The United Steelworkers of America (USWA), and Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. ratified an innovative agreement that ends their 22-month labor dispute. After two days of voting, July 12-13, union members from five Kaiser Aluminum plants located in Louisiana, Ohio and Washington voted by 74% to accept the proposal.   The Newark, Ohio plant was the only plant to vote against the proposal.   The new agreement calls for Kaiser and the Steelworkers to go back to the bargaining table and continue negotiations of their five-year agreement until July 28^th, 2000.   If they fail to reach an agreement, by that date, whatever issues are outstanding will be handled by binding arbitration.

Arbitration Panel

Sitting on the five-member arbitration panel will be two management and two union representatives and the mutually agreed upon chairman, arbitrator Seymour Strongin.   The type of arbitration chosen by the parties, "final offer selection", is commonly used in determining the salaries of baseball players: the arbitrator selects either the player or management´s salary offer. In the case of Kaiser and the Steelworkers the panel must decide between the last and best offer of either the company or the union. The final offers are usually reasonable because each party fears the arbitrator will take the other´s offer.

Outstanding issues that could go to the arbitration panel include the dollar amount of an increase to monthly pension payments - the union wants a twelve-dollar increase and management is offering eight dollars.   In this style of arbitration the panel would choose either the eight-dollar increase or the twelve-dollar increase not a sum in between.

Issues relating to restructuring the workplace are currently outstanding and will be difficult to negotiate because they will result in job losses for the Steelworkers.   Wage rates are still not settled.

The company and the union will submit their last and best offers to the arbitration panel between August 21 and August 25. The panel will make its rulings by mid September and workers will return to work by the end of September after being on strike for two years.

The Ratified Agreement

The newly ratified agreement includes a procedure for expediting contracting-out disputes.   Any unresolved grievances over contracting out will go to an arbitration hearing within ten days of the conclusion of the grievance procedure with the proviso that a decision is made within 48 hours.   This is a standard clause in the steel industry, but will be new to Kaiser.

Agreement has also been reached as to the number of bargaining unit positions that can be contracted out.     This is now limited to 27 from the original 260 positions that the company wanted.

New provisions for retirees include the elimination of a proposed cap on the company´s contribution to retiree healthcare services.   The elimination of this proposal means that retirees will not have to pay an additional $150 per month for health care services.

Outstanding Unfair Labor Practices Complaint

The strike against the five Kaiser plants began on September 15, 1998 when negotiations broke down.   In January 1999 the union offered to return to work while negotiations continued, but Kaiser imposed a lockout refusing to allow the workers to return unless the union accepted its offer.

The USWA asked the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to bring unfair labor practice charges against Kaiser.   On June 30^th, 2000 the NLRB alleged that the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp had illegally locked out 2,900 USWA members, coerced the union into unlawful bargaining, discriminated against employees to discourage membership in a labor organization and failed to bargain in good faith.

The NLRB will seek full back pay and benefits from January 14^th 1999, when the company locked out their employees.   If the charges are upheld, the settlement could cost Kaiser over $200 million in back pay.   The hearing date is set for November 13^th, 2000, in Oakland, California.   To read the USWA coverage of this 22-month strike you can go to their website: www.uswa.org/kaiser/index.htm