Each time that leaders of Boilermakers Local 484 have
met with officials from the Celanese chemical plant in Meredosia, where
union members have been locked out for almost a year, they’ve been
“cautiously optimistic.”
Now, says Jim Pressley, the union’s
international representative, they’re “optimistic”
— an improvement. On Monday, May 22, Celanese and Local 484 will
present their cases to an administrative-law judge in Peoria. The
proceedings, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., are not open to the public. “There’s been ongoing discussions the
last couple of weeks, but they have not been very fruitful,” says
Pressley, who expects talks between the sides to continue until Monday. Last summer’s split of the national AFL-CIO,
some observers say, was an indication that labor organizations have lacked
the political and social clout they once held. The Meredosia lockout is now testing that theory. In its complaint letter to the National Labor
Relations Board, which oversees union elections and investigates unfair
labor practices for the federal government, Local 484 asserts that Celanese
has negotiated in bad faith and engaged in regressive bargaining tactics
since the lockout began on June 5 last year. After the NLRB’s Division of Advice ruled the
lockout unlawful, Will Vance, the labor board’s acting regional
director, issued a complaint in March stating that Local 484’s
charges against Celanese appear valid. A multinational company based in Dallas, Celanese
Corp. took over the National Starch and Chemical plant in 2004. With 9,300
employees worldwide, Celanese generates $6 billion in sales. However, the lockout’s effect on
Celanese’s bottom line seems to have been minimal. According to the
company’s first-quarter report, Celanese’s sales were up 12
percent over last year’s, and the company has been investing heavily
in its Chinese and Mexican operations. But according to plant manager John Lakenan, Celanese
isn’t interested in moving the plant out of Illinois — not yet,
anyway. Lakenan tells Illinois
Times that Celanese has in fact bargained
in good faith and has a very good offer on the table, the details of which
he cannot disclose except to say that wages are competitive with the
prevailing wage in the area. Union members, he says, are being unrealistic.
“We can’t just change the name out front
and expect it to be a different economic reality,” Lakenan says. Still, Illinois AFL-CIO president Margaret
Blackshere, who has met with both sides in the disputes, believes
Celanese’s assertion that the company wants to keep the chemical
plant in Meredosia and retain its union workforce. With the lockout’s
anniversary looming, Blackshere says, pressure is on Celanese to end the
dispute. Even after a year of hardships, she says, the workers
“are pretty damn strong about how they feel about this. They have not
withered on the vine.”
Celanese, Lakenan says, is trying to work out a plan
that will leave the plant in Meredosia into the future, but he offers a
warning: “Sooner or later, people up in the company are going to get
tired of hearing about Meredosia and their problems,” he says. “There are other options on the table.”
This article appears in May 18-24, 2006.
