Alcoa layoffs to affect 332 people, official notice says

Alcoa’s Massena East smelter plant. NCPR file photo

Alcoa last Friday filed a “Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN)” with the New York State Department of Labor indicating plans to lay off 332 employees (WWNY-TV) as it closes its two remaining potlines at the Massena East plant. The WARN (which you can read here) says of those 332, 50 will be retained for up to two years to decommission the plant, which will begin closing in April.

We reported last Friday that the state was talking with Alcoa on the planned closing, and planned to hold the company to its deal with the state to keep at least 900 jobs in Massena for decades to come in exchange for cheap electricity from the St. Lawrence River. In a press release quoted in that story, Gov. Cuomo’s spokeswoman Maria DeRosa said “involuntary layoffs” would be considered a breach of contract; WWNY-TV reports officials saying they’ll be looking for those layoffs to be voluntary, and are offering early retirement packages to union workers at its two Massena plants.

The company, which employs more than 260 hourly workers and between 80 and 90 salaried workers at the East plant, and more than 660 workers at the West plant, says it’s hoping to avoid breaching the contract with the state.