Steelworkers, Kaiser Meet With Nlrb

Representatives of Kaiser Aluminum and the United Steelworkers of America met separately this week with the a National Labor Relations Board official to discuss the federal agency’s decision to uphold two unfair labor practice charges against the company.

On April 25, NLRB general counsel Leonard Page decided to sustain two union charges that Kaiser’s 15-month lockout of 2,900 Steelworkers was illegal.

The NLRB regional director in Oakland, James S. Scott, then met separately with Kaiser and the USWA to determine if a settlement can be reached.

If not, Scott will file two complaints against Kaiser and an NLRB attorney will prosecute them in a trial before an administrative law judge, said NLRB spokesman Dave Parker.

The judge works for the NLRB but is independent of the general counsel and the agency’s five-member board, Parker said.

None of the parties would comment on the meetings in Oakland.

But all did agree this could be the beginning of a lengthy process, since the administrative judge’s ruling can be appealed to the NLRB’s five-member board in Washington, D.C. That decision could then be appealed to federal court.

“Kaiser believes the lockout is not illegal,” said attorney Jeremy Sherman, Kaiser’s chief negotiator in the labor dispute, who said he expects the company would prove that in a trial.

Only about a third of all initial charges brought to the NLRB are found to have merit by the agency, Parker said. In this case, two of 24 unfair labor practice charges brought by the Steelworkers were upheld by Page.

Of the charges that the NLRB decides to support - such as the two charges against Kaiser - about 90 percent result in a settlement, Parker said.

The two Kaiser charges contend that the company offered so little information about salaries that the union couldn’t adequately bargain the contract, and that Kaiser improperly insisted on negotiating major issues separately for each of its five plants instead of as part of a master agreement.

If the charges are upheld by the judge, Kaiser could face paying more than $200 million in back wages. It would be the largest back pay settlement in the history of the labor board.

The largest NLRB back-pay settlement to date was $3 million paid out by the National Football League in 1994, according to the agency.

Kaiser and the union are scheduled to meet next Wednesday through Friday in Houston to continue negotiations, the first bargaining session since the NLRB ruling. Following the last session, the company had said it was breaking off negotiations.