[Though the news of the Arizona shooting has absorbed my day, I want to make sure that there is ample opportunity to get this petition out across Iowa.]

Among her first orders of business, Debi Durham, the recently-appointed Director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED), will decide whether to award Roquette America a grant under Iowa’s High Quality Jobs program.

Roquette America has been in the news lately after locking out its unionized workers at their Keokuk, Iowa, plant on September 28th, 2010, just two weeks after contract negotiations began on September 14th. Roquette’s more than 130 proposals to re-write the contract included the right to hire temporary workers at less than half the wages of the permanent workforce with no benefits; an end to seniority in layoffs; an end to overtime for weekend work; the elimination of sick, personal and maternity leave; increases in worker contributions for health care; ending the company pension; and a four-year wage freeze.
 
A communications representative for Roquette America – a French-owned corporation and the fourth-largest global manufacturer of starch and sugar derivatives – referred to these proposals as “fair and reasonable.” And though BCTGM 48G, the union which represents the workers, voted not to accept these proposals, they intended to continue negotiations for longer than just two weeks. Workers were surprised to learn that the company had instead decided to lock them out and immediately replace them with temporary workers. Replacements have been brought in from an Ohio-based temporary worker agency and Roquette’s Gurnee, Illinois plant, and housed in hotels.
 
If the IDED decides to award the High Quality Job grant to Roquette, this wouldn’t be the first time Roquette has received government assistance in their business operations. In the year following the Great Flood of 1993, Lee County, with assistance from the Federal government, built a flood wall to protect the company from Mississippi River flooding at a reported cost of over ten million dollars.  According to the union, some of these subsidies included one from the City of Keokuk for Roquette’s use of a railroad bridge gate to the sum of $2,850,000 since 1993, based on a discounted per rail car rate. In 2002, the IDED forgave a $1 million loan for the construction of a new power plant. And in 2006, the IDED granted Roquette a $1 million tax benefit for plant upgrades and job retention.

Iowa’s High Quality Jobs program gives tax credits to businesses which are required to create or maintain jobs defined as high quality which include specific wage thresholds and a sufficient benefits package.

The IDED contract has not yet been signed by state officials. At their October 2010 meeting, the IDED board approved a 60 day extension on final decision. They are due to meet again in January. The union is asking supporters to sign a petition to be returned no later than January 18th. They will present their petitions and argue that Roquette should not receive this award for failing to comply with the requirements of high quality jobs.