production supervisor

production technician

maintenance mechanic

maintenance technician

industrial electrician

Kaiser Aluminum

Overall, my experience at Kaiser has come with several challenges that future employees should be aware of.

• Shift promises are not honored  
New hires are told they will start on the 12‑hour graveyard shift and can move to a day‑shift position within 6–18 months. In reality, employees often remain on the same graveyard shift for several years with no movement toward days, even with strong performance and repeated requests.

• PTO is misleading  
The company advertises 80 hours of PTO, which sounds like two weeks. In practice, because the schedule regularly requires 84–96 hours in a two‑week period, employees do not actually receive two full weeks of PTO until they have been there for several years.

• No true sick leave  
Kaiser reports to the state that PTO counts as sick leave, but PTO must be approved in advance. If you call in sick, the time is unpaid and you receive one attendance point. After seven points, you are terminated. This makes it difficult to take legitimate sick days without penalty.

• Environmental concerns 
There is constant aluminum dust in the facility, and employees are regularly exposed to it throughout their shifts.

• Maintenance practices are reactive  
What is described as “preventative maintenance” is typically reactive work. Equipment is patched or cleaned just enough to keep it running, predictive maintenance is not practiced, and the facility often operates in a work‑to‑fail mode. This keeps maintenance employees in constant crisis response, and necessary spare parts are frequently unavailable.

• Health insurance is limited  
The insurance is below normal for the industry.  For example, it only covers one eye exam every other year. Employees who wear contacts are required to have yearly exams, meaning every other year they pay out‑of‑pocket for both the exam and the contacts.

• Holiday work requirements are not clearly communicated
New maintenance employees are required to work all holidays for their first 1–2 years, including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, and other paid company holidays. Every “paid day off” is a scheduled workday during this period, which can be surprising for those expecting traditional holiday time off.

Additionally, workload and scheduling are often difficult to manage. Mandatory overtime, long‑term 12‑hour night shifts, and inconsistent communication about expectations make work–life balance challenging. Training requirements remain unclear for years and then are suddenly enforced without adequate support or accommodations. These issues make it hard to plan ahead or maintain long‑term health and stability.

In summary, the combination of long‑term night shifts, mandatory overtime, required holiday work, unclear training expectations, inconsistent communication, restrictive PTO policies, lack of true sick leave, limited insurance benefits, ongoing exposure to aluminum dust, and reactive maintenance practices makes it difficult to maintain work–life balance or long‑term stability. Prospective employees should ask detailed questions about scheduling, holiday requirements, training expectations, PTO usage, environmental conditions, maintenance practices, and benefits to ensure the role aligns with their needs.

Gap between supervisors and hourly is very difficult due to union preventing working relationship to the benefit of the Company.  Very little ability for supervisors to avoid conflicts that prevent achieving Company goals and growth.  Much separation between hourly and salary employees with resentment towards achieving goals supervisors need to accomplish within shift timeline.  Union hampers fraternization to prevent shift hourly working as a tight structured unit with Company not really having a closely harmonized group with Company goals and needs to accomplish greater profits and a better profit margin per each hour equipment operation.  Production lines with minimal downtime and high output is necessary for growth and stability of companies operations, meanwhile the Union only concern is to have more employees working ( even if they accomplish nothing productive during operational hours! ) Very little concern as to Companies growth and efficient profits per man hour. Union has a stranglehold, knowing company does not in fact have production rate or timeline of operation, The Union Does.  Working as a salary supervisor becomes a “thankless and depressing situation”  he has no control of and is hampered and frustrated with little hope of ever obtaining satisfaction and pride in leading a “bonded, unified, cohesive team” who work together to the benefit of the Company not the Union coffers at increased employees hired rather than simply having hourly employees work diligently for and what they were hired and trained to doin the first place.

I’ve been working at this company for about a year and a half and what I can say is that I appreciate the opportunities this company offers it’s employees as well as the pay offs based on performance as a whole with bonuses, however I do have to mention that the work life balance for working here is very minimal, you will be required to work 6-7 days a week most of the time and whenever you do work 7 days you still have to work the rest of the upcoming week meaning, you’ll have to work 13-14 days in a row with no days off. As far as safety goes there is a good emphasis on it and the company provides a good amount of PPE to keep their employees safe as well as holding out meetings and discussing safety topics on a daily basis, ensuring that the employees can keep themselves safe while working here. Overall I would recommend working at Kaiser, the benefits, wages and opportunities are great. The safety emphasis is also great, ensuring that employees are safe in their workspace, however if you prioritize a work life balance then working here may not be for you, this company provides sick time and PTO however the regular schedule for waged employees can lead to physical and mental exhaustion due to the lack of free time given, while this job doesn’t require their employees to work more than 8 hours per shift, it does however require them to come in up to 13 days in a row.

My finance internship at Kaiser Aluminum in Newburgh, IN, was an incredibly rewarding experience that exceeded my expectations. From day one, I was welcomed into a professional, dynamic environment where I had the opportunity to apply my academic knowledge to real-world financial projects.

