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RathGibson workers plan union vote today

JANESVILLE — RathGibson production workers are voting today whether to unionize.

Workers are concerned about changes that come with a growing company facing economic challenges, said Thad Steinke, organizing director for International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 139.

Steinke said votes are being cast in waves to accommodate three shifts of production at the company. RathGibson employees approached his local about six weeks ago, he said.

"Members of the bargaining unit have some concerns and feel like they've been misled," Steinke said. "Rath has a good name in this town, and the employees like working there. It's just that they feel as though a lot of things that have been promised to them have been taken away."

RathGibson was founded in 1952 in Janesville as Rath Dairy Sales Co. Today the company makes stainless steel and alloy welded tubular products.

Today's election involves 124 employees who Steinke categorized as production workers. Fifty percent of those who vote, plus one, must favor Local 139 for it to become the certified representative of RathGibson workers.

Steinke said employees aren't necessarily seeking wage and benefit improvements as much maintaining the status quo.

As the company has grown, it has acquired other companies, and benefits afforded Janesville employees have been diluted, Steinke said.

Rath was sold in 1992 and again in 1995 to two private investment companies. The latter acquired Gibson Tube in 1999 and merged the two companies into RathGibson in 2006. Later that year, RathGibson acquired Greenville Tube Co. before being sold to Castle Harlan. Castle Harlan sold the company to DLJ Merchant Banking in 2007.

In 2008, RathGibson bought Mid South Control Line.

Like other manufacturers, RathGibson ran into an economic storm in 2008, and the forecast for this year is equally challenging, John Fortin, the company's vice president and general manager told the Gazette in February.

The company had two rounds of layoffs and changed some of its employee benefits, including the elimination of a program that paid the college tuition of employees' children.

Fortin said the company wanted to make its benefit package consistent from plant to plant and took the steps it did to ensure the competitiveness of the Janesville plant.

Fortin on Wednesday said he was legally bound from commenting on today's election other than to say: "We think we've given our employees the facts and reasons why they should oppose the union in this election. We think that the company has shown our employees that we treat them very well now and have treated them very well for many years."

To get a union election, 30 percent of the eligible employees needed to sign a petition. Steinke said about 80 percent of the employees signed.

"This is a very educated, mature group of people, mainly with 20 to 25 years of experience," he said. "It's a publicly traded company, and they can see what the numbers are. They just think that too many of the sacrifices are being made by the production workers in Janesville."