Penford workers are not asking for the moon

As a 23 year employee of Penford Products my co-workers and I have endured floods, fires, ups/downs of the business, a strike in 2004 and recently a buyout to Ingredion.

Our union executive board is attempting to negotiate a new contract with Ingredion personnel for the 159 union workers. Contrary to the mindset that Ingredion portrayed to employees, the only results to date are complete disagreement.

When the acquisition was finalized in March, Ilene Gordon, Chairman, President and CEO of Ingredion issued a letter to all Penford employees with the headline 'Welcome to a world of new possibilities”. Here are some other quotes from that letter: 'We look forward to working with the entire Penford team to carry that spirit forward as part of Ingredion.” 'While Ingredion is a much larger organization that Penford, I think you will find our people easy to work with, enthusiastic and optimistic.” 'We are a company that lives its values and we believe that integrity, personal commitment and accountability are at the heart of our strong performance”.

After reading the letter I was excited about Ingredion being a part of the Cedar Rapids community and thought that job security in a larger organization would be beneficial for all. I recently read an article where Ilene Gordon stated that Ingredion is a $3 billion company and by 2019 they would be a $9 billion company. I was excited to see that they expect to triple their net worth in four years.

Shortly after Ingredion took over in March, the union requested to begin early contract negotiations, but received no response from the company. There is hope for a resolution that will enable union employees to continue to provide for their families, continue to support local businesses and for Ingredion to continue to pursue their business growth goals. If there is no agreement and a work stopage occurs, this will not only affect the union employees and Ingredion. All of Eastern Iowa is likely to feel the effects, including multiple local business owners and franchises, local gas stations, banks, churches and many other establishments; not to mention charities these employees contribute to regularly.

We, as a union, are not asking ‘for the moon'. We're not asking for the $250,000 (or more) paychecks, company car, food allowances or bonuses that some of Ingredion's personnel receive. We're asking for a decent contract that consists of language, benefits and wages that allow us to continue to raise our families, support local businesses and be active in our communities.

Ingredion started bringing people into the plant for training, placed sleeping/food trailers and added extra security onsite two weeks before the contract expired on August 1. Everyone in the community needs to stand against these unacceptable ‘scare tactics' from a $3 billion company. Friends, neighbors, local businesses, local, state and federal leaders Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, President Barack Obama, will you speak up?

If there is a work stopage, who is going to tell our spouses and children that we'll need to cancel vacation, sell our home, or wait to buy necessities such as eye glasses? Who is going to tell our children there will be no music lessons, mission trips, baseball, softball, basketball, competition cheer leading, gymnastics, 4H, FFA or other activities they love and which teach them accountability, leadership, stewardship and teamwork to name a few things that are essential to their success?

Will it be you Tim Kortemeyer, Erwin Froehlich, Levi Wood, Phil Kluetz, Ilene Gordon, Ken Meadows, Loren Becker or Dave Roseberry?

' Todd Railsback has been employed with Penford Products and a member of the local BCTGM union for 23 years. Comments: robynl07@aol.com