Kelco Workers Protest Contract With First Strike in Decade

The first strike in a decade at Kelco, the nation’s largest harvester of kelp, got under way Thursday as nearly half of its San Diego-based workers stayed off the job, a company spokesman said.

Steve Zapoticzny, manager of public affairs for Kelco, confirmed that the 187 members of Local 501 of the International Union of Operating Engineers voted 3 to 1 Wednesday to reject the company’s new contract. The old contract expired at midnight.

“We’re all very surprised that it was rejected because we felt we had made significant improvements in wage, pension and other benefits,” said Zapoticzny, who declined to discuss specifics of the offer. “We still don’t know what triggered the rejection. We’re still willing to negotiate.”

On Thursday, as pickets began marching at Kelco headquarters in the harbor area under the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge, some machinists refused to cross the picket lines formed by the janitors, chemical operators and maintenance mechanics that compose the operating engineers’ union. Zapoticzny said about 250 union workers walked out.

Earlier, the machinists’ union had voted to accept a new contract very similar to the one the operating engineers rejected.

Kelco, which has harvested kelp since 1929, employs about 600 workers in San Diego. Extracts from the kelp are used in the manufacture of some foods, cosmetics, oil and chemicals.

The last strike against Kelco was in 1980 and lasted for two weeks, Zapoticzny said.