Paul Mueller, union agree to three-year labor deal

Paul Mueller Co. and the employees of a local sheet metal union have agreed to a three-year labor agreement.

The employees of Sheet Metal Workers' International Association Local 208 voted to accept a new deal, replacing the existing contract that was set to expire April 21.

Company officials met with Springfield plant employees in November and December to discuss the company's financial status, according to a Paul Mueller news release.

"The company acknowledged that, due to the recent economic climate, the strategy adopted in 2005 of growing the top-line revenues to achieve long-term bottom-line profitability was, in the short term, no longer sustainable," the release said.

Don Golik, the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer, told SBJ that the company has had a good relationship with the union over the years, adding that the declining levels of work have caused stress for all involved.

The company has taken steps to shore up its financial situation, including eliminating nonbargaining unit positions totaling more than $13 million of annual compensation, installing a new Enterprise Resource Planning system to track orders and production costs, and revamping its industrial equipment marketing and sales department.

Union employees agreed to forgo a scheduled wage increase last April. Those changes, Golik said, reduced the division's indirect costs by 40 percent.

Paul Mueller is positive about 2010, the release said, due to the number of new orders entered in December 2009 and the amount of quoting activity for industrial equipment. The company has called back 116 employees to the Springfield plant, 1600 W. Phelps St., since a holiday furlough, and additional callbacks could be made to support production levels, the company said.

Shares of Paul Mueller (OTC: MUEL.PK) closed Wednesday at $22.50, compared to a 52-week range of $15.90–$32.00.[[In-content Ad]]