WEST Indies Alumina Company(WINDALCO) confirmed yesterday that approximately 100 of just over 1,000 positions will be made redundant in the first quarter of 2006, as part of cost containment measures.

“Our consultations will continue, but the company has no choice but to commence implementation of all measures, including a redundancy programme, starting in 2006. The redundancy programme will be implemented by the first quarter of 2006 and will affect approximately 100 positions,” WINDALCO said in a statement.

But, the National Workers Union(NWU), which raised the alarm about the redundancies on Tuesday, is maintaining that they are aimed solely at weakening its bargaining strength and, ultimately, rid the plant of its presence.

“The Jamalco model is beckoning, where the workers are contracted as private entities without fringes and overtime pay. But, I have news for them, they had better wake up,” NWU vice-president, Norman DaCosta said last night. He was referring to the outcome of an illegal strike at Jamalco in late 2001, after which the workers were required to register with the Office of the Registrar of Company and resume as private contractors without union rights.

DaCosta’s comments came in light of the bauxite company’s insistence to go along with the job cuts despite the union’s appeal to jointly explore other approaches to contain costs.

WINDALCO, in a statement yesterday, said that its Kirkvine plant (Manchester) had exhausted its traditional source of bauxite on the Manchester plateau, and has been forced to process significantly lower grade bauxite from the Blue Mountain area. The company said that this has increased its operating costs by up to US$12 million per annum. In addition, it said Kirkvine had suffered a production capacity loss of 40,000 tonnes per year because of process constraints.

WINDALCO said that it has also been hit by high global oil and chemical prices and has seen its operating margins disappear in 2005, despite high alumina and metal prices.

“The business is always about margins and not just prices,” the company’s statement said. “The management of WINDALCO has not stood still, but has prepared a sound developmental plan to start recovering the high value loss at Kirkvine and address other sustaining needs.

“This plan will require, within the next three years, new capital of over US$100 million to ensure any chance of survival. This very considerable capital will not be generated and will have to be found and invested by the company’s shareholders,” the company added.

It said that, in that context, the company has embarked on a cost containment programme and, needs for its survival, reductions across all of its cost areas, including people costs.

“We have continuously, over the past 18 months, kept the unions and all our employees informed on all these matters. Indeed, in Mr Dacosta’s case, he was informed as far back as mid-2004. To deny this does not reflect reality,” the statement noted.

In a letter Tuesday to the company’s general manager, Michael Collins, DaCosta said that the union was concerned that: mass redundancy was not linked to unavoidable causes such as cyclical downturn in the market; no measures have been looked at to avert retrenchment; over the past three years job losses at WINDALCO have outpaced job creation; and the US dollar cost of workers compensation package have been drastically reduced to pre-1998 levels.

DaCosta said that there was “credible justification” for the action and suggested that the union and the company jointly look at alternatives such as early retirement and minising overtime.

WINDALCO is a joint venture between the Government of Jamaica and Glencore Alumina Jamaica Limited. Glencore manages the joint venture. The company comprises two alumina refineries- Ewarton Works, St Catherine and Kirkvine Works, Manchester, as well as a shipping port known as Port Esquivel and bauxite mines in Schwallenburgh(Ewarton) and Russel Place (Kirkvine) and farms in Manchester and St Ann.

The company currently employs a total of 1,023 employees (403 staff and 620 regularised workers). Hourly unionised employees are represented by the National Workers Union, while

Technicians, shift coordinators and clerks are represented by the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP).

The company also employs temporary and casual workers on an ongoing basis, and contractors are used for specialised jobs.