Driving along Yorkville Road this morning, Omnova workers still can be seen along the street, in Day-Glo vests holding signs announcing they are on strike.
Passers-by look on, some honking or offering a wave or thumbs up.
The show of support is encouraging to Jay Lawrence, president of the United Steelworkers Local 748-L.
They understand what the strike is really about, he said this morning, from the union hall across the street from Omnova, where he has spent most of his waking hours for the past four days.
“How low are we supposed to go? Are we supposed to equal to the workers in China and Thailand?” Lawrence asked this morning.
“Radical changes” the company is calling for, he said, take away basic worker rights — bid rights on positions, machinery preference, vacation preference, for example. And all of these are just “common courtesy and fairness,” he added.
Sandi Noah, communications director for Omnova, said the company wants to continue its presence in Columbus for years to come and hopes to work out a contract acceptable for the workers and Omnova.
“These are good jobs,” Noah said. “We”re not talking about minimum wage jobs, and our intent is to keep our union employees with excellent wages and benefits in comparison with the local scene.”
Omnova”s Columbus plant is the primary plant for commercial wall coverings, said Noah. Primary customers for this are hospitality hotels, office and retail buildings and restaurants, all of which have decreased new construction and remodeling. Demand for wall coverings has been down from 45-80 percent over the past five years.
Functional coated fabrics, a durable plastic upholstery, also are produced at the plant, for the marine and transportation industry. Demand for functional coated fabric has been down 80 percent over the past five years.
Of Omnova”s nine plants, four are unionized. Only two of its decorative products plants — Columbus and Jeannette, Pa. — are unionized.
Union workers at the plant in Jeannette, Pa. agreed to changes similar to the ones being suggested for the Columbus plant in 2004, Lawrence said, and the changes haven”t helped the company.
“The only one that walked away with less was the employee,” Lawrence said.
Even after the changes, he added, Omnova continues to tell the Pennsylvania plant they are losing money and “still not successful.”
According to Noah, Omnova has grown in 2009, with total sales of $696 million.
“Our other plants helped in that progress,” she said.
However, because of costs and market trends, in Columbus, there was “not that same level of contribution.”
The Columbus plant is a different from other plants, said Lawrence, and is not designed to make a profit since most of the product development and test runs are performed at the Columbus plant. Once the product and process is perfected, products are moved to other plants for production.
Because of this, despite increased output and orders, the Columbus plant has only been able to break even, Lawrence explained.
Still, product development is invaluable to the company despite its cost, he added. And “That”s one of the best plants in the world at doing what they do.”
“It”s taken 10 years for overseas plants to run where products are acceptable to U.S. customers,” Lawrence added.
“We have good people in the plant — both in the union ranks and in the salary ranks,” Noah said. ”We”d like them to be able to work together and be viable in the future.”
Earlier this month, Omnova Solutions Inc. completed the $2.5 million acquisition of Dow Chemical Co.”s hollow-sphere plastic pigment product line, terminating the RohmNova paper coatings joint venture that it had operated since 2002 with Rohm and Haas Co.
Changes to make operations more efficient are impacting all Omnova facilities, Noah said. In 2009, she offered, the company cut cost $24 million. Cost-cutting measures paired with new products and investments will help make the company more successful, she said.
Overseas competition is also driving changes. Many Omnova customers have plants overseas and want local vendors.
According to the company”s website, Omnova employs about 2,300 people in America, Europe and Asia.
And, Noah said, the company has no plans of closing its Columbus operations, having invested $7.5 million in improvements over the past five years.
“We”ve been here a long time, and we”d like to be here into the future,” Noah said. “We”re not going through this just so we can shut the doors.”
Additionally, Omnova has a $23 million annual impact on the local economy in taxes, wages, salaries and payments to local vendors, Noah said. The Omnova Foundation also spends $70,000 in the area, primarily on education.
“We have a long history with Columbus,” she added. ”We”re to he point where people say, ”My grandfather worked at Omnova; my father worked at the plant.” It would be great to see that go forward and keep that tradition alive.”
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