Steelworkers join strike at Wise

Wise Alloys officials say production at the plant is continuing after 330 members of the Steelworkers local joined other union employees Friday morning on picket lines outside the facility.

“Our management team is out there now, operating the plant along with hourly employees that refused to strike,” said Sandra Scarborough, vice president of human resources for Wise.

The main Wise plant on Second Street produces aluminum for the company’s can sheet operation. Scarborough said the company’s Alabama Reclamation facility was in full operation Friday.

The second day of the strike at Wise progressed peacefully, according to company and union officials.

The strike began at 3 p.m. Thursday when members of Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America set up a picket line. They were joined at 4 p.m. by members of the North Alabama Building Trades unions after their contracts expired.

Negotiations between the Steelworkers local and Wise continued until almost 3 a.m. Friday. When they were unable to reach an agreement on a new contract, the Steelworkers joined the strike.

Ernie Kilpatrick, business agent for Steelworkers Local 200, said Wise has brought in replacement workers to help keep production moving.

Maintenance workers, under the management of ABB Inc., were brought to the plant Thursday afternoon, according to Scarborough.

Kilpatrick declined to discuss unresolved issues between the union and Wise officials other than to say health-care benefits is one of them.

“We’re closer, but there are still some issues on the table that must be settled,” he said.

He said he hopes negotiations can resume early next week, although additional talks had not been scheduled as of late Friday afternoon.

“We’re trying to get this thing settled,” he said.

More than 100 members of the International Brotherhood of Operating Engineers Local 320 who work at the reclamation facility are still on the job after their contract was extended, said Gary Dalrymple, business manager with IBOE Local. The company and representatives of the operating engineers were trying to negotiate a new contract Friday afternoon.

Thirteen of IBOE’s members are under the building trades contract with Wise and have joined the strike.

“We’re working day to day and trying to hammer out a contract or an agreement,” Dalrymple said.

At 9 a.m. Friday, a federal mediator met with union representatives and Wise officials.

Gary Wills, business representative with the local International Association of Machinists, said the meeting ended without any resolution.

“Our meeting with the federal mediator was more of the same rhetoric and went absolutely nowhere,” Wills said. “The company hasn’t offered us anything except to quit our jobs and apply to work for ABB.”

Dalrymple said union officials will try to persuade a federal mediator to set up a meeting with individuals higher up in the Wise company.

Charles Lamon, assistant business manager with IBEW Local 558, said the meeting with the mediator only gave each side an opportunity to state their cases.

Lamon added that the company gave the building and trades unions more information that had been requested after an Oct. 19 letter from Wise officials.

The letter from Wise listed several issues that the unions must agree to in order for a new labor contract to be revisited.

Lamon said the unions’ business agents will likely meet early next week to discuss the information. Some of the requested information involved insurance, drug/alcohol testing and worker classification.

“We had asked for clarification on their proposal and this should give us a better idea of what they’re looking at in this situation,” Lamon said. “There’s always cause to have hope in these situations, and we’ve got to hope there’s something here that would bring fruition.”

Lamon said the building and trade unions will likely make a counter-proposal in an attempt to spark further contract talks with the company.

“We’ve got to hope we can get to the table and have good-faith bargaining on both sides,” he said.

Members of the building and trade unions say they have been disappointed with the company’s decision to outsource all of its maintenance functions. ABB has promised Wise that the new arrangement will save the company $15.8 million over the next five years, according to a letter Wise officials wrote union leaders.

Union members are opposed to working through ABB because they want union representation, Willis said.

Wills said the unions were told that if the ABB maintenance workforce wanted to organize, it would be after they were hired.

“They’re talking about dissolving a group of unions into one melting pot and hiring them back and letting the unions bargain for who gets the contract,” Willis said. “We’re in solidarity with all the groups.”

Solidarity appears to have formed among union groups who are manning the picket lines. Some individuals say they are standing up to preserve a long, proud history of family and friends who have worked at the plant, from the days the plant was owned by Reynolds Aluminum until today.

“Our people stood up and said ‘it’s all of us or it’s none of us,’ ” Willis said. “We’re not to going in there and one group gets the jobs and one group gets left out. There are relatives and friends that have spent a lifetime together there.”

Lamon said the strike has progressed in orderly fashion and hopes the respect that the unions have received so far from the community will continue.

He said there have been one or two verbal spats with guards from Huffmaster, a Memphis, Tenn., firm supplying security at the plant, but Lamon classified them as minor.

“We have maintained a peaceful picket line,” Lamon said.

“All of the building and trades agents have stressed maintaining their cool. We want to keep it peaceful.”

Kenda Williams can be reached at 740-5720 or kenda.williams@timesdaily.com.

Managing Editor Mike Goens contributed to this report.