LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / October 4, 2000

GRAMERCY – Formerly striking Kaiser Aluminum employees will return to work Oct. 23 after they complete an intensive re-orientation session now underway.

Scott Lamb, vice-president of investor relations for Kaiser, said seven days of orientation sessions began this week to bring the workers back up to speed after a two-year strike which ended last month with an arbitration settlement.

“It went extremely well, and relations were cordial and cooperative,” Lamb said, relating that similar re-orientations are in progress at Kaiser’s other four plants across the country.

On Oct. 9 the second phase begins with a solid week of basic skills training,refresher sessions for workers to effortlessly step back into their job positions without a hitch.

This will be followed by a two-week course in standard operating procedures, safety-oriented and job-specific in nature, Lamb continued. That brings theemployees down to Monday, Oct. 23, when the workers, including Local 5702of United Steelworkers of America, are due back at the plant and normalcy.

The new employee contract runs through Sept. 30, 2005, and calls for a 2.6percent average annual wage and benefit package increase and reduces the number of hourly jobs at the five plants by 540, to 2,260 from what had been 2,800 when the strike began on Sept. 30, 1998.As that re-orientation process continues the reconstruction of the plant, devastated by an accidental explosion on July 5, 1999, likewise continues.

Lamb said Kaiser expects the Gramercy facility to complete the first phase of its re-start by the middle of the fourth quarter this year.

“We’re making very good progress on reconstruction,” Lamb noted. “We’restill on target for a first-quarter 2001 startup.

That first phase involves the low-temperature section of the digestion area, and all major systems of the digestion area required for the first phase of operation will be substantially in place.

Kaiser expects to complete second-phase construction in the high- temperature portion and to begin full-capacity operation in early 2001.

As of Sept. 15, Kaiser has received $200 million in insurance in connectionwith business interruption and property damage insurance claims filed by the company.

Ray Milchovich, president of Kaiser, commented, “Our employees and contractors have done an extraordinary job on what has been a very fast- track project to get Gramercy back on line.”Milchovich continued, “We are confident of hitting our targets and returning this key asset to operation. At full operation, Gramercy is designed to havelower operating cost and higher capacity than it had in the past.”Milchovich concluded, “I am grateful this dispute is over, as I’m sure everyone is.”

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