Leave products, public out of talks

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, September 29, 2005

As an employee of Kimberly-Clark Everett and a member of local 183 I feel compelled to answer some of the rhetoric that has been written in the paper and in the recent letters to the editor.

First of all, we are in a contract dispute with the company and only the company. We feel very strongly that we were not presented with what most members feel is a fair contract. As was well publicized, that was confirmed with the union membership giving our bargaining board a 94 percent yes vote to strike if it became necessary.

We, however, are not in any way in any type of battle with consumers who use our products or stores that stock and sell our products. We have a very proud workforce, many of them employed at this site for over 35 years, and we truly believe we make a product that is much superior to any of our competitors. We urge everyone to continue shopping at stores that stock our products and continue to use our products as you always have. And please, let us negotiate our contract at the bargaining table and not in the local newspaper.

Dean Zevenbergen

Everett