Union officials say that Farmland Industries Inc. violated their work contract by understaffing an idle fertilizer plant in Lawrence.
By Mark Fagan
Journal-World Business Writer
Union leaders want Farmland Industries Inc. to provide severance pay for 102 employees laid off earlier this month, even if the layoffs end up being temporary.
They've filed a formal grievance accusing Farmland of violating the union's contract by having nonunion employees take on operational responsibilities -- or, at the least, having some supervisors working without anyone to supervise.
The grievance will get a hearing within two weeks, officials said, but the first priority is resolving the severance request.
"If we can't get the guys back to work, maybe we can at least help them out with their bills," said Mike Turner, president of Local 5-0613 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union, or PACE.
Turner and other union officials made the request for supplemental pay -- to give laid-off workers a week's wages for each year of service -- during a meeting Monday with Farmland representatives, including plant manager Dick Lind.
During the meeting, Lind said, company officials noted that nothing much had changed since Farmland ceased production at the plant at midnight Aug. 31, other than all of the plant's ammonia had been sold and all of its urea ammonium nitrate should be off site by early next week.
The severance request had been turned over to corporate officials in Kansas City, Mo.
"I really don't have an answer one way or another," Lind said.
Monday's meeting also was the first formal contact between union leaders and plant officials since Farmland shut down production at the plant, blaming a soft farm economy and bloated fertilizer supplies.
The discussion served as a prelude to next month's union negotiations, when PACE leaders are likely to push for improved benefits, greater job security and other concessions for its members even as Farmland's 500-acre plant stands idle, with a skeleton crew and in corporate limbo.
Farmland still can't say for sure whether the shutdown will be temporary or permanent.
"We're trying to keep our heads up," said Turner, one of 30 union members still working at the plant along with 34 non-union supervisors. "It would be better if we could find out, one way or another. ... People could get on with their lives."
The union's one-year contract expires Oct. 30. Negotiations are expected to begin by early next month.
-- Mark Fagan's phone message number is 832-7188. His e-mail address is mfagan@ljworld.com.
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