116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Workers at Penford in final hours of current contract
Aug. 1, 2015 2:05 am, Updated: Aug. 1, 2015 5:00 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS - In the final moments of what may be the final shift under the current deal between Penford Products and its new parent company, workers left the plant throughout Friday uncertain about the next time to clock in.
'We're not being told too much and everybody's cleaning out their lockers and we'll know (Saturday),” said Doug Kobusch, who said he has worked at Penford since 1981. 'I just don't want anything taken away from me and they just want to take too much stuff.”
For two months, Ingredion, Inc. and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union Local 100G in Cedar Rapids have been trying to negotiate a new deal to replace the current agreement, which expires on Saturday morning, August 1, at 7 a.m., the end of the third shift for the previous day.
Ingredion, based in the Chicago suburb of Westchester, Ill., purchased the Penford property in Cedar Rapids in March 2015. At the time, Ingredion CEO Ilene Gordon said, in the news release, 'we are looking forward to a bright future together.”
Any warm feelings between company and the union appear to have dissolved over the negotiation process. Early Friday evening, Local 100G President Chris Eby said 'it's been a week of bad-faith negotiating at the table” in his dealings with Ingredion.
Eby said Local 100G represents 158 workers with the BCTGM union in Cedar Rapids. He said the wage levels were not a major issue but the talks over benefits have presented the widest gap. He said the company has offered its own proposals for the next negotiated deal instead of working within the frame of the current agreement involving BCTGM workers. Eby said Ingredion's offer includes 'over 100 concessions”.
'The concern is that we have 42 members who have gap insurance and those members had until, essentially, 5 o'clock (Friday) to decide whether they were going to retire and maintain their benefits or take a risk on whether we were going to have a contract (Saturday),” said Eby.
The gap insurance Eby refers to is the medical insurance that covers a worker from when that person leaves Penford until the former employee reaches 65 years of age, when Medicare will cover that person.
Ingredion leaders did respond on Friday to the union's news releases about the situation.
'We are still negotiating with the union and we are continuing and hoping to come to a fair and workable conclusion,” said Ingredion spokesperson Claire Regan in a phone interview.
If Saturday's actions result in a work stoppage or strike, this could bring back memories of 2004. Eleven years ago, a 78-day strike was the result of the union rejecting several concessions in the proposed contracts.
Eby said similar tactics between 2014 and this year are in place, even with different ownership. He said Ingredion has brought in 'three sleeping trailers” to possibly serve temporary or replacement workers in the event of a strike. Eby added that, two weeks ago, '40 to 50 management people” came to the Cedar Rapids facility to learn operations in case they were needed.
KCRG-TV 9 reached back on Friday night to Ingredion officials for comment on Eby's claims of sleeper trailers or replacement workers already being on-site. The company declined further comment.