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Change Brings Golden Time At Aluminum Plant

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By GEORGE H. NEWMAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 2, 2008

PLANT CITY - Managers and employees at the Golden Aluminum Extrusion plant are pleased, for the most part, with the progress being made by the new owners of the processing and manufacturing facility off Sydney Road.

Golden Aluminum Extrusion purchased the plant from Alcoa almost nine months ago. Since then the plant and its employees have gone through a series of changes, including a layoff, modification of the work week and expansion of the product lines.

Allan Cain, 56, the president of the Plant City based company, said the transition has been remarkable.

"Under Alcoa, the plant had a good reputation for producing high-quality aluminum products," Cain said. "We purchased the plant in a decreasing market and before the year is out will double the production at the plant."

The factory, which covers 400,000-square-feet on 27 acres, opened in 1970. It's one of the city's largest employers with about 170 workers. The plant's products include transportation and industrial materials and patio doors and windows.

The plant at 1650 Alumax Drive is owned by a sister company, Golden Aluminum Inc., a manufacturer of rolled aluminum based in Colorado, whose owners saw the opportunity to purchase plants from Alcoa and Excel Aluminum, an Alcoa subsidiary.

Golden Aluminum Extrusion was created and purchased the assets of Excel Extrusions in Warren, Ohio, and the Plant City facility from Alcoa on Oct. 1.

Due to a rapidly falling aluminum market, mostly blamed on the declining automobile and housing markets, Golden Aluminum Extrusion closed the Ohio plant, concentrating its processing and production capabilities at the Plant City facility.

"We didn't want to close the Warren plant," Cain said. "But economically we had to. There was no way the market was going to support the operation of both plants."

The two plants employed close to 300 workers, including about 180 in Plant City.

"We chose to operate out of the Plant City plant because its capability was superior to the Warren plant," Cain said.

City Commissioner Mike Sparkman said he was glad that the plant is thriving under new ownership, particularly in light of recent layoffs by two other big Plant City employers.

"It is extremely a good sign to see the new owners of the aluminum plant having success in its restructuring," Sparkman said. "I and other city officials have visited the plant over the years. They are an important employer in the city. Seeing layoffs and cutbacks at Albertsons and James Hardie Building Products it is tremendously important to see Golden doing well, increasing its employee numbers and increasing production."

The Plant City factory's goal is to "produce a superior product, adding to the local economy by employing area residents who join with us in the drive to succeed," Cain said. "Every employee is a quality inspector. Any one of them can shut down a line if they see a problem."

The factory produces products for a territory that stretches from Miami to Maine and as far west as Phoenix. On Oct. 1 there were 176 full-time employees at the plant, including many on a 32-hour week, Cain said.

"We looked at the production numbers and the man-hours needed to meet production and almost immediately laid off 45 hourly and salaried employees," he said. "We had to get the numbers in line as soon as we could. With the reduced force we went back to a 40-hour week."

Johnny Parrish, the president of United Steel Workers Local Union 7858 and a die repairman at the plant, said the layoffs were hard to take.

The fate of the workers in the Warren, Ohio, plant purchased by Golden Aluminum Extrusions played heavily on their minds, Parrish said. "Their fate didn't help our confidence when we were hit with layoffs within the first half of October."

Parrish said a number of union workers walked away from their jobs when Alcoa sold.

"Some of them had a lot of seniority and would have survived the layoff. But they didn't want to go through all the hassle," Parrish said.

Within the first week of October, the company and union negotiated a new contract.

"We gave up some vacation time and saw insurance costs rise significantly compared to the Alcoa contract," Parrish said. "It felt like we made big concessions, but the bottom line was that we came to work to make the plant profitable and to save our jobs."

John Moore Jr., the production manager of the Plant City plant, has been working there since 1989. His father, John Moore Sr., a master die corrector, has been an employee in the plant since 1970.

"Many of us have worked at the plant for years," Moore said. "Some of the workers are third generation employees who have worked here since it was first opened by Amax a subsidiary of Alumax Aluminum, long before Alcoa came to town."

Callbacks in February and March gave former employees an opportunity to return to the job. In the end about 12 former workers decided not to come back.

"After everyone was given an opportunity to return we hired some new employees," Moore said. "And two or three salaried employees from the Warren plant also relocated to the Plant City plant. Presently we are up to 170 employees, six short of what we had in October of last year."

Moore said there are a few workers who are still bothered by the changes.

"Not everyone is going to buy in with a new owner and management decisions," Moore said. "But we take great pride in our workers and the product they produce on the line. It takes a team effort to compete in the world market. I believe we are showing the world that we can compete and succeed."

Workers' hourly wages at the plant vary from $11 for a new helper to $22.50 for a maintenance department technician IV.

Parrish sees the plant returning to its former glory.

"We are the American worker," Parrish said. "We need to take pride in what we do. We need to safely produce a good-quality product, using the best material and equipment on the market. If we do that we will help all the workers and the company to succeed."

Moore said in the last few years employees at the Plant City plant felt lost inside the big corporation, Alcoa.

"Golden gave us some optimism about calling our own shots and reaching new goals," Moore said. "We had to reduce the workforce in the beginning, but there was a sense of promise and success in our plant. When the Warren plant was shut down there was a reality check. We knew we had to do our best to meet the customers' needs."

Inside the plant the workers melt scrap aluminum and add a small percentage of pure aluminum to create several different types of industrial aluminum. Chrome, copper and silicone are added to the mix in trace amounts to add flexibility and strength to each particular order.

George Bushn, the plant environmental health and science coordinator, said the high percentage of scrap aluminum available in the United States helps keep costs down.

"We have two furnaces that are capable of producing aluminum logs to exact standards," Bushn said. "The aluminum is poured into vertical molds up to 10 inches in diameter and 30 feet in length."

Heating, cooling and cutting each log is done to satisfy each job order. The cut logs are then reheated to almost the melting point and pressed through dies used to create hundreds of shapes and sizes of the finished product. Forced cooling with nitrogen gas, stretching, cutting to exact sizes, and if needed, painting, completes the production process. Finally there is packaging and shipping from loading docks at the plant. Cain said he is proud that the company has satisfied its old customers, regained some lost in the past, and enticed some European customers to join the fold.

"Things are looking up," Cain said. The future looks bright for our employees and for our customers."

Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451 orgnewman@tampatrib.com.

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