Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 20, 1993 TAG: 9302200148
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
COMPANY CLOSER TO MOVE
Connex Pipe Systems, a Marietta, Ohio, pipe fabricator, will close its Marietta and Pineville, N.C., plants and could move as many as 200 jobs to Roanoke because labor negotiations have failed, an Ohio union official said Friday.Connex President Gilbert Gardner could not be reached Friday to confirm the union's report. However, Gardner said as recently as Tuesday that his company would consider moving.
Randy Ward, business manager for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 168, representing more than 40 union members, said the company asked the union for a 30 percent pay cut. That would reduce wages from $17.47 to $12.71 an hour, he said. The lower figure is in the range of the best factory pay in the Roanoke Valley.
Ward said the company told him the Ohio plant would be closed in September. Connex fabricates pipe for power plants, including some in overseas markets.
The union official said he could not "in good conscience ask my men to accept" the pay concession. The union "gave them $4 an hour back in 1984 and we never got that back. We cannot continue to subsidize their operation," he said.
An unconfirmed report said Connex intends to open a nonunion plant if it moves.
Don Fitzgerald, business agent of the Plumbers Union in Roanoke, had no comment on the report Friday. Earlier, he said he had talked with Gardner.
On Tuesday, Gardner said his company has looked at sites in the Roanoke Valley and in Georgia. He did not identify the Roanoke-area site.
Ward blamed the negotiating failure on Whessoe Plc, Connex's British owner. He said he felt agreement on a contract renewal was near in a meeting on Feb. 4, but after executives from the British company came to Marietta he was told the company and the union were miles apart.
"The British are cold, ruthless and they hold no allegiance to Marietta or the union," Ward said.
Since Gardner has been talking of moving, local officials at Marietta have been trying to persuade the company to stay. Michael Mullen, community development director for Marietta, said he suggested that Connex move its Pineville, N.C., operation to Marietta if it is considering a move.
Trevor Hamilton, economic development director for Washington County, Ohio, said he offered his assistance to the company and "told them what was available through the state."
The approximately 70 office employees of Connex were told Friday of the company's closing, according to an unconfirmed Marietta source.
The Marietta (Ohio) Times contributed to this story.