LOCAL EXECUTIVES of Kaiser Aluminium Corporation have been meeting with employees to discuss developments surrounding the company's filing for bankruptcy in the United States.Chris Cummins, general manager of Alpart, met with workers at the plant in Nain, St. Elizabeth on Thursday, to explain the company's position and the effect the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the United States was likely to have on them.
Kaiser owns 65 per cent of Alpart, the other 35 per cent is owned by Norwegian firm Hydro Aluminium. Kaiser also owns 49 per cent of Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company (KJBC), the other 51 per cent being owned by the Government of Jamaica.
Despite Mr. Cummins' talks with the workers, however, National Workers Union (NWU) vice-president Norman DaCosta said that there was still concern about their future. The NWU represents workers at Alpart.
A planned expansion of Alpart's production capacity from the current 1.5 million tonnes to 1.75 million tonnes, scheduled to start this quarter, is currently threatened by the bankruptcy filing.
"My assessment is that it might get worse before it gets better," Mr. DaCosta said Thursday. He said that there was a fear among workers that the situation may reach the stage where the company will have to sell some of its assets.
He said that a number of factors was contributing to the continuing anxiety, including a recent letter from Chief Executive Officer/President Jack Hockema to retirees listing obligations to them as well the decline in primary aluminium shipments due to shelter curtailments in the Pacific North-west and debt payment maturities as financial burdens.
"They have to look at the global situation, including Jamaica, to see where they can cut," Mr. DaCosta said.
The University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) held a number of meetings with its members at the KJBC's port in Discovery Bay and the mines in Water Valley, St. Ann.
UAWU vice-president Lambert Brown said after the meetings that his members were watching developments at Kaiser's Grammercy plant in Louisiana, "if Grammercy goes under it will have a significant effect on the Jamaican operations," he said.
However, Mr. Brown said, the workers were determined to maintain a high level of productivity in the meantime.
KJBC's general manager Tim Damion met the workers on Tuesday to discuss the issue. Kaiser's executive in charge of all its local investments, US-based Gene Miller, is expected in the island next week on a pre-arranged visit.
Minister of Mining and Energy, Anthony Hylton, told a press briefing at the Terra Nova Hotel yesterday, that the Government was confident that Kaiser would overcome its difficulties and maintain its role in the local industry.
In an update on Thursday, KAC that it had received interim approval from the bankruptcy court to use up to $100 million of its Debtor-in-Possession financing, together with existing invested cash to continue operations, pay employees and purchase goods and services going forward during its voluntary Chapter 11 case.
On Wednesday, the company received court approval to, among other things, pay pre-petition and post-petition wages, salaries and benefits to its employees and to honour obligations to its customers.
Kaiser Aluminium said Tuesday, that while the filing includes certain US subsidiaries, through which the company holds an interest in foreign operations, it did not include its interests in the Alpart refinery in St. Elizabeth or Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company (KJBC), nor plants in Australia, Canada, Ghana and Wales.
The company said that it had taken appropriate steps designed to ensure that its participation in each of its two Jamaican entities, including the funding of certain costs and expenses, "will not be impacted by the filings."
"Kaiser's production and shipment of bauxite, alumina, primary products and fabricated aluminium products will continue without interruption," the company has said.
