Invista union announces endorsements

By Bob Stuart and Jimmy LaRoue
Published: April 28, 2008

The union representing more than 700 local Invista workers on Monday endorsed incumbent councilmen Frank Lucente and Tim Williams and Ward B candidate Bruce Allen in the May 6 election, citing the trio’s opposition to a city stormwater utility fee, which the organization says could force the closure of the company’s Waynesboro plant.
Officials with United Workers Local 381 of the Brotherhood of DuPont Workers said it’s the first time in 71 years at the facility, formerly owned by DuPont, that the union has endorsed council candidates. Invista, a textile maker on the South River, is Waynesboro’s largest employer with 1,100 workers.
“Given our slumping economy and the delicateness of all businesses, the union has decided that it must become involved in this council election and support candidates that support Waynesboro’s largest company,” the union said in a news release.
Lucente, Williams and Allen favor using general fund money rather than fees to pay for stormwater improvements.
Most council members, including Lucente, had planned to impose fees to pay for $1.2 million in stormwater repairs next fiscal year. That sparked an uproar from businesses last summer. As a result, Lucente earlier this year threw his support behind the general fund option, joining Williams and Mayor Tom Reynolds, a majority foe.
Invista officials have estimated that the stormwater fee could cost the plant up to $240,000 annually.
Attorney Kenneth Henley, the Pennsylvania-based counsel for Local 381, said if the plant did close “you’d see politicians scurrying around to keep the company from leaving.”
Fee proponents, including at-large challenger Jeremy Taylor, have argued that the discretionary nature of the general fund means that stormwater repairs could get shortchanged. They cite as evidence City Manager Doug Walker’s proposed 40-percent reduction of stormwater money to $685,000 in next fiscal year’s budget.
“One-hundred percent of the funds collected” in a stormwater utility would go for fixes, Taylor said.
“Through the utility, we can arrive at a fair allocation of funding for homeowners and businesses,” Taylor said.
Invista officials have argued that because the company operates its own stormwater system the plant should be exempted from fees. Taylor favors fee credits that take such factors into account, but has said he would require proof that Invista runoff does not feed the city’s stormwater woes.
Lucente and Allen counter that the best way to keep Waynesboro vibrant is “to help the businesses we already have here.”
“All we have to do is do the right thing and we will have a vibrant community with good-paying jobs,” Lucente said.
If fees were imposed, Local 381 President Jim Flickinger said, the effects could ripple beyond permanent Invista workers to the plant’s 500 contract workers and 2,800 support workers.
Much of the fees dispute centered on how to divide the costs. One proposal called for businesses to shoulder three-fourths of the burden with homeowners picking up the remainder. Another called for splitting the costs evenly between the two sides.
Williams, who is running unopposed, said the real question is one of equity.
Local 381 workers “understand that creating disproportionate fees that are unfair to the businesses that create the jobs and the revenue that the city of Waynesboro depends on is counterproductive and hurtful to the people of our city,” he said in a statement.
Greg Bruno, running against Allen in Ward B, supports implementing a fee with a credit system. Like Taylor, he would have city engineers evaluate Invista’s stormwater program — and that of any other company that operates a stormwater management system.
“We would certainly be able to work something out,” Bruno said. “We just have to have the opportunity to talk with them.”
Another Ward B candidate, Chris Graham, said he was disappointed that the Invista union did not contact him to get his input.
Graham, along with at-large candidate DuBose Egleston Jr., also supports a fee-based program with credits.
Graham said he favors dividing the costs evenly between businesses and residents. He also has broached the idea of homeowners bearing 60 percent of the cost.
“I think it’s very important that we’re sensitive to the concerns that have been raised by the business community,” Graham said.