The Workers Cast Their Ballots After Reading Every Attachment

Quentin wanted me to say the missing estimate had been a filing mistake.

He also wanted me to stop giving the audit findings to the trust beneficiaries.

“What happens at noon?” I asked.

“Lunch,” Beatriz said.

Then she wrote a careful reply. Every statement we had made about the documents matched a record. We had shared those records with people entitled to review them. We would correct an actual error if his lawyer identified one.

No correction came.

For the next two weeks, we worked through the revised agreement. The hard parts were often small phrases.

“Up to sixteen weeks,” Rosa read at one meeting. “That could mean one week.”

“Correct,” Beatriz said.

She crossed out two words.

The final severance terms promised two weeks of base pay for each year of service, with a minimum of sixteen weeks and a maximum of thirty-two. A funded $860,000 account covered those payments and the agreed paid notice.

A separate $240,000 paid for training and required licenses. Workers chose from approved courses. The buyer could not count its ordinary safety briefing as their whole benefit.

Twenty-nine of the forty-three Line One workers received written offers for jobs on the newer Cranston line. The offers listed wages, shifts, and a start schedule. The other fourteen chose paid departures after the transition.

“No one gets shipped to another state?” Rosa asked.

“The offers are for this site,” I said. “Read the address.”

She did.

Line One would run for no more than nine months under the reviewed safety plan, then close. The workers’ agreement included pay if it shut earlier. A joint committee would check transfers and training each month.

The cleanup terms covered the old pits as well as the operating equipment. The $3 million escrow came out of ordinary shareholders’ sale proceeds. It did not reduce the trust’s $1.35 million preferred payment.

The buyer accepted the cleanup duty, including any cost above the reserve. The purchase contract gave it a right to recover certain undisclosed costs from the sellers. The workers did not have to become waste contractors to enforce their own agreement.

Beatriz made sure the trust could enforce the worker promises after its shares were redeemed.

The sellers also agreed to a separate $65,000 trust account for the approved legal bills and later checks on the worker promises. It came from their proceeds. We did not quietly subtract it from the beneficiaries’ payments.

“A right that ends at closing won’t help Rosa in six months,” she said.

My job offer went into the same review packet, behind a bright sheet labeled SEPARATE EMPLOYMENT TERMS.

Tideglass offered me $91,000 a year to manage procurement records and vendor checks. I would report to its finance controller. My offer carried no fee for obtaining consent, and I had a separate lawyer review it.

“You still benefit if this closes,” one retired worker said at the final meeting.

“I do,” I said. “That’s why you have the whole offer. You can reject this deal. My job is not a reason to approve it.”

“Will you stay trustee?”

“Only through closing and the transfer of records. I nominated Rosa as successor, with her agreement. You’ll vote on that separately under the trust rules.”

Rosa looked startled when everyone turned toward her, though we had discussed it for days.

“I’ll need help,” she said.

“You’ll have counsel,” Beatriz said. “And a budget.”

We gave all seventy-four beneficiaries the final agreement, the audit summary, the distribution schedule, and clear ballot instructions. People without email received paper copies by hand or tracked mail. The ballot period ran for five full days after delivery.

I answered questions at my kitchen table, at the social club, and once in a grocery parking lot while sleet tapped the roof of Rosa’s car.

On Tuesday evening, an independent bookkeeper counted the ballots at Beatriz’s office.

Sixty-one approved the deal. Nine rejected it. Four abstained.

Rosa’s appointment passed on the separate ballot.

I called one of the people who had voted no, a man whose shoulder would not let him take a job on the newer line.

“You don’t need to persuade me now,” he said.

“I called about your training payment. It’s yours whichever way you voted.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“My daughter found a drafting course,” he said.

We wrote down its cost: $3,480.

On Thursday, Beatriz confirmed that the court papers, corrected disclosures, and signed worker agreement were ready. The shareholders had removed Quentin from the board. His ordinary shares still entitled him to his lawful share of the reduced proceeds, but he had no company office left.

One item remained before I could consent.

On Friday morning, the escrow agent called.

“The seller asked us to accept a promise to wire the reserve after closing,” she said. “Do you authorize release of your signature?”