Kaiser Steel Lays Off Part of Fontana Corporate Staff

Kaiser Steel laid off about one-third of its Fontana corporate staff Wednesday, the company said. The staff reductions, which the company said amounted to “substantially less” than 100 people, affected primarily salaried employees and included three vice presidents.

The job cutback and consolidation was the first made at Kaiser Steel’s headquarters in the 18 months since the purchase of the company by Monty Rial, its current chairman, and an investor group.

Ken Gibson, vice president of corporate development and one of three remaining vice presidents, said the cutbacks were a “natural evolution” of the December, 1983, shutdown of the Fontana Works steel mill. The large corporate staff, he said, had been basically a support staff for the plant operations.

Many of the employees had been retained to see the company through the lengthy transition and refinancing period, during which Rial and his Perma Resources Group bought out the J. A. Frates investment group. The Frates group had been Rial’s partners in the $374.4-million purchase of Kaiser Steel from its longtime owners.

Gibson said that the cutbacks were expected and that employees were told Monday. He declined to specify how many jobs had been cut, saying it numbered in the “30 to 60 range.”

In addition to salaried jobs, the company also eliminated some hourly positions in conjunction with the closing of its cafeteria.

Kaiser Steel’s primary operations are coal mining and fabrication of steel products. Additionally, it has extensive real estate holdings in Southern California and owns the major, idled portion of the steel mill. Another company, California Steel Industries, has steel rolling operations in a section of the mill.