
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 30, 1995                   TAG: 9503310008
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

UNION TALKS NET DEAL

Roanoke Cement Co. and the union representing most of its workers have reached a tentative contract agreement after two years of negotiations that dealt in part with a recently begun $40-million plant modernization expected to eliminate about15 jobs.

General Manager Tom Neary said Wednesday that company representatives made the accord Tuesday night with Local D-314 of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers. The two sides agreed to meet again next week, after which the union can vote on the proposal, Neary said.

The union had charged this month that workers lost seniority and opportunities to earn overtime pay after Titan Cement of Athens, Greece, took control of the Botetourt County cement factory in 1992.

Those issues and the potential for layoffs when the modernization is complete in 18 months to two years have been a topic of negotiations since March 1993, the union has said.

The union also charged that Roanoke Cement officials dragged their feet on an agreement, a claim the company denied.

Neary described the proposed contract as the result of "a little give and take on both sides." He declined to release its terms.

Neary said the company's decision was not influenced by pickets outside Tuesday's negotiation session and an earlier session on March 1. The boilermakers recruited the pickets from other unions.

Union President Jeff Stump could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Neary said, the company started construction about two weeks ago to modernize a kiln and add storage space. The company skipped a planned groundbreaking ceremony because the project is on a tight schedule, he said.

When the project is done, "we might have to drop 15 people" out of a work force of about 150, Neary said. But the exact number of layoffs won't be known for some time. It's possible that attrition could trim the work force by the needed number and that no one would be laid off, he said.

The project comes as the company faces pressure from state environmental regulators to reduce its emissions. A kiln installed in the 1970s will be upgraded to do the work of four higher-polluting 1950s-era kilns, which will be shut down. Two new 25,000-ton silos for an intermediate material in the cement-making process will replace a less-efficient storage building.

by CNB