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Layoffs, Look at Me!

Alcoa blames power company for 660 layoffs; power company hits back

September 30, 2008

AlcoaAluminum smelter Alcoa has announced that it will be firing 660 at its Rockdale plant. Company flack Kevin Lower blamed the problem on Luminant, Alcoa’s power company:

“When you’re running an aluminum smelter, power needs to be online for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for 50 years… But it would be offline, then online, then offline, then online. It was like a yo-yo.”

Luminant accepted a small amount of responsibility, but also blasted Alcoa’s claim to pieces in this prepared statement:

“We had some outages, but we made several alternative arrangements to get them reasonably priced power, and they didn’t take advantage of that… We believe Alcoa has a history of using layoffs like this as a vehicle for managing costs and driving the company’s profitability. Alcoa should acknowledge its independent decisions instead of blaming power supply issues and unspecified ‘market conditions”

Find out more: Houston Chronicle

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Posted in Layoffs, Look at Me! by Jacopo Kane
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Starring: Alcoa, Luminant
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Discussion

  1. October 8 at 8:55 am
    Alcoa earnings drop 50% — who will they blame this time? | Idiot Inc.:

    [...] — the aluminum smelter that blamed the power company for layoffs — has just seen its 3rd quarter profits drop by 52%. The company has suspended its stock [...]

  2. January 7 at 4:58 pm
    Alcoa lays off 15,000 and shutters plants | Idiot Inc.:

    [...] and selling assets in a desperate bid to reduce expenses. Last time the company had firings, they blamed the power company for the layoffs — the scapegoat this time is “the dynamic market” [...]

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