Lowndes supervisors and Columbus City Council members this week declined to officially intervene in the strike at Omnova Solutions, turning down a request from the company”s union to send letters asking that bargaining over a union contract resume.
Monday, the Lowndes board voted down a motion by Supervisor Leroy Brooks for the supervisors to write a letter encouraging the management of Omnova Solutions Inc. to return to the negotiation table with its unionized workers. Members of the United Steelworkers Local 748-L have been on strike since May 21 after rejected a proposed contract on May 15. The union and company officials have not resumed negotiations in several months.
The Columbus City Council followed Supervisors” lead Tuesday. Councilman Kabir Karriem made a motion mirroring Brooks” at the supervisors meeting, calling on the board to send a letter to Omnova requesting them to renew discussions with the union.
Councilmen Charlie Box, Gene Taylor and Bill Gavin, who was moderating the meeting in place of the absent Mayor Robert Smith, spoke against sending the letter. The board voted 3-2 against sending the letter, with Karriem and Councilman Joseph Mickens voting for it, and Fred Stewart, Taylor and Box voting against. Gavin abstained from the vote.
“In don”t feel like the city as a whole should be involved in a labor dispute,” Taylor said.
Brooks acknowledged there were “strong views” on both sides of the issue.
“I don”t know all the details of it, but I do know human suffering, and I see people out there who have been walking on the picket line for eight or nine months and they”ve got family, they”ve got bills. I”m empathetic to that,” Brooks said. “I”m not taking sides, but I would like to make a motion that we forward a letter from this board asking management to resolve the situation …”
Rather than sending a letter from the governing body, Sanders proposed members send individual letters of support, an idea echoed Tuesday by city board members.
“I think that this is not the Board of Supervisors business. We don”t need to be meddling in labor-management disputes,” Board President Harry Sanders said. “The best way to do that is just stay out of the fray all together.”
“If you don”t get a paycheck you can”t pay your bills. You know, and you work all your life to try to accumulate something,” Brooks said, explaining his reasoning for requesting a letter from the board. “To me that”s not meddling. … I think leadership is stepping one step beyond what is considered politically correct.”
“That company has been a pillar of this community for years,” said District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith. “We want to move forward in saying we”re not taking sides; we just want to maintain quality of life.”
“Omnova is the second largest taxpayer for the city of Columbus behind BellSouth,” Sanders said, citing about $800,000 in tax revenue collected from the business each year. “We certainly don”t want to do anything to help them closing or jeopardize them or anything like that.”
Brooks and Smith voted in favor of writing a letter from the board; Sanders, District 2 Supervisor John Holliman and District 3 Supervisor Frank Ferguson voted against. However, Brooks, Smith and Ferguson pledged to write individual letters to Omnova management.
If the strike continues until May 15, Omnova could dissolve the local union and continue with its current staff. The company began hiring dozens of temporary workers in August.
“When it reaches one year … from the time we went on strike, it is possible for the company to ask for a decertification vote and just decertify the union,” said Jay Lawrence, president of the local union.
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