Christopher Calnan

Celanese Acetate’s unionized workers accepted a new three-year contract Friday that was the third proposed by the company since June.

The new pact will give workers 3 percent annual pay increases. They also will get $4 more in monthly pension payments for each year of service, said Jim Mullins, president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 2024.

The contract, which was approved on a 446-313 vote during two days of polling, goes into effect Sunday. The contract was the third considered by the union during five months of negotiations that sometimes turned contentious and prompted union leaders to threaten to strike three times during the last two months.

Unlike the first two proposals, the new pact was unanimously endorsed by the union’s seven-member negotiating committee.

“After five and a half months, it’s a relief to have it one way or the other,” Mullins said after the vote.

Celanese Acetate reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with its union workers Wednesday, five weeks after the previous contract had expired, a company official said.

The proposed pact must now be voted upon by members of the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees. The union and the company started negotiating for a new contract four months ago.

John McQuail, the Narrows plant’s director of human resources, said he is optimistic union members will ratify the proposed contract, which he called a “fair, competitive offer.”

“We’re looking forward to the vote and hope the vote is positive so that we can move forward,” he said.

However, details of the proposal, or a date for the vote weren’t available Thursday.

Elliot Turner jumped right into the work force after graduating from Blacksburg High School in 1997, opting against college.

He didn’t have to find a job, he had already created one.

Turner started MimeStar Inc., a software development company, during his junior year of high school.

Since graduating, he has worked 60 hours a week out of his Blacksburg apartment developing computer software to catch hackers trying to tap into computer networks.

Turner cashed in on his long hours Wednesday.

Intrusion.com Inc. of Richardson, Texas, purchased MimeStar for $4 million, plus $1.1 million in Intrusion stock.

The United Auto Workers local in Dublin accepted major concessions in a new contract with Volvo Trucks North America last year after the company threatened to move jobs to Mexico. Then the union dealt with 900 layoffs months later.

Now top union leaders face a challenge from within.

Two of the plant’s 12 bargaining committee members have filed a federal complaint that alleges UAW Local 2069 President Bill Burton and Bargaining Chairman Lee Thomas agreed to mandatory overtime and the end of a 15-minute paid cleanup time without putting the concessions to a membership vote.

Burton and Thomas made the changes in May despite a rejection by the shop stewards who form the union’s bargaining committee, according to Thomas F. White and Jim Houchins, both 12-year plant veterans.

Only 30 percent of the plant’s union workers know about the changes, White said.

“These people pay their dues to be represented,” he said. Burton and Thomas “violated their rights by not giving them the opportunity to voice their opinion by voting.”

A day of waiting ended without answers Monday as searchers were unable to find two women missing after Sunday’s deadly explosion at the New River Castings plant.

Officials also continued to search for the cause of the blast, with union officials charging that Intermet Corp., the Troy, Mich.-based owner of the automobile parts maker, ignored complaints about gas leaks.

Search dogs indicated that Debbie Sheppard, 37, of Riner, and Karen Anderson Hamilton, 35, of Plum Creek probably were buried beneath rubble that officials said would take days to clear.

Radford Fire Chief Lee Simpkins said the workers apparently are under a “four-story building collapsed into two stories,” but said he still hoped they were alive. Commercial Steel Erection, a Madison Heights company, is being called in to help remove tons of debris during an around-the-clock recovery effort, Simpkins said.

Ryan Reeves thought he had it made.

The 19-year-old Christiansburg resident was living his dream of working at Volvo Trucks North America’s Dublin plant.

“Shoot, that’s all I ever wanted to do,” he said.

Reeves grew up visiting the plant often with his father, Rick, a 15-year veteran there. The younger Reeves became enamored of the factory, which provides the highest-paying production jobs in the region and exerts a strong influence over the New River Valley’s labor market.

When Volvo announced plans last year for a $ 148 million expansion, Reeves was quick to apply for a job. He was among 725 new workers brought on last summer for a night production shift.

Reeves’ stint was short.

Despite a booming national economy that has raised consumer confidence and lowered unemployment rates, the heavy truck industry is in a slump. Manufacturers across the country, accustomed to the volatile dips in the industry, are preparing for a downturn in part because there is an oversupply of used trucks and a shortage of truck drivers.

Volvo was the first to cut its work force.

Reeves was one of 900 workers laid off at the Dublin plant this month. The company is cutting production at the plant from 112 trucks a day to 80, a move company officials said was necessitated by a drop in demand.

State labor officials are recommending $196,000 in fines against New River Castings Co. in Radford in the wake of a June accident that left a worker crushed and critically injured.

The state Department of Labor and Industry completed its investigation of the accident last month and issued its proposed penalties Dec. 9 with two citations for five alleged safety violations at the plant.

New River Castings and its sister plant next door, Radford Foundry, employ 1,065 people, making their parent company, Intermet Corp., one of the New River Valley’s largest employers.

On June 14, foundry worker David Gravely was pinned inside a 900-pound press after lightning caused a power outage while he was cleaning sand out of air vents in the machine. Because the press lacked a device to keep it open without power, the top portion shut on top of him.

The 29-year-old Dublin man suffered a concussion, broken ribs, punctured lungs and a crushed spine. He awoke nine days later with two 10-inch rods in his back and little feeling in his left leg.

There’s a 92-year-old railroad tunnel here along Lusters Gate Road that serves as a marker when locals give directions. But the old tunnel means more than that.

It’s a demarcation line between the northern section of the Ellett Valley – where high-priced housing developments are going up – and the remainder of the valley.

That’s what Ellett Valley is becoming, a two-tiered community where the old and new, the unassuming and the ostentatious, coexist. A group of professionals working in Blacksburg, Christiansburg and beyond have been moving into the area once dominated by farming families.

The valley also has become a community of contrasts.

The antiquated railroad tunnel is too narrow for two vehicles to pass. Yet the valley is home to part of the $ 108 million “smart” road that’s being built to test the latest in high-tech transportation.

Modest homes dot the valley while sprawling mansions, some with price tags topping $ 1 million, are being built on the overlooking hillside.

Even the area’s name is a change. Until 15 years ago, the valley consisted of two communities: Ellett and Lusters Gate. Now it’s considered one, the Ellett Valley – with Hightop and Paris mountains on one side, and the steep climb up the divide to Blacksburg on the other.

Whether the changes are for the better depends on your perspective.

The Volvo Trucks North America plant in Dublin will lay off 21 hourly workers this week and another 28 possibly next week, a union official said Thursday.

Bill Burton, president of United Auto Workers Local 2069, said the layoffs are based on seniority. The first group of workers was hired in August; the second group, whose number hasn’t been finalized, includes workers hired after July 12.

Volvo spokesman Phil Romba said Thursday he will continue a company policy of not commenting to The Roanoke Times. The Dublin plant, which has 3,225 workers, is the New River Valley’s second-largest employer.

Volvo began a $148 million expansion project in July that company officials said would create 1,277 new jobs. So far this year Volvo has hired at least 725 new assemblers and started a second shift that produces 42 tractors a day.

A union official at Celanese Acetate, the New River Valley’s eighth-largest employer, said the company became a public corporation this week to ready itself for potential buyers. But Celanese officials say that is untrue.

“That’s completely contrary to our strategy,” Celanese spokeswoman Andrea Stine said Thursday. “Our strategy is to grow the company, and through growth increase its value for our shareholders.”

Azel Buckland, president of the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 2024, said although the company is doing well, its German parent, Hoechst AG, wants to unload it.