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The number of ALCOA Tennessee Operations layoffs announced Oct. 30 — estimated to affect 114 workers — has been cut almost in half.

Brickey Beasley, president of United Steel Workers Local 309, said that of the 75 to 80 hourly jobs targeted for layoffs, only 45 ended up being lost.

He said the union and company management got together and came up with ways to reduce the number of layoffs, which included salaried and contract workers as well as hourly employees.

Beasley said discussions continue in an effort to further minimize the number of layoffs.

"We've got a few more ideas we presented to ALCOA last Friday. We'll see where we can get to," he said Tuesday. "They are good about listening to us. We're all doing what we can to survive this economy. We're going to get back together next week after the holiday about creating new jobs."

Christy Newman, community relations manager for Tennessee Operations, said the company and Local 309 consulted about the layoffs in order to make adjustments. Tennessee Operations located some open positions and had some retirements and was able to realign the workforce to absorb some of the lost jobs.

"That was great," Newman said. "Through working together, various business units and the union were able to reduce the overall number to a little more than 50 percent."

The layoffs hit the smelting operations. When the original layoffs were announced, Kevin Lowery, spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based aluminum company, said the job losses were due to an unprecedented drop in aluminum prices.