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Oct. 28, 2002, 10:14PM Dow Chemical workers vote to stick with unionBy L.M. SIXELCopyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Employees at the Dow Chemical plant in Texas City voted to remain unionized after the company questioned whether the union really represented its employees. Sixty-nine percent of the 363 employees at the chemical plant that makes paints, adhesives and alcohols voted to keep the Texas City Metal Trades Council, a coalition of 12 unions, as their bargaining agent during a vote Thursday and Friday. The plant is the former Union Carbide location that was sold to Dow in February 2001. "We are strong and united at this facility, and this vote proved it," said Jesse J. Sanchez, business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 347, which represents the largest group of workers in the plant. "It is time for Dow management to rethink its anti-union practices and come to the bargaining table to negotiate in good faith a new collective bargaining agreement," Sanchez said in a prepared statement. "We had hoped that our employees better understood the benefits of being a salaried operation," said Dennis Rygaard, public affairs leader for Dow's Texas City operations, using the company's phrase for "nonunion." Most of Dow's sites are nonunion, and they have higher productivity, higher worker satisfaction and receive the greatest portion of the money allocated to capital investment, Rygaard said. He said nonunion plants get a larger proportion of the money for capital investments because union plants are more expensive to run. The company has to plan and train management employees in the event of a work stoppage, and it's more expensive to negotiate contracts, he said. Kenneth S. Zinn, North American Regional Coordinator of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions, said his group has noticed that Dow has been increasingly putting its money into nonunion plants, pointing to recent company plans to shut down unionized plants in Kentucky and New Jersey. "That concerns us," said Zinn, whose Washington, D.C.-based federation participated in fighting the decertification election in Texas City. The company is looking for a "low-road strategy," as it tries to cut its costs on the backs of employees, he said. Dow looks at employees as a cost item rather than as its most important asset, Zinn said. Dow filed a petition questioning the unions' representation with the National Labor Relations Board in January because the company believed the majority of employees no longer wanted to be represented by a union, Rygaard said. Some employees came forward to the company and said they no longer wanted to be represented, he said. The last contract expired April 1, and Dow made its last offer a month later. The offer is still on the table, Rygaard said. Zinn said he hopes the vote will lead to a more constructive relationship between Dow and its employees.
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