Want a feel for whether or not the recession is over?

Talk to some of the workers at Sunoco’s ethylene unit at their Marcus Hook plant. Or the union workers at Acme Markets. Or teachers in the Interboro School District.

At Sunoco, they announced earlier this week they will shut down the ethylene unit that was damaged in an explosion and fire back in May.
Sunoco says the unit simply wasn’t doing enough business to merit the investment to rebuild and reopen the facility. Bottom line? Fifty people are going to lose their jobs.

At Acme, union workers, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, are locked in a staredown with the supermarket giant, one of the few left in the region that still utilizes union employees.

Acme says that’s part of the problem. They say they need cost concessions to stay competitive as other outlets continue to peck away at their perch as the top grocer in the region. Workers have been on the job without a contract, and about a month ago Acme upped the ante, putting their last, best and final offer on the table. Just to add an exclamation point, the company said it was implementing the deal July 10 – this Friday – regardless of the union’s position. The union responded by rejecting the deal.

Yesterday Acme said it would not lock out employees, but added they still hoped to start implementing the new deal. They said union workers are welcome to report to work – under the new terms.

Looks like the ball is back in the union’s court. Union boss Wendell Young IV says his members “will do everything to avoid a job action.”

All eyes will be on Acme markets tomorrow morning to see how this plays out.

Then there’s the situation at Interboro School District. Teachers and administration failed to reach a contract accord, so both sides agreed to submit the issues to a fact-finder.

That report came out this week. The school board approved it. But the teachers union balked. They believe there are some mistakes in some of the salary calculations, but they do not believe it will be a major roadblock.

Here’s the interesting thing at Interboro. One of the things the administration wanted was to have teachers start to contribute to health care costs, which they have not done up until this point. That apparently will be included in the new deal.

Welcome to the world most of the rest of us live in, folks.