By Liz White, UT editor
South Charleston, West Virginia-Bayer MaterialScience llc is to give 80 contract employees at its South Charleston polyols manufacturing plant the opportunity to apply for permanent employment with Bayer MaterialScience.
These employees have been working at the plant under a General Services Agreement (GSA) with Union Carbide Corp. part of Dow Chemical Co. Dow announced in March this year that it would cancel the agreement on 1 April 2009.
Bayer MaterialScience said it is inviting these 80 employees, whose "expertise, professionalism and dedication" has impressed the company, to join BMS. The company discussed the compensation and benefits at a series of meetings 26-27 Oct.
"Over the years, these dedicated professionals have demonstrated their technical expertise and personal commitment to Bayer MaterialScience while working under the general services agreement with Dow Chemical, which was put in place in 1989, well before Bayer acquired the business in 2000," said Glenn Kraynie, vice president and site manager for the Bayer MaterialScience South Charleston facility.
"During this transition period, we will continue to work closely with BMS to enhance the viability and safe operations of our facilities in South Charleston," said Allan Fowler, WVO v
Bayer MaterialScience's website said it already employs about 100 people at the South Charleston manufacturing plant and associated technical centre, with the 80 Dow employees dedicated under contract to the support Bayer operations.
BMS describes the plant as "a state-of-the-art" polyether polyol facility. The technical centre has research groups for global polyurethane specialities, the polyethers process, flexible foam and analytical chemistry.
The services agreement with Dow/Union Carbide has been in place since 1990, when it was set up between Union Carbide and ARCO Chemical. ARCO was later bought by Lyondell Chemical Co., who then sold its polyols business to Bayer.
Under the agreement, Union Carbide provides BMS with infrastructure-based services such as power and waste water treatment, as well as multiple professional services including emergency response, security, medical services, and other services including operations, maintenance, and laboratory services.
Dow said in March that the GSA involves a sizeable site infrastructure, but business consolidation and changing market conditions have resulted in a much smaller manufacturing base, resulting in higher costs for both companies to conduct business at the site under the current structure of the GSA.
Termination of the agreement will result in reduced infrastructure in South Charleston, which could potentially affect about 230-330 UCC employees, Dow said.
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