Cleanup continues; employees meet

Furth: Labor

contract largely

determines

workers' future

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- If you look closely enough, the signs that change has come and AMPI is trying to move on are visible.

The thick reservoir of mud and butter along the eastern side of the Associated Milk Producers Inc. plant is gone with the exception of a thin, sticky layer of tracks left by machinery and footprints made by passersby.

On a cool, sunny and windy Sunday afternoon, workers continued to remove mounds of mud, dirt, ash and butter from fire scene.

A man operating a Bobcat lifted the twisted steel girders out of the rubble and put them onto semi trailers.

Earlier in the day, several AMPI employees came out for a meeting with company officials at the Holiday Inn. The meeting began at 9 a.m. and ended by 11:30 a.m.

"It was well-attended," said AMPI General Manager Mark Furth. "And there's a strong sense of support for each other (among the workers)."

Furth said the plant will be able to bring some of its 130 employees back to work to help with cleanup. However, he said there are no answers as to how many will be able to return to AMPI and when they will be coming back. He said a labor contract largely decides much of what the cooperative can do with its workers. He declined to comment further.

Many employees stayed inside the hotel's German Rivers Room, where the meeting was held, and talked in small groups. Others quietly left the building. A few more held discussion in the parking lot between the hotel and the Hy-Vee shopping complex.

"I just feel it's going well and that's the best you can expect," said a butter plant supervisor, who declined to give his name as he walked calmly away from the hotel's main entrance.

A few days earlier, the building, which was the home of the AMPI butter-packaging plant for nearly 35 years, was the site of one of the largest and longest fires in New Ulm's history. A blaze sparked Wednesday night near ammonia cooling towers on the west side of the building spread, ultimately engulfing and demolishing about one quarter of the building by the time firefighters extinguished it early Thursday morning.

The blaze effectively shut down the plant's butter operation but left its milk operation intact. Company officials reiterate that they are still uncertain of the value of the loss and likely will not know the exact cost for some time.

Visitors, some of whom were AMPI workers, continued to show up at the site on Sunday -- one, sometimes two or three at a time. Some reflected on their time at the plant. Others drove through and stopped in bewilderment.

On Sunday afternoon, trains came through New Ulm, headed south past the east side AMPI butter plant on the same rails that were mired in muck a few days before. A little while later, a man came through the burned portion of the building with a video camera and slowly surveyed the wreckage while the Bobcat loaded more steel.