Alcoa deal up for vote next week

After six weeks of tough negotiations, Alcoa workers here and at 10 company locations across the country will vote next week on a new union contract to maintain benefits and boost wages and pension payments.

The 278 members of the Wenatchee Aluminum Trades Council will vote June 24 to ratify the new four-year contract, just two days after regional and local union officials present details of the document at a special informational meeting for local membership. Both the meeting and the vote will take place at the union hall in East Wenatchee.

“We’re ready to decide on this,” said Jo Keyser, president of the Trades Council, an umbrella group representing five local unions, including the United Steelworkers of America.

Company officials have said they’re pleased to have the tentative agreement in place. The contract “creates a future for good-paying jobs at these plants,” Mick Wallis, president of North American Rolled Products and Chair of Alcoa’s Employee Relations Council, said June 5.

Contract talks between Alcoa, the country’s largest aluminum producer, and the United Steelworkers began April 27. The negotiations hinged on three key issues — health care, job flexibility and pension benefits — with union negotiators objecting to proposals that, they said, would increase workers’ health-care costs, reduce worker pay and limit pensions to some workers.

According to a contract summary released Monday for union members, workers will receive a signing bonus of $1,250 upon approval of the agreement and a wage increase for all pay grades of an average of $1.08 per hour spread out over the four-year agreement. Under the proposed contract, standard hourly rates at Alcoa’s Wenatchee Works will range from $16.75 for entry-level workers to $23.77 for employees in the highest job class. Annual raises through 2013 will push the highest hourly wage to $24.97, according to the union summary.

The bonus and hourly pay raise will help offset increases in the family health care premiums, the union summary stated. Beginning in 2011, health care premiums for families will be $138.66 per month, up $51.99 from current premiums, and $95.33 per month for singles, up $8.66. In 2014, monthly premiums will reach $203.65 per month for families and $151.66 for singles.

In addition, the new agreement presents a $2 increase per month per year of service in the multiplier used to calculate monthly pension plan payments for qualified employees.

At Alcoa’s Wenatchee Works in Malaga, the Wenatchee Aluminum Trades Council represents local members of United Steelworkers of America, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Sheetmetal Workers Union and the Bricklayers Union.

The Wenatchee plant has more than 350 employees, while the United Steelworkers has 6,000 members nationwide.