IBEW Local 1794 (Paris TX) Negotiates for Philips workers scheduled to be laid off

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Philips Lighting, union conclude talks

By Tommy Felts, The Paris News

Published September 26, 2004

Representatives from Philips Lighting Co. and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers concluded two days of negotiations Friday dealing with severance and retirement benefits for the company's laid-off workers.

In late August, Philips publicly announced their intention to let go of six salaried workers and 36 hourly workers during the course of a 40-day period. With the end drawing near for dozens of employees, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers stepped in to assist in effects bargaining with Philips.

"Effects bargaining takes place when a company announces a significant job lay off," George Crawford, an international IBEW representative, said. Crawford was in Paris last week on behalf of local chapter No. 1794 for the Philips negotiations.

"We're obviously concerned that this plant is going south," Crawford said. He pointed out that the plant has been a mainstay of Paris for more than 50 years, although it was not always under the Philips name.

The IBEW representative was reluctant to comment on the exact nature and details of the recent negotiations, but he said the union made minor progress in the areas of severance and retirement benefits.

"We made some slight improvements with the ability of workers to exit with some stability," Crawford said. "But we were hoping for more."

In a statement released last month, Jim Smith, Philips Lighting senior vice president, expressed the company's regret and reasoning for the layoff.

"Philips has been a part of Paris since 1983, and it saddens us to take this action," Smith said. "The traditional incandescent lighting marketplace has limited growth potential. As a result, it is simply too expensive to continue to manufacture some components in Paris."

Crawford and some of the local workers have a different take on the job eliminations. They believe the corporate level of the company has been gradually phasing out operations in Paris and relocating jobs overseas, specifically to China.

"We're seeing corporate America moving one more time, this time to China, to get into low wage countries," Crawford said. "I'm disappointed to see American jobs, which support the middle-class, going overseas."

Despite several attempts Thursday and Friday, The Paris News could not reach Philips officials for comment on the outsourcing assertion.

In August, however, Steve Goldmacher, director of corporate communications for Philips Lights headquarters in Somerset, N.J., noted the employee reductions were because of fierce global competition.

"The real story is production is coming into the country so cheap to begin with that we can't manufacture and keep up with it," Goldmacher said. "It's unbelievably competitive in the sense that anyone can modify a product to fit U.S. standards, but we cannot make parts in Paris as cheap as offshore production that's coming into the country."

Still, some workers at the Paris plant find little solace in the company?s explanation.

Rebecca Pridemore, a worker at the plant for 43 years, is one of the employees that expects to lose her job in October. Pridemore said the people at the local Philips plant have been like a family to her, and she believes the layoffs will hurt many lives.

"This is what you are hearing on the news everyday, and now it has happened here in Paris," Pridemore said.