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With major layoffs already at their aluminum
plant in Ravenswood, members of a United Steelworkers
local approved a contract offer from
plant owner Pechiney Rolled Products.
The measure passed 395 to
324.
Local union president Billy Hendricks says the
layoffs and Pechiney's bankruptcy threat
tipped the scales in favor of the contract, after it was rejected twice.
The Jackson County company is laying-off
202 workers,
about 17 percent of the plant's force.
The company threatened bankruptcy
without a new agreement, which it said it
needed to cut health care costs.
Neither the company nor the union would
discuss details of the new contract, which
extends through May 2005.
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