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Today's press release: Contact: David Foster (612) 623-8045 John Duray (412) 562-2477 For immediate release 'Kaiser Needs To Change,' Union Bargainers Assert; Stalled Bargaining a Result of Company's 'Inability to Manage' MINNEAPOLIS, December 13-The bargaining logjam and unfair labor practices that have forced 3,100 members of the United Steelworkers of America to strike at five Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. plants since September 30 are the direct result of an 'inability to manage' by top Kaiser officials, union bargainers charged here today. "We welcome Kaiser's declaration that the company intends to formally respond to our December 1 proposal on Thursday, and that Kaiser will, for the first time in these negotiations, present us with a detailed an comprehensive proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement," said David Foster, USWA District 11 Director and the union's chief negotiator with Kaiser. "But the fact remains that Kaiser has been promising us a comprehensive proposal 'any day now' since the second week of the strike, and it's taken the company nearly three weeks to respond to our last proposal - if, in fact, the company can manage to actually do what they say this time." Union bargainers said that, if the company does present a comprehensive proposal, it would be a step forward in the negotiations. But they also noted that, based on Kaiser's past record in these negotiations, they remain skeptical of the company's ability to formulate and present a proposal that can serve as a basis for resolving the dispute. "Kaiser needs to change," Foster asserted. (more) "[Company president] Ray Milchovich has been complaining for months that Kaiser needs to improve its productivity - an assertion that we have not disputed, and a process in which the union stands ready to assist. "But what Milchovich can't seem to grasp is that the union's contract with Kaiser contains fewer restrictions than its contracts with any other major aluminum company," Foster added. "If Kaiser has, indeed, been unable to initiate the same kinds of productivity improvements that companies like Alcoa and Reynolds have instituted, then the problem is clearly an inability of the company's top officials to manage, and not some vaguely defined reference to 'contractual restrictions' which don't exist," he said. Presidents of the five striking USWA local unions were unanimous in saying that Kaiser has demonstrated "an appalling insensitivity to the needs of the company's employees - workers who earned the company $168 million in operating profits last year, and who achieved 'best ever performance' at all five plants." The USWA's unfair labor practices strike has curtailed production at Kaiser plants in Spokane and Tacoma, Washington; Gramercy, Louisiana; and Newark, Ohio. -30-
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