Alcoa workers willing to strike

MASSENA — Workers at Alcoa's idled Massena East plant said Wednesday they are willing to go on strike if the company cannot come up with an acceptable contract proposal by Monday.

United Steelworkers Local 450 President Richard M. Orton said a strike vote was approved overwhelmingly by his membership, which voted 97 percent in favor of walking out if Alcoa does not make a better offer on health care before the contract expires at 11:59 p.m. Central time that day.

The strike vote was made during a monthly union meeting Wednesday.

Mr. Orton said the locals often will take a strike vote at the direction of USW International before heading to the negotiating table to determine whether workers support the use of a strike as recourse if the talks break down. But such a vote was not taken before the kickoff of this year's master negotiations May 17.

"There were so many people concerned about what they've read and heard about the contract," Mr. Orton said. "This says that what the company has on the table right now is unacceptable to them."

Some of the other local unions included in the master contract, which covers Alcoa factories at 10 locations in the U.S., also have approved a strike as an option if talks do not improve.

USW Local 420, which represents workers at the Massena West plant, held its monthly meeting earlier in May and has not taken a vote on whether to strike if contract talks are unsuccessful.

While the vote confirms that workers at many plants are willing to strike, they will not take to the picket lines until the contract has officially lapsed. In the meantime, Alcoa and the USW are continuing their negotiations.

A major obstacle for the steelworkers is the company's health-care position.

By proposing to switch the 5,400 workers covered by the union contract to a different health plan — which corporate officials say already covers 16,300 of the company's workers — Mr. Orton said, the company is essentially asking the union to give up its right to bargain for health coverage.

"That's not going to happen," he said. "We can't afford the health care we've got out there now, and we're not giving up our right to bargain and then have them come in the room tomorrow and say, 'You're not going to get this anymore.'"

That switch would lower company costs for providing health care to those employees by 45 percent, Alcoa spokesman Michael E. Belwood said.

"We feel like we have made a proposal that offers a high-quality plan and balances our need to control costs," he said.

Talks are taking place in Cincinnati and will continue through the weekend and the Memorial Day holiday until new terms are reached.