Kaiser, Union Set Stage For Denver Negotiations

Talks between representatives of Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. and the United Steelworkers of America broke off Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Pa., with little apparent progress toward resolving more than seven months of labor strife.

The two sides are scheduled to meet again in Denver later this month.

“We had some very constructive dialogue, but the gap between parties remains wide,” Kaiser spokeswoman Susan Ashe said.

A union statement noted only that the talks, aimed at narrowing differences between the two sides, were conducted under a news blackout.

The Steelworkers went on strike against Kaiser’s five U.S. plants last Sept. 30. In January, following a union offer to return to work under the old contract while a new contract was negotiated, the company locked union workers out of the plants.

The labor dispute idles about 3,000 Steelworkers, 2,100 of them at the Mead smelter and Trentwood rolling mill. Other affected plants are at Gramercy, La.; Newark, Ohio; and Tacoma. Supervisors and replacement workers have run the plants since Sept. 30.

Negotiations have been fitful. And officials for the union and company had downplayed any possibility the discussions in Pittsburgh would be conclusive.

The goal, they said, was to set the stage for productive negotiations in Denver, which are scheduled for May 24-25.