According to this wire report in the Knoxville News Sentinel, Alcoa is cutting 5% of their work force, approx. 6700 workers worldwide. Their reason?

"Through the first three quarters of 2006, we have generated more earnings than in any full year in our company's history, and in order to continue to move forward, we now need to take the difficult but necessary restructuring steps that will continue to maximize profitability across the company," Alcoa Chairman and CEO Alain Belda said in a statement.

You may recall the Alcoa recently approved a new union contract.

In what is characterized as a "consolidation" and a "joint venture" by Alcoa, they are selling off one of their divisions to a foreign company which will result in three plant closings in Ohio, Georgia, and Florida. A plant in the UK will also be closed.

Some jobs at Alcoa's canned sheet operations here in Alcoa TN could be affected by the restructuring, but the article is a little unclear on that. (Maybe I have reading comprehension problems, but it looks like a paragraph was cut making the remarks about the "remaining 20 jobs" at Alcoa TN confusing.)

There had been speculation about a possible hostile takeover of Alcoa because their stock was underperforming despite record earnings. It appears their solution was to spin off the less profitable divisions and refocus.

In the strange "coopetition" world of business, Alcoa's new "joint venture" is with a Norwegian conglomerate previously involved in a bitter fight with Alcoa over an unsuccessful 2002 takeover bid for the company that owns the company that Alcoa is now partnering with. And if you can follow all that you are ready for the high-stakes game of global corporate hold-em poker.

More here and here.

UPDATE: The Maryville Daily Times report has the missing paragraphs:

In the restructuring, 320 of those lost jobs will come from the company's flat roll product segment, said ALCOA spokesman Kevin Lowery.

ALCOA will be closing its canned sheet facility in the United Kingdom, which has 300 employees.

That leaves a total of 20 job losses that will come from the aluminum company's canned sheet facilities at Tennessee Operations, Warrick, Ind., and Russia, Lowery said.

That makes more sense. It sounds like the Alcoa TN operations may have dodged a bullet, unless of course you are one of the 20 families that will be affected.