LOUISVILLE, Ky. – International Specialty Products Inc. of Calvert City, Ky., and Local 1720 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have won the ninth annual labor-management award from the University of Louisville Labor-Management Center.
The award honors a Kentucky or southern Indiana workplace where management and labor have shown and promoted positive cooperative relations.
Lt. Gov. Steve Henry presented the award on behalf of the center and its advisory board at a banquet tonight at the Galt House hotel.
ISP employs more than 500 people at its Calvert City facility, where it manufactures specialty chemical ingredients that enhance the performance of a variety of consumer products, including pain medication, denture adhesive, toothpaste, sunscreen and hair spray.
ISP’s Calvert City management team and union officials have adopted the high performance work organization partnership, a team-based, employee-involved, customer-focused approach to decision making. Through this process, which is based on a union-initiated model, teams of management leaders and union members work together to examine numerous workplace functions to find ways to improve quality, reduce costs and increase safety.
This cooperation has resulted in a 45-percent decrease in the reject rate and a 32-percent increase in customer satisfaction over past two years, a $4 million reduction in energy costs, fewer plant accidents and stronger sales during the recent economic downturn.
ISP also encourages production employees to interact with customers during customer visits and audits to better understand their needs, offers employees training and professional development programs to support personal and professional growth, and promotes employee involvement in community service projects.
These efforts have resulted in “an improved safe work environment, long-term employment and a financially stronger company,” a nominator said.
Other finalists for this year’s award included:
Rohm and Haas Company; Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy International Union Local 5-367; and National Conference of Firemen and Oilers Local 320, LouisvilleBellSouth Telecommunications/Small Business Regional Directory Center and Communications Workers of America Local 3310, LouisvilleTransit Authority of River City and Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 1447, LouisvilleRaytheon Electronic Systems and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Louisville.