Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth Longview Aluminum workers and their supporters listen to speakers outside the idle smelter on Saturday. Hundreds protested the possible sale and dismantling of the plant. |
Workers at smelter call for 90 more days
Sunday, November 9, 2003 9:28 AM PST
By M. L. Madison
Printable version
E-mail this articleAgainst the backdrop of the plant's idled potlines, about 200 former Longview Aluminum workers and their supporters gathered Saturday afternoon, asking for a 90-day delay before the plant is scrapped to pay off creditors.
Speakers at the rally, including U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, urged local residents not to give up on the plant that once employed more than 900.
"I will continue to stand with you, because we can open this plant again," said Baird, who pledged to work with the Bonneville Power Administration to try to provide affordable power for a potential buyer.
He and other speakers criticized former Longview Aluminum owner Michael Lynch, who bought the smelter from Alcoa, Inc. in 2001. Lynch immediately shut it down to sell power back to the BPA during the West's energy crunch, and lost control of the plant in August during bankruptcy proceedings.
"Something is wrong in America when Enron and Alcoa and the Michael Lynches can walk away with millions of dollars, and workers and ratepayers like you are left holding the bag," Baird said.
County Commissioner George Raiter, the former manager of the Reynolds cable plant, said the "problem is big and beyond most of what we can do."
But he chastised Alcoa, saying the company "bought, and what they still have, are the skills, the talent, the hearts and souls of the people that work here -- and they can't walk away from that."
Throughout the rally, passing vehicles honked in a show of support. Members of other unions also attended, walking by signs that read "Don't Scrap Our Jobs," "Save Our Plant," and "Is Your Job Next?"
"We have an interest in this company reopening because of the good-paying jobs it has for this community," said Esther Haberman of Longview, an optician at Kaiser Permanente and steward of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Practitioners Local 5017.
Another Kaiser employee, Karen Morse of Longview, said her husband is a retired Reynolds Metals Co. employee.
"We're supporting the economy locally, and we hope these guys get this plant up and running again," she said.
Before the speeches, former workers expressed fears that they won't get their full pensions, which the federal government took control of in the aftermath of the bankruptcy. They said the last two and a half years have been tough on their families.
Dan Zepeda of Longview had worked at the plant for 28 years before Alcoa bought Reynolds Metals Co., most recently as a crane operator. It took him two years to find his current job, a part-time position doing "nasty work" hydroblasting in industrial plants.
"It's a lot more physical work for a lot less pay," said Zepeda, who estimated that he made about $62,000 a year at the aluminum plant. He now makes about $27,000, he said.
"It's very hard to make an adjustment," he said. "We struggled. All families struggled."
Zepeda's daughter, Michelle Alward of Longview, said the situation since the plant's closure has "been horrible."
"It makes me angry," she said. "You work your whole life, and to have no job and no health insurance at 54 -- it's just awful."
Kelso resident Mike Ferland, an electrician who worked at the plant for four and a half years, said he has since gotten a job with the Burlington Northern railroad.
"We've not necessarily moved on, but we've prepared for the worst," he said. "If the plant doesn't restart, we just hope the companies, both Longview Aluminum and Alcoa, will stand by the agreements they've made and that people will get what they have coming to them."
Wes Wheeler, president of the Longview Federated Aluminum Council, said about one-third of the plant's laid-off workers have found other jobs. Another one-third or so "are still struggling," he said.
He said most of them don't pay as much as the aluminum plant, where most workers made $14 an hour and up. Others, like himself, are enrolled in or have completed worker retraining programs.
Although he has just five weeks of school to go, Wheeler said he would come back to work at the plant.
"Our goal is to put off the liquidation and scrapping of our plant, to give us more time to look at all of the options to restart the plant," he said. "We also need help from BPA to secure a power contract to make it affordable to restart the plant."
Wheeler said he was proud that local people and businesses had stood by the workers throughout the ordeal.
"They're all behind us," he said. "They want it to restart."
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