sking for a national response. He stated that with four smelters located outside Victoria, a national register must be established. He said he had ordered the Victorian WorkCover Authority to enter into discussions with Alcoa to see how it may assist the NOHSC with any necessary work.
Alcoa's relationship with both Labor and Liberal state governments has been extremely cordial since it invested in Victoria. In 1984 the Cain Labor government struck an electricity supply deal with the company that cost taxpayers $1.2 billion in subsidies pegged to the world price of aluminium.
Today the company is not concerned by parliamentary scrutiny. Chairman of the Aluminium Company of America (Alcoa) Paul H. O'Neill stated in a recent interview with the magazine Aluminium Today: "I don't see environmental issues as a negative for aluminium or Alcoa, they are our friend. As long as legislatures and governing bodies don't do stupid things, we'll be fine."
Paul Johnson, a Point Henry worker, told the WSWS: "I have worked at Alcoa for 14 years, and during my apprenticeship we worked in every area of the plant, so I've worked with coal tar pitch, but only for a short period. Without a doubt the exposure was there earlier. I work on permanent afternoon shift with one other bloke. Thirty-five years ago he started as a production worker—he's since become a tradesman. When he started, they shovelled up the pitch by hand with shovels, and the air was black with it. The workers didn't wear any protection most of the time.
"Alcoa has provided fairly good respiratory protection for about the last six years, but before [that] there were just masks. Now there is positive air displacement—the worker wears a helmet and it blows fresh air from a filter pack on his back or on his belt, and there is a battery pack. But workers don't always wear them, because they slow you down, and when there is a push for more production, it is easier not to wear them.
"Alcoa has admitted the risks about cancer, but is trying to contain the panic. A few people I know have wondered why Alcoa came out publicly. I think the reason is that from the company perspective it is the best way to proceed. It makes it look like they're proactive; it looks like they're an upstanding corporate citizen. The public will think Alcoa is a good company. From the company point of view, Alcoa knows this is going to come out eventually—it's inevitable, so better that they say it first. They've taken a profit estimation that it will cost them less in the long run.
"One thing about Alcoa at Point Henry in the last 14 years is that they have played it very hard about their public image. That is all it is—image. They go and plant some trees outside, while meanwhile they rip out all the bush in Western Australia and leave behind devastation.
"As for contract workers, Alcoa hasn't notified contract workers at all. The company only has records since 1983. The real test of the unions will be when this gets further down the road, when it becomes clear how many workers have cancer. What will be the unions' position then? Alcoa has made excellent profits all this time. Are the unions going to challenge the company's profits? When will we get down to the truth?"