Sherwin Alumina's lockout of 450 United Steel Workers employees in October and the ensuing hiring of temporary workers was legal, a regional labor relations board has ruled.

The union filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board Regional Office in Fort Worth saying the lockout was unlawful earlier this year, but the main allegations were dismissed by the regional director, according to a company news release.

In all, 65 charges were filed, Rey Herrera, vice president of the Local 235A told the Caller-Times.

"The USW is bitterly disappointed with the regional director's decision, and will appeal the decision to the (National Labor Relations Board) general counsel in Washington D.C.," Herrera read from a statement. "The United Steel Workers remain committed to reaching a fair agreement with the company to end the current lockout."

The workers have been picketing the entrance to the company's Gregory facility on State Highway 361 for seven months now, and there are no plans to end that practice.

"It's to show the company were not going to back off," Herrera said of the tactic, which he said is manned by six-hour shifts around the clock. "We chose not to walk off our jobs — we want to be working. They decided to lock us out."

In the news release, the company also said it "continues to be committed to bargaining in good faith with the union and reaching a fair contract as well as the continued safe operations of the plant."

"This has been a long and exhaustive process. We are gratified and pleased with the NLRB Regional Director's decision," Thomas Russell, Sherwin Alumina president and CEO, said in the statement.

Sherwin Alumina has been producing aluminum oxide at its Gregory plant since 1953.