Posts Categorized: Chemical Workers

On June 25, Cottonseed Co-op Corporation workers in Jonestown, Miss., joined the ICWUC. Cottonseed Co-op was previously known as Delta Oil Mill and was represented by the ICWUC until its bankruptcy and closing approximately five years ago. The cottonseed processing facility reopened approximately two years ago under the name Cottonseed Co-op, and the company rehired many of the previous employees from Delta Oil Mill.

When the workers came back to work without a union contract, they found that many of the benefits and protections they once had when they were members of the ICWUC were now gone.

These hard-working men and women knew they had earned and deserved better, so they reached out to their former union representative, Regional Director Ricky Lawrence, in early May. Lawrence sent them cards to sign to see how much interest there was at the facility and in a couple of weeks they had mailed him back signed cards for approximately 80 percent of the current employees. Organizer Ernest Perkins visited with the workers, and then contacted his organizing colleague, Lance Heasley, to come assist in the NLRB petition process.

During the petition process, the organizing team gave the company the option of having a neutral third party count the cards rather than go through with the NLRB election process. The company agreed to have a neutral third party and on June 25, the neutral party determined that 47 of the 57 employees had signed cards. The company then voluntarily recognized the ICWUC as the bargaining agent for the Cottonseed Co-op employees and agreed on a date to begin negotiating a contract.

The ICWUC is proud to welcome back these workers and looks forward to working with them in negotiating their first contract.

Earlier this month, John Morawetz from the ICWUC’s Health and Safety Department joined a Congressional roundtable with lawmakers to strengthen safety protections for chemical workers across the country.

“Unions have a proud history of fighting for the right to a safe workplace and for the basic right for workers to return home after a day on the job as healthy as when they left,” Morawetz said to members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at a June 4 roundtable.

In coordination with the UFCW’s Legislative and Political Action Department, Morawetz also testified to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation on March 12. He spoke about the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, which was established in 2007 by the Department of Homeland Security to identify and assess security at high-risk chemical facilities. He also underscored the important role unions play in promoting strong and effective health and safety standards at chemical plants.

“Unions have made sure their members are educated and trained on the safety and health hazards they face on the job,” he said. “Union negotiators bargain over health and safety contract language, actively participate in the investigation and identification of health and safety hazards and testify in support of legislation which strengthens workplace security. Unions are actively involved in making our workplaces safer.”

Morawetz highlighted the importance of the security and safety of workers in chemical plants, speaking from his three decades of experience investigating occupational health hazards. He focused on the measures that will not only protect our country from a terrorist attack, but also minimize the impact to workers and local communities of a hazardous material release resulting from a natural disaster or accident.

He also made four recommendations to the committee that are crucial to the security and safety at chemical facilities, including more worker involvement in chemical plant security, including CFATS inspections; effective training; strengthened protections for whistle blowers; and identifying and disseminating successful practices.

“Chemical workers have direct, current knowledge and experience of plant operations that is invaluable in solving site specific problems,” he said. “Chemical workers know first-hand how a plant works, what chemicals are used, how those chemicals react to one another, their facilities’ weaknesses and the most recent operational changes. We also know if backup systems will work when the power goes out. We know the exact location of the CFATS hazardous materials and we know if training is effective. All these responsibilities make chemical workers the first and best line of defense.”

You can read the full testimony here.