This week, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
Local 484 and officials from the Celanese chemical company will try to work
out a deal that could put an end to a 10-month lockout at the Celanese
Emulsions plant in Meredosia, located in Morgan County. According to Kelly Street, president of Local 484,
the two sides were scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Alton, just
after Illinois Times went to press. Despite having charged Celanese’s
management with bargaining in bad faith up until now, Street said earlier
this week that he was “cautiously optimistic” going into this
round of negotiations. In March, the National Labor Relations Board’s
Division of Advice stated in a memo that allegations levied against
Celanese by Local 484 appear to have merit, which led to the issuance of a
formal complaint by Will Vance, an acting NLRB regional director. Celanese has until Friday, April 14th, to submit its
answer. Plant manager John Lakenan did not return messages seeking comment.
In late 2004, Dallas-based Celanese purchased the
National Starch and Chemical plant, which makes emulsions used to
manufacture paints and employs approximately 150 people. On June 5 of last year, Celanese locked out about 80
union workers when contract negotiations stalled. Since the lockout,
replacement workers have been used to keep the plant running, and not even
has a federal mediator been able to move talks forward, Street says. In their complaint letter to the NLRB, Local 484
charges that Celanese has refused to bargain in good faith, failed to
provide the union with requested information, delayed negotiations, engaged
in “dilatory and/or evasive bargaining tactics, offering final
proposals without sufficient time to consider such proposals, withdrawing
from tentative agreements, making unreasonable demands, and by submitting
regressive proposals.” Now, Street says, he wants to work toward an
injunction that would send the union members back to work under the
contract that was in place when the company locked the doors last summer.
This court order would also force the company offer a position to any
worker who was forced into retirement because of the lockout. Region 14 director Ralph Tremain says that in
addition to forcing Celanese to reinstate the employees, such an injunction
could also require the company to provide back pay, “but that’s
a long way off.”
This article appears in Apr 13-19, 2006.
