(Bloomberg) — After 18 months of often contentious labor talks with the United Steelworkers union at an aluminum smelter in Quebec, Alcoa Corp. has threatened to idle the entire facility if workers don’t sign what it’s calling a “final offer.”
Aluminerie de Bécancour, a joint venture in which Alcoa controls a 75% stake and Rio Tinto Group owns the rest, made a proposal that expires on July 5. If it’s not signed, the already-curtailed production will be totally suspended, Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said Wednesday in a statement.
Union workers were locked out of the facility in January 2018, and some operations continued to be run by managers. At full capacity, the plant known as ABI could produce 413,000 metric tons of aluminum a year, but that had been cut back to about a sixth of that, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
For context, Alcoa has forecast that its global aluminum shipments will hit a range of 2.8 million to 2.9 million metric tons this year.
If a deal is reached, the company estimates the plant would be fully operational within 10 months.
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