Aleris announces closure of Cap de la Madeleine facility

Sunday, 13 Jul 2008

Aleris Light Gauge Products, a business unit of Aleris International Inc, announced that it will be permanently closing its aluminum rolling mill facility located at Cap de la Madeleine in Quebec, following an orderly shut down of all remaining activities at the facility.

All new production has already ceased. Aleris made this decision because of the permanent and irreparable damage suffered by the operations as a result of the ongoing labor issues.

The unionized production and maintenance workforce at the facility has been working without a collective bargaining agreement since February 2008, when the prior labor agreement expired. Management and representatives of the union engaged in negotiations and discussions regarding a new collective bargaining agreement for many months. Those negotiations and discussions were unsuccessful, and the union failed to ratify a new agreement. This impasse resulted in management imposing a lock out on July 2nd 2008 and ceasing all new production. The union voted to reject management's final proposal on two occasions, first on July 1st 2008 and again on July 10th 2008.

Aleris International, Inc is a global leader in aluminum rolled products and extrusions, aluminum recycling and specification alloy production. The Company operates 47 production facilities in North America, Europe, South America and Asia, and has approximately 8,800 employees.