At Ravenswood, the Deck Is Stacked

If I were a gambling man who gets a kick out of making unusual bets, I might have been tempted last year to wager a few bucks that 1,700 workers would win their dispute with Ravenswood Aluminum Corp., which is part of a mysterious complex of corporations operating in 40 countries.

Many things seemed to be going for the workers, even after dozens of armed, helmeted company security guards removed them from the aluminum plant in the small town of Ravenswood, W.Va., when management locked them out of their jobs.

The workers, represented by the United Steelworkers of America, had understandably rejected company demands for more cuts in wages and benefits. The company didn’t want to continue negotiations as the union urged, and management brought in hundreds of “permanent replacements” hired well before the contract expiration date.

That tactic nullifies the legal right, guaranteed by federal law, of workers to strike without fear of being fired. It may, and certainly should, be outlawed by Congress.

When the tactic was used by Ravenswood, the dispute became an international cause celebre for labor, supported by unions and political figures around the world. It resembled labor’s highly publicized battles against Eastern Air Lines, Greyhound Bus Co. and Pittston Coal Co., even though the impact of the dispute is small and Ravenswood was relatively unknown.

More hope for my theoretical bet was based on expected public sympathy for the workers. Their average age is 52, and they had worked efficiently and harmoniously at Ravenswood Aluminum for an average of 22 years when it was owned by a more compassionate company, Kaiser Aluminum.

Half of the 4,000 citizens of the little town worked for, or were dependent directly on, the company, which was taken over from Kaiser two years ago in a leveraged buyout deal by a multibillion-dollar international network of companies and financial manipulators--hardly a sympathy grabber for the company.

Another factor unlikely to win the company much support is that the moving spirit behind the international corporate network is Marc Rich, a billionaire fugitive from U.S. justice.

Also, the workers’ cause seems just. They understandably want to stop Ravenswood from cutting their own wages and benefits, and they know such cuts could undermine labor contracts of their co-workers in the entire aluminum industry. They also want to reverse the company’s lousy safety record and save their union.

Betting on a workers’ victory these days, no matter how just their cause or how wide their support, isn’t smart when they are fighting a giant combine such as the one that owns Ravenswood.

Still, the odds seem to favor the workers: They are the small-town underdogs fighting to survive a battle against a corporate Goliath manipulated by Rich, who fled this country to escape criminal prosecution.

He is wanted on tax fraud charges, oil price rigging and other allegations in a 65-count indictment still pending against him.

He has already paid nearly $20 million in contempt-of-court fines and is avoiding prosecution by living in Zug, Switzerland, where he is winning friends with hefty charitable contributions, not unlike former junk bond king Michael Milken.

The Ravenswood workers--and a gambler--might also take heart knowing that the United States is offering a reward of $750,000 for Rich. That doesn’t make him look like a man who ought to be fighting some hungry aluminum workers and their families in a small American town.

Also boosting the hopes of this would-be gambler are charges by the National Labor Relations Board that the company illegally locked out the workers and committed other illegal labor practices.

And the firm is facing the possibility of millions of dollars in fines for the injuries and deaths allegedly caused by unsafe working conditions in the plant. It is also being investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for alleged age discrimination .

If the NLRB charges are upheld, the plant will have to pay millions in lost wages to the workers and fire their 1,000 “permanent replacements.”

Oh, and a congressional hearing will begin Dec. 4 to find out what possible reason, other than great political connections, the U.S. Mint and the Treasury Department could have for buying millions of dollars worth of metal to make coins from companies largely controlled by the fugitive from U.S. justice.

But gamblers should never underestimate the power of a billionaire in this profit-oriented country, where the laws are generally stacked against workers.

The NLRB charges that Ravenswood illegally locked out its workers could take years to go through the legal wringer, while the workers live on strike benefits and handouts or are forced out of their hometown to find other jobs.

If Ravenswood ultimately loses and is ordered to pay millions of dollars in back wages to the locked-out workers, the company can then rush to the bankruptcy courts to try to avoid that order.

Yes, the company might face millions of dollars in fines for unsafe operating conditions in the plant in which five workers have been killed on the job since it was bought from Kaiser. But that would be small potatoes for Rich’s multibillion-dollar empire.

Maybe the bet on a workers’ victory, had it been made, isn’t lost yet. They are getting strong support, even from a few customers, including Strohs Brewery, who have stopped buying aluminum from Ravenswood.

Maybe Rich and his cohorts will finally say the hell with it, fire the “permanent replacements” and rehire the workers who have given so much of their lives to the company. Then maybe Congress will pass the ban on “permanent replacements” of workers in labor disputes.

I could then win the theoretical bet. But don’t bet on it.