Labor negotiations between the United Steelworkers union and UK-based consumer packaging major Rexam, affecting some 900 union workers at 10 of the company's aluminium can sheet plants across the US, are heading toward a Saturday deadline at midnight with a variety of possible outcomes, including a settlement or strike.

"We're very confident we will reach an agreement by the end of the day Saturday" to replace the expiring three-year pact, Rexam spokesman Greg Brooke told Platts late Thursday.

USW spokesman Gerald Dickey was not so certain. "We could extend (the existing accord), get locked out or go on strike," he said.

The two sides appeared to be on the road to settlement before the union's bargaining team issued a more sobering assessment Wednesday. "It is sad to report that Rexam management has shown its true colors, making radical proposals to eliminate cost-of-living adjustments, require active employees to pay excessive costs for health care benefits, and gutting the health care benefits of future retirees," the USW council at Rexam said.

If the company's position does not change, "you will begin to see activity around your plants to prepare for a labor dispute," the council advised. "We didn't come to Albuquerque," where the talks are taking place, "looking for a fight, but we won't run from a fight if that is what management wants."

The union said it entered the talks earlier this month with two primary bargaining goals: good health care benefits for all its members at the affected plants, and a master contract that covers all USW members at Rexam. Unlike in the past, the rank-and-file will get to vote on whether to ratify the Rexam agreement, should one be reached.

According to the union, Rexam wants to keep only eight of the 10 locals under the master agreement.

The USW says the negotiations cover employees at the following locations: Valparaiso, Indiana; Whitehouse, Ohio; Chatsworth, California; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Bishopville, South Carolina; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Phoenix, Arizona; Birmingham, Alabama; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Chicago, Illinois.