Alcoa and labor union extend talk deadline

USA's largest aluminium producer, Alcoa Inc has agreed to extend the deadline of talks with its labor union. The name of the union is United Steelworkers Union and they too have agreed that the deadline be extended by another 11 hours. As per the old talks, the union had till noon today, the time to accept the "best and the final offer" that was to be given by the company.

This was told in an e-mail statement made by Kevin Lowery, the spokesperson of Alcoa. But, now as per the spokesperson of union, the official statement of the union will come after 9 am. No further details were revealed. Alcoa wants to reduce its costs so that it is able to bear and subsequently decrease the $1.23 billion net losses that it faced in 2008 and 2009. This happened because the demand for aluminium, which is mostly generated by cars, cans and jet, saw sharp reduction in demand due to recession. As a result of this, the company wanted to reduce the employee benefits like health insurance. The union is against it. It has made an offer which reduced the cost cut measures by miles.