Invista, union reach agreement

“Far less” than the 210 Waynesboro Invista employees scheduled to be laid off will actually face that predicament, though that comes at the expense of the site’s contract workers, according to the plant’s union president.

Invista and the United Workers Inc. union, following three months of negotiations, announced a tentative agreement Friday on a three-year contract for the company’s union employees and on the effect of the soon-to-be idled nylon operations. The union still has to ratify the agreement.

The company, in a news release, said it anticipates the agreement would leave the Waynesboro site with about 540 total company and contract workers. In December, Invista Waynesboro site manager Mike Laczynski said the company had about 610 workers, along with approximately 300 contract workers. The current number is less than half the amount the company had working at the plant at the beginning of 2008, when it had about 1,100 workers.

“I am very pleased with the agreement,” said union President Jim Flickinger. “I believe the agreement is in the best interest of the employees.”

In December, the company had announced that it would idle nylon operations for six months while laying off 210 Invista employees and an undetermined number of contract workers. Lycra spandex production has continued.

Following negotiations that both sides deemed difficult, the union was able to preserve company jobs.

“At the end of all this, we even surpassed our expectations as to the number of Invista employees that would be laid off,” Flickinger said. “What we came out to be was actually better than what we were hoping for at the onset.”

Flickinger said he did not have the exact numbers on hand, but said “far less than 210 Invista employees will be laid off.”

He said it would have the flexibility to put people back into the facility and “hopefully guarantee a quick and successful restart.”

Invista employees, Flickinger said, were rolled back into contract positions to protect the union workforce.

“Unfortunately for the contract workforce, many of them were laid off, and as a result of laying them off, Invista employees were rolled back into these jobs to protect these jobs,” Flickinger said.

Flickinger did not know the number of contract workers that would remain, but said “there will be very few contractors on the site.”

Late last year, an additional 132 contract workers from The Mundy Companies, a Houston-based services provider, were laid off at the Invista plant.

Invista Waynesboro plant manager Mike Laczynski, in a news release, said the outcome of the agreement will improve the plant’s competitiveness.

“Both parties faced the tough realities of the recent idling of our nylon operations and an upcoming contract expiration date,” Laczynski said in a statement.

The new deal, if ratified, would extend until 2012.

The company, through spokeswoman Jodie Stutzman, declined further comment.

Union leadership will approach its members for a ratification vote in the next week to finalize the agreement. Flickinger said that, given the current market and economy, he expects the union to ratify the deal.

Remaining layoffs, according to the company’s release, will take place over the next few weeks.