The team at Kaiser Aluminum was supportive, knowledgeable, and always willing to mentor me. I gained hands-on experience in financial analysis, budgeting, and reporting, which significantly enhanced my technical skills. I also had the chance to work on meaningful projects that contributed to the company’s operations, giving me a sense of purpose and achievement.

What stood out the most was the company’s emphasis on continuous learning and professional development. I appreciated the constructive feedback I received, which helped me grow both personally and professionally. The collaborative culture and exposure to different facets of corporate finance provided me with insights that will be invaluable as I advance in my career.

I highly recommend this internship to any finance student looking for a challenging yet supportive environment to develop their skills. Thank you, Kaiser Aluminum, for an unforgettable internship experience!

Work was fun, culture was very supportive of new hires asking questions, interviewing process was smoothest and easiest I've ever experienced, work ethic of most people at the company was excellent.

It's a 24 hour facility so be ready to pull some night shifts - typically two weeks of days two weeks of nights. One week will be three days then the next will be four days with you working every OTHER Sunday. The 12 hour shifts actually aren't that bad - x4 fifteen minute breaks are taken at every odd hour (9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, or 5pm) with a 25 minute lunch break. Typically not very flexible on when you work - example: if you take one day off in a week but make up for it the next day it still counts as a missed day and Union is still in negotiations to get it fixed. Paid vacation and points though, benefits are very good and work isn't too bad at all.

Union jobs pay well and get great benefits. Great place to work if you're looking to make good money, get good benefits, and gain some practical experience - just know when to look for your next job up the road because there isn't much in the way of growing your skills here.

What is the best part of working at the company?
For me Kaiser was a great and fun place to work. It was much different that anything else I had ever done.  Aluminum extrusion is very exciting and is the framing for a lot of the planes we travel in.  The hydraulic pressure it takes to push aluminum billets through a die is very impressive. One of the machine produced up to 4000 tons of pressure.  8 million lbs.  Lots to learn and  the technology is always a never ending learning game.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The heat in this building is very extreme through the summer.  Always keep hydrated and take breaks when needed. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
All plants have their issues, but overall this is a great place to work. Communication is good and the associates are friendly. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Being a manager it was communicating with all my subordinates and working side my side with them. Other days a lot of meetings, but still try to get on the floor with the guys and gals.

People liked me.
I have great electrical skills they can't find.
Training on equipment is very poor, but the ad says it is very good.
New guys are on their own.
Poor management and explanation of expectations.
As someone new, you will be walking around the plant by yourself trying to learn on your own, but expected to troubleshoot a machine mechanically you've never seen run.
I talked to five people about my experience and they all said that new people are set up for failure. 
They should have on the job description that there is a requirement of five years working in an aluminum extrusion plant exactly like this one because the expectation to learn everything is way too fast, especially when a supervisor tells a fellow electrician to work with me for a day for training and he decides not to. 
I felt I had to bother people to get training.


What is the best part of working at the company?
The actual job itself was amazing. Always something new to learn and always keeps you on your toes

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The company culture is lead by fear. You were constantly being pushed beyond you limits at the threat of termination. Weekly meetings consisted of trying your hardest not to get thrown under the bus by someone seeking self preservation. The Union is also an issue. Continually breaking equipment, slowing down, and filing grievances in order to make life difficult for the company. They protected all the people that should be fired. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Lead by fear. Terrible work environment. Extremely stressful. Imagine pep talking yourself into making it one more day every morning on the way to work!

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Continual issues that need immediate attention. Not enough time in the day. Always trying to keep upper management happy which was impossible.

On the typical day i'd come in and have our daily meeting. After thats done i would put on all my ppe including hot mill sleeves/Mask. Would then go make sure i have all my tooling in my 800 degree oven, make sure my cranes are operating properly and have my first sample cut to check the dimensions. Would then write down the dimensions on the blue prints for the job we were on. sounds pretty simple but most of the time it doesn't go that smooth you always run  into people leaving you empty handed without the tooling you need and without the tooling you need it pretty much ruins your day. Doing twice as much work as you are required to do and the people who slack get away with it since they have been there longer than you have. Another hard part of the job is that you dont have a set break. You could come in slammed and have short jobs all day and not take your break at all the whole day of being there.

They employees at this plant were more like family than just coworkers . Started out with a teem concept making decent wages. Job was great for first ten years then got new plant manager that tried to put all of our buisiness in a couple high volume jobs and passed up a lot of good smaller jobs. When the large jobs were lost due to gas prices and the fact that these parts were for large vehicles the smaller jobs had been grabbed by the competition.The plant started having problems. Did not get a raise during the last five years of this job.Plant was purchased by Revstone(Contech) in 2010 and things only got worse until the plant closed. I did enjoy my job as a Heat Treat operator and hated when the plant closed. All in all i liked working there and the plant helped me take care of my family and keep my bills payed.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production supervisor 2 salaries reported	$80,625 per year
Production technician 5 salaries reported	$20.73 per hour
Maintenance mechanic 4 salaries reported	$35.43 per hour
Maintenance technician 6 salaries reported	$36.90 per hour
Industrial electrician 3 salaries reported	$37.00 per hour

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