Portland Press Herald, March 18, 1997
By Jack Beaudoin, Staff Writer
BIDDEFORD - The Biddeford Textile Co.'s union workers have voted "nearly unanimously" to back a proposed deal that would give them an ownership stake in the nation's only electric-blanket manufacturer.
About 300 workers met with union leaders and investment banking officials from American Capital Strategies for three hours at Biddeford City Hall Sunday.
The deal may require some employee concessions in return for one-third ownership in the new company, which would buy the textile plant from its parent corporation, Sunbeam-Oster.
"The union workers have voted to buy it," union manager Michael Cavanaugh said Monday. "The vote was nearly unanimous - only one or two people voted against it. It was about 99 percent in favor."
Details of the offer were not released. The proposal still has to pass muster with Sunbeam as well as unidentified investors who would team with the union.
Michael Liberty, a Portland businessman, has attended some of the union meetings, but will neither confirm nor deny involvement in the deal.
Sunbeam officials did not comment on the vote, but city officials who have been working with both sides say the Del Ray, Fla.-based company wants a deal announced by the end of March. The union-led buyout group currently holds an exclusive right to negotiate with Sunbeam, Cavanaugh noted.
Biddeford Textile Co. has been on the market since Sunbeam chairman Albert J. Dunlap, nicknamed "Chainsaw Al" because of his reputation for downsizing companies, announced it would be sold or closed last November. The company has about 350 employees, some 50 of whom have been laid off since Christmas.
The electric-blanket manufacturer maintains two plants in Biddeford, one a 19th-century brick mill along the Saco River, the other a more modern mill and warehouse facility in the Biddeford Industrial Park.
Cavanaugh, manager for the New England region of the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees, said he was prohibited from discussing the specific of the offer by a confidentiality agreement with Sunbeam. But he did say workers would not "put up a penny without a penny's return on their investment."
Employee stock ownership plans usually allow workers to buy stock in return for negotiated concessions in wages or benefits. The structure of such deals allows the companies more working capital and guarantees workers job stability for the long term.
Such deals also give workers a greater say in the future of the company through traditional voting stocks, seats on the company's board of directors and a share in the future profitability of the company as well.
"We've spent a lot of time talking with them about the business plan," Cavanaugh said.
American Capital Strategies specializes in structuring employee buyout programs, and was hired by the union immediately after Dunlap announced last November that Biddeford Textile would be sold or closed along with 17 other divisions.
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