Jul. 23--Bemis Co. Inc. has a long history in Terre Haute, one that city and county officials say they hope will continue to be productive despite a strike by union employees that began late Tuesday.

Bemis is a major supplier of flexible packaging and pressure sensitive label materials. Nearly two-thirds of its packaging is used by the food industry, and the remainder by medical, pharmaceutical, chemical and agribusiness.

The company's Polyethylene Packaging Division plant in Terre Haute began operations in May 1956. It was one of two polyethylene facilities to open that year. The second was in Flemington, N.J.

The original Bemis Terre Haute plant was a 60,000-square-foot facility that employed 80 people, then grew to about 165 employees once operating at full capacity. The Terre Haute plant has been expanded 16 times through 2006.

By 2006, the plant had grown to 850,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space and covers nearly 190 acres, making it the largest plant of its kind in the United States and the largest single plant that Bemis operates worldwide.

Bemis invested more than $21 million in the Terre Haute facility in 2007. The company's payroll was more than $39.5 million in 2007 with more than 1,000 employees, according to a tax abatement request filed at the Vigo County auditor's office.

The Terre Haute plant now has about 740 union workers and between 150 and 200 salaried workers. The company had reduced its workforce by about 160 employees since last November; however, some employees have since returned.

The average straight-time pay rate, without benefits, for hourly workers is just under $17 an hour, said Kristi Pavletich, spokeswoman for Bemis. Tuesday's strike is the first work stoppage at Bemis since the mid-1980s, when workers left work on strike for about three weeks, she said.

Vigo County Councilman Ed Ping is a past president of the Wabash Valley Central Labor Council, and is a current delegate on that labor council as a representative of the United Steelworkers Local No. 7441.

"There has never really been a winner on either side [during a strike] because both sides end up losing. They may gain whatever they are trying to achieve, but in the long run both sides end up losing over a strike," Ping said.

"It would really be a tremendous effort to get back to the bargaining table and resolve this before the week is over. That way neither side would be harmed very much," Ping said.

The Steelworkers No. 7441 went on strike in 2003 against Vectren Energy Corp. About 70 workers in Terre Haute were involved in that strike, Ping said.