DuPont's Pasadena workers vote to unionize, contract talks start soon, union says



NEXT: See the world's largest refineries. less WILMINGTON, DE : Dupont corporate headquarters is seen on December 11, 2015 in Wilmington, Delaware. Workers at the chemical company's Bayport plant in Pasadena are in the process of unionizing.

NEXT: See ... more WILMINGTON, DE : Dupont corporate headquarters is seen on December 11, 2015 in Wilmington, Delaware. Workers at the chemical company's Bayport plant in Pasadena are in the process of unionizing. Photo: Photo By Mark Makela/Getty Images Photo: Photo By Mark Makela/Getty Images Image 1 of / 26 Caption Close DuPont's Pasadena workers vote to unionize, contract talks start soon, union says 1 / 26 Back to Gallery

Workers at DuPont's Bayport chemical plant in Pasadena have voted in favor of joining an engineers' union and will likely start contract talks soon, the International Union of Operating Engineers confirmed Friday.

The plant workers voted 28-2 to become part of IUOE Local 564, which represents 2,100 workers in Texas. The vote comes as workers are nervous about the impact of the planned spin-off of DuPont from DowDupont on June 1. DuPont is the middle of a three-way split up of DowDupont after a multimillion merger of the two major chemical companies Dow and Dupont two years ago.

DowDupont just completed the spin-off of its chemical company Dow Inc. April 1. The company will split off its agricultural division, Corteva Agriscience, on June 1 and DowDuPont will be renamed DuPont.

"With the spin-off of with DowDupont, people are unsure about the future, so they want a contract," said Jason Turnmire, organizer with IUOE Local 564, which is now representing the Pasadena DuPont workers . "Nobody's certain what these corporations are going to do but it never hurts to have a say-so at the end of the day ... and to actually sit down and bargain."

The Bayport chemical plant south east of Houston has about 50 workers and produces polyimide plastic film.

In a prepared statement, a DuPont spokesman said, "DuPont respects the rights of its employees to make this decision for themselves. The Bayport site is operating under business as usual conditions and expects to do so as we continue to prepare for the intended separation as an independent company on June 1, 2019." The company declined to comment on how the separation from DowDupont would impact workers' jobs.

An election on whether to unionize at the Bayport plant was held last week amid allegations from workers that the company was trying to interfere with their efforts to unionize. Plant managers actively encouraged workers to vote against unionizing and sent letters to employees' arguing that a union was "a bad idea," according to copies of the letter obtained by the Chronicle.

The engineers' union has filed four unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the company made coercive statements meant to squash workers' attempts to unionize. Under national labor law, companies cannot interfere with unionization. The company declined to comment on those charges.

EARLIER: Workers accuse DuPont of interfering with union

When a union files for unfair labor practice charges that launches an NLRB investigation to assess the merits of those charges. Eventually if the NLRB does find merits to the union's claims that can lead to enforcement actions. The union can also withdraw the charges depending on the outcome of the investigation or it can seek to reach a settlement agreement with the company before the unfair labor practice complaints are heard in front of an administrative law judge.

Jason Turnmire of IUOE said the union will likely wait to see the outcome of of an NLRB investigation before deciding on next steps to take on the unfair labor practice charges.

Turnmire, however, added, "We have no problem doing what we need to do going forward to have a good relationship with the company."

Meanwhile, once the outcomes of the election are certified early next week by the NLRB, the engineers' union will start engaging in contract negotiations with DuPont.

The same union (Local 564) also represents Dow workers in Freeport and Texas City. The contract affecting about 600 workers at Dow's Freeport facility will be up for negotiations next year, Turnmire said.