Alcoa-Rio Plant Workers Give in, ‘Exhausted’ From Lock-Out – by Sandrine Rastello and Matthew Townsend(Bloomberg News – July 3, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

An 18-month labor dispute at an aluminum smelter in Quebec controlled by Alcoa Corp. ended after workers accepted a deal, defying the recommendation of their union’s leadership.

On Tuesday, about 80% of workers at the Aluminerie de Bécancour Inc. voted to ratify the offer after a meeting of the United Steelworkers in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, the union said. Alcoa said in a statement that the restart will begin on July 26, and is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2020.

The deal, which covers everything from pension financing to the use of subcontractors, follows months of failed attempts to revive negotiations after more than 1,000 union workers were locked out in January 2018. Last week, Alcoa threatened to idle the entire facility if workers don’t sign what it called a “final offer.”

The lengthy labor conflict signals the struggle of workers to push for their demands in a market that has seen aluminum prices tumble 15% in the past year. A strike at top copper producer Codelco’s Chuquicamata mine lasted only two weeks, with employees getting three of their four demands.

“After 18 months, we’d gotten to a place where the fight was unequal,” said Clement Masse, the head of the United Steelworkers union ABI chapter, who is stepping down after members didn’t follow his recommendation. “We could feel our members were getting exhausted, which can explain the vote’s outcome.”

For the rest of this article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-02/alcoa-s-workers-accept-offer-exhausted-from-18-month-dispute