Date: 2007
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Tom Enright was a hotel manager before he joined Celanese in 1981 as a maintenance man on the fibers unit, where fibers for cigarette filters were produced. After 1 ½ years, he moved to the cellulose acetate area and remained there until his retirement. He served as a shift steward, area steward, then vice-president of the Energy and Chemical Workers Union local which later joined Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (today part of Unifor).The union ran steward schools, offering leadership training and public speaking instruction, and had many successes in the area of occupational health and safety. His close-knit employee group formed a baseball slow-pitch team that lasted 20 years. Enright says that, as a long-time employee, he had sufficient savings, along with his severance, to be financially comfortable after the plant closure. But he notes that many fellow employees suffered financially and emotionally. Though his education ended with high school, he earned over $100,000 a year his last five years at Celanese, in part because he logged 300 overtime hours per year. He believes that Alberta does too little to attract and retain industrial enterprises.
Tom Enright was interviewed together with fellow Celanese long-time employee Sam Cholak.
Keywords: Baseball slow pitch team; Celanese closure; Cellulose acetate; Communications, Energy and Paperworkers ; Depressed workers after plant shutdown; Energy and Chemical Workers Union; Fibers unit; Hoechst AG; Union steward training.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Celanese Edmonton: Workers’ Stories; Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; Unifor