The Buffalo News, November 9, 2008, Sunday

The Buffalo News

November 9, 2008, Sunday

The Buffalo News

Business booms at Cameron Compression
Strong export markets, good labor relations keep plant humming

By Matt Glynn

Inside Cameron Compression Systems’ sprawling Cheektowaga plant, workers are assembling massive machines destined for use in places like Switzerland and Saudia Arabia.

About 75 percent of the plant’s business comes from outside the United States, providing some insulation against the faltering domestic economy. The Cheektowaga plant designs and makes gas and air compressors used in a variety of applications, from textile plants to oil and gas refineries to snow-making and the air-separation industry.

Cameron C ompression’s Houston-based parent company has committed a total of about $27 million in capital investment to the Broadway plant in 2007 and this year.

The plant’s employment has risen to about 900 salaried and hourly workers from 325 just six years ago. Since January, the plant has hired about 145 people.

At a time when many area manufacturers are struggling or reducing their work forces, Cameron Compression’s new investments and job growth are noteworthy. Management and union leaders say a good relationship between the two sides has helped foster the growth, and they have received recognition for their cooperation.

“One of the things I find allows us to work together very well is candor and honesty,” said Wayne Krieger, director of operations. “There’s a lot of communication and dialogue back and forth.

“There’s a common denominator: Take care of the customer,” Krieger said. “And it is throughout this building, and it is a major part of our success.”

Union leader Joe Czajka said the two sides “have a pretty good relationship. We have our ups and downs. We work together.”

As chief steward for International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Niagara Lodge 330 at the plant, which represents its 327 hourly workers, Czajka has a frontline role in the union.

“I don’t hear too many problems,” said Czajka, a 20-year employee. “If there were problems, I would be the first one to know. For the most part, it’s pretty smooth in the shop.”

Cameron Compression and Machinists Niagara Lodge 330, which is part of the union’s Buffalo-based District 65, were recently named winners of the “Champions at Work” award, presented by the Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Buffalo. The award grew out of the school’s 2000 study of productive management-labor relationships at area companies.

Management and labor at Cameron Compression have demonstrated an ability to find common ground, said Reggie Grogan, industry education specialist at the school and Champions at Work coordinator.

“It doesn’t mean they don’t disagree” on some issues, she said.

Nominees for the award are examined for their workplace partnerships, their workers’ pay and skill level and, if applicable, their labor record in facilities in other countries, Grogan said.

Cameron Compression stood out for its workers’ high level of skills, as well as the advanced technology it uses to compete, she said.

While good relations between management and labor can’t guarantee a plant’s future, especially if corporate decisions are directed from elsewhere, they can allow an employer to better endure downturns, she said. “It helps when that working relationship is there.”

The Machinists union has represented the plant’s work force since 1958, when the site was known as Joy Manufacturing. Edward Fik started working at the Broadway plant nearly 45 years ago and recalled only a few labor disruptions during his long employment.

“It proves that people are working together,” said Fik, president of Niagara Lodge 330 and District 65. “Overall picture is, it’s been a good place to work.

“We’re like the couple that’s been married for 25 years,” he quipped.

Company and union officials alike say Cameron Compression’s focus on the international market has fueled its growth. They credit Robert Rajeski, now based in Houston as president of Cameron’s compression systems operating group, with emphasizing opening sales and service offices around the world when he was leading the Cheektowaga location several years ago.

“He had a vision to get into the geographies to get the business,” said Mahesh Joshi, vice president of centrifugal compressors and the plant’s top on-site executive. Today, Cameron Compression Systems has offices in six other countries, including two that opened this year.

Joshi said the plant’s high skill level, in both its engineering and production sides, enables it to compete globally. The systems it produces can run for 20 or 40 years, receiving technological upgrades and maintenance along the way.

Joshi said the systems play a pivotal role where they end up. For instance, in a manufacturing plant, the compressor might create industrial air to operate pneumatic tools, serving essentially as another utility.

“Once our machine is sold, the [customer’s] whole line depends on it,” he said. “The heart of the plant is a compressor.”

Within the corporation, which has 260 locations worldwide, the Cheektowaga site is known for its innovation, said Patricia Liles, director of employee relations and organizational development at Cameron’s Houston headquarters.

“Great ideas come out of this Buffalo location that can be implemented across the company,” she said. The local site is considered one of the corporation’s strongest sources of new-product development.

Turnover in the Broadway plant’s hourly work force is only about 2 percent a year. The average pay for the hourly workers is about $23 to $27 an hour, excluding benefits. Some former American Axle & Manufacturing workers are among the recent hires.

“I think the guys who get hired here, they generally like their jobs,” Czajka said. “That’s one way there is such good job security here.” The current labor contract runs through early August 2009.

Management and union leaders at the plant say they are watching trends in the global economy, knowing that a slowdown could affect production back home. Joshi gives quarterly updates to employees on the state of the business.

Parent company Cameron’s third-quarter earnings report sheds some light on the financial contributions made by the Cheektowaga operation, which is part of the corporation’s compression systems group.

Sales in that group rose 34 percent from a year ago to $164 million, and the parent company said sales of centrifugal compression equipment — whose manufacturing is headquartered in Cheektowaga — accounted for about three-fourths of the revenue increase.

Joshi said divisions within Cameron, such as the one that includes the Cheektowaga plant, are given a lot of autonomy to run their businesses.

“Our corporation does care and they keep checking that we are taking care of our employees,” he said.

mglynn@buffnews.com