeting,” said the spokesman for the Mead workers. “I remain skeptical of a resolution.”