Top global aluminum producer Alcoa apparently dodged a bullet with a last-minute labor deal for 9,000 workers across the United States, averting the need for a threatened hard-line stance that could have included the use of replacement workers. The company late on Wednesday night said it had reached a deal with the United Steelworkers, covering plants across the country and representing about one-fifth of its domestic work force.
See "Alcoa Averts Hard - Line Action with Union Deal", Reuters, The New York Times, May 31, 2006