Steelworkers union, Alcoa reach tentative contract agreement

May 16--Steel workers in Blount County and other Alcoa Inc. locations across the country will vote soon on a tentative five-year agreement reached between Alcoa and the United Steelworkers, a union official said Friday.

The union and the aluminum company announced that a tentative agreement was reached late Thursday on a new contract that would avoid the possibility of a strike. It would cover about 6,000 members of USW local unions at Alcoa plants in eight states, including the Tennessee plant in Blount County.

"I believe it's one of the better ones we've had in a number of years," Steve Marsh, president of United Steelworkers Local 309, said of the agreement.

Local 309 represents about 730 workers at Alcoa'sBlount County operations. Marsh, who was on his way back Friday from voting on the agreement in Philadelphia, said meetings will be held to explain the agreement, then individual locals will vote on whether to ratify it. That must take place before June 15 for workers to get a $1,000 signing bonus that is part of the agreement, Marsh said.

The agreement would include a five-year cap on health care insurance premiums, plus a 2.5 percent raise each of the first three years and a 3 percent raise each of the last two, Marsh said.

The tentative agreement would replace the previous contract that expired at midnight Friday. The union's local presidents voted unanimously to recommend that members ratify the agreement.

Other plants covered by the contract are in Warrick and Lafayette, Ind.; Point Comfort and Rockdale, Texas; Davenport, Iowa; Badin, N.C.Wenatchee, Wash.; Massena, N.Y.; and Gum Springs, Ark.

In 2012, Alcoa closed its Blount smelting operation but last year launched a $275 million expansion of the Blount County rolling mill operation as part of an initiative to meet growing demand for aluminum sheet for the automotive industry.

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