After 43 years at Omnova, Gene Gore of Columbus has put in more than enough time to retire. And with six children and 12 grandchildren, he has enough reasons to compel him to do so. But instead of resigning to a life of leisure and bouncing grandbabies, Gore mans the union hall across Yorkville Road from the Omnova plant.
He and more than 160 other longtime Omnova workers have been on strike for more than five months. And rather than negotiating a “fair” contract, they say Omnova is trying to set a dangerous precedent.
“My own personal philosophy is that this is a political move,” said James Long of Columbus. “If they can bust our union and bring our wages down to $10 an hour, then Weyerhaeuser, Baldor and any other facility that comes in here, they can pay them low wages.”
Long, who has worked at the Columbus plant for 18 years, said Omnova pay scales set the bar for other factories in the area.
“This company has been here since 1963, and our wages have halfway set the standard for a lot of the companies who came here,” Gore agreed.
On May 19, members of the United Steelworkers Union Local 748-L voted 168-2 to strike. The company presented its final offer May 15, threatening pension benefits, seniority rights, shift rights, job preference and the incentive pay system.
The proposed contract was a “smokescreen,” said Gore, who earned the name “The Guru” among his colleagues, for his work in mechanics at Omnova.
They “wanted to put us out in the street,” he said. “Nobody in their right mind would accept that proposal.”
“When I saw the proposal it was like someone had stood in front of me, open-handed, and slapped me in the face,” Gore said, “and said my 43 1/2 years of seniority was worthless.”
After voting down the contract on a Wednesday, the plan was to go on strike Friday afternoon. At 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Long was pulled from his machine. Company leadership shut down the machines and escorted the workers out.
“Technically, we did not walk out,” Long said. “They put us out.”
A revised contract was proposed in July; it also was rejected by the union, which said it was not much different than the last proposal. There have been no negotiations since.
Company says industry ”challenged”
Sandi Noah, director of communications for Omnova Solutions Inc., said the company remains committed to signing a contract with the union.
“The goal is still to come to agreement on a new contract. Until that happens, however, we also have an obligation to our customers and employees to keep the plant operating to continue to produce and deliver quality products,” she said.
In September, Noah said the company planned to hire 70-80 temporary workers, though she declined to say how many have been hired since then.
Omnova has not lost any business since the strike began, but “our markets remain challenged by the continuing weakness in construction and refurbishment activity,” Noah said.
Gore, local union vice president, believes the company is exaggerating its success during the strike.
“All the experience is on the other side of the street,” said Derek Sherrod of Columbus, a 22-year veteran of Omnova.
The Columbus plant is Omnova”s primary plant for commercial wall coverings. The company also produces functional coated fabrics and performance chemicals. Due to market challenges, the company had to change its contract to be more competitive, Noah said.
Noah earlier reported production volume has decreased by 45-80 percent over the past five years; those figures encompass “all of the end use categories for our wallcovering and functional coated fabrics markets in total,” she explained.
Commercial wallcovering is down 45 percent, while coated fabrics, used in transportation, marine and contract furniture, are down anywhere between 48-80 percent, “depending on the end use,” she said.
”If we lose, everybody loses”
Over the years, the union has made concessions in their contract to help the company, Gore said. But overall, the contract has remained relatively the same. The union asked to retain its previous contract, without any pay raises.
“The union has had a good relationship with this company,” said Sherrod, union treasurer. “There should be no reason why (the strike) isn”t over already.”
“We”re not fighting to save jobs and wages for today,” said Long. “We”re fighting to save jobs for our children, for our grandchildren. If we lose, everybody loses.”
Other local unionized companies have contracts coming up for renegotiation, he added. So if Omnova can “bust” its union, companies will have leverage with other local unions.
In past negotiations, union members said, the company has threatened them with the potential of moving jobs overseas, pointing to the Omnova decorative products plant in Thailand. If the changes proposed in the contract are implemented, Gore said, the local plant will be forced to close its doors. And products made overseas do not meet the standards Omnova customers demand, Long said.
Union determined
to hold out
While no one has crossed the picket line, some workers have picked up other jobs to make ends meet. The union provides a stipend during the strike, but it”s not comparable to the members” regular wages. Other workers have retired rather than wait it out. (Gore noted the company”s newest worker has 17 years of experience at the plant.)
“This proposal has destroyed one of the best working families,” said Gore. “We have been a family. Those temporaries in there, they can train them for 40 years, and they”ll never achieve the level of excellence this working family has.”
Omnova recently announced third-quarter earnings of $10.3 million in operating profit and company net income of $3.5 million, Noah said. The profit, she said, is driven by the performance chemicals business, while the decorative products unit “is still facing historically low demand and weak operating profit.”
It”s been 40 years since the last local Omnova strike, which lasted about three months. The current one is the longest in the history of the company.
Gore predicts product quality will falter and customers will be lost before the company decides to negotiate a better deal. But, he said, “We”ll hold out one day longer than they do.”
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