Extended Benefits Difficult Sell Steelworkers Rally On Capitol Steps In Support Of Bill

Dan Giachetti’s teenage daughter recently offered to take a babysitting job to help the family through rough financial times.

Through tears Wednesday, the locked-out Kaiser Steelworker, who spent 24 years at the Mead plant, recounted his reluctant response: “I couldn’t tell her no.”

Giachetti was among some 150 locked out Kaiser Steelworkers who rallied on the Capitol steps Wednesday, urging lawmakers to pass a bill to extend unemployment benefits to locked out workers.

Sixteen months into the nation’s longest-running strike, they told of children who were teased at school because the family has relied on food banks since benefits ended in August. They spoke with gratitude about the money neighboring unions in Canada ship down every few months in support.

Some bitterly recalled being turned down for work by potential employers who feared they ultimately would abandon their new jobs for work at Kaiser when the labor dispute ended.

Others, like Carol Ford, a former release clerk at Trentwood, talked about the strain on marriages, some of which, including her own, have ended in divorce since 2,900 workers from Kaiser Aluminum plants in five states were locked out one year ago.

“I can see a half-dozen people whose families have split,” she said. “They don’t want the hassle, the stress. It’s just too hard.”

But while the lawmakers present, Democrats all, claimed to support their cause, no one denied the proposal faces a rough road.

While Democrats, traditionally labor supporters, control the Senate and the governor’s office, the House remains split evenly between the parties. And Rep. Jim Clements, R-Selah, the GOP member who oversees labor issues, said unemployment reforms are “not on the table.”

After two years of negotiating, the two parties recently reached a mammoth agreement to extend unemployment benefits to displaced timber, fishing and aerospace workers, and give businesses nearly a $600 million unemployment insurance tax cut.

That agreement was so tough to come by, Clements said, he doesn’t want to jeopardize it by starting a new debate over benefits for workers who walked off the job.

“We’re talking about unemployment benefits for workers who were on strike,” he said.

Clements said he would “make a few phone calls” in an attempt to help end the labor dispute, but he said he could offer no encouragement to locked out workers that House Republicans would even consider the bill.

“False expectations are tragic,” he said.

Still, Democrat supporters argued that providing benefits for locked out workers was financially sound, good public policy and fair.

“Remember, these workers offered to go back to work unconditionally and Kaiser said no,” said Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. “What do we expect them to do? They’re essentially in limbo.”

Right now, they are using public services that could go to others if benefits were extended, she said. Rep. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma, who is Clements’ co-chair of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, also pointed out that such a move would put pressure on Kaiser to resolve the dispute quickly.

Still, Clements said, “the whole thing is too explosive.”

“It would really exacerbate the situation,” he said.

And even if Democrats could come up with 50 votes in the House, the only way to pass it would be through a politically thorny procedural move that would so alienate Republicans it could dampen negotiations on every other issue.

But the workers, and supportive lawmakers, aren’t giving up. The proposal is expected to pass out of a Senate committee this week, and could come for a vote before the full Senate later this month.

“I’ve seen a lot of defeats,” said Giachetti. “What keeps me going is being active. So I’m optimistic.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: AT A GLANCE Negotiations scheduled

The negotiating teams for Kaiser Aluminum Corp. and the United Steelworkers have agreed to meet in Pittsburgh on Feb. 15-17 to work on a contract affecting 2,900 hourly workers.

Kaiser CEO Ray Milchovich and two of the union’s top negotiators, Bernard Kleiman and Ron Bloom, will attend.

The labor dispute is now in its 17th month, leaving 2,100 Spokane Steelworkers locked out of their jobs at two Kaiser plants.