Bayer, MIC and the future of the Kanawha Valley
January 13, 2011 by Ken Ward Jr.
Photo via AP by Tom Hindman, Charleston Daily Mail
Over on the Gazette’s Web site, we’ve gotten a fair number of reader comments responding to Tuesday’s bombshell announcement that Bayer CropScience is stopping the production, use and storage of deadly methyl isocyanate at its Institute plant.
The comments, as you might expect, run along the lines of folks who say things like this:
This sucks not just for those who lose there jobs its going to affect everyone who lives in the kanawha valley whether you know it or not. With the loss of all this revenue who do you think will have to pick up the tab. Me, you, and everyone else in the valley. Just another blow the people of this valley didnt need. I for one will not be voting for Kent Carper again.
To people who say:
The rights of the many outweigh the jobs of the few. This is a public safety issue. The citizens of the Kanawha valley have rights to clean air. If Bayer was smart, they would have shifted production to environmentally safe products long ago.
I also wanted to pass along a formal statement issued by Maya Nye of the group People Concerned About MIC, responding to the Bayer announcement:
Bayer’s removal of MIC and phosgene is a monumental step in our 26-year campaign to make our community safer. We all regret that there is job loss associated with this decision. As a daughter of an ex-Carbider, I know from personal experience what it’s like to be part of a family worried about job security. Our hearts go out to the workers who will be losing their jobs over the next several years.
Yet, we must remember that these jobs were lost to them by a company that chose not to change its business model, not to change to safer technologies, and not to act strategically to ensure their workers’ jobs in our community.
It’s also interesting to take a look at the remarks from a couple of our local politicians.
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