The State of Oregon vs. Bullseye Glass
What a crazy couple of weeks it has been. The governor here has issued a cease and desist order to Bullseye, which means they can't produce 80% of their glass, which turns into lost jobs. I was told today it has to do with elevated lead levels, which was NEVER the story. I'm waiting on some updated information to confirm, since the original issues were other chemicals used to make colored glass. The driving force, a group called Eastside Portland Air Coalition, really just wants Bullseye to shut down and move away from their neighborhood. Bullseye's been in that neighborhood 40 years, so who should be moving? Of course this is just my opinion. I've just heard that nearly 200 people were tested and NOT ONE has results of elevated lead levels. Another thing that gets me is if there really was an issue, wouldn't the employees have elevated levels of the chemicals used? I'm not going to give this group any more publicity, but really, all the facts need to be considered. Bullseye has proposed some new production limits that will hopefully make everyone happy - or at least satisfy them for the moment. I've shared all the links to the most current news stories to my Facebook pages, so take a look at them there. If you're interested in standing with glass artists or finding out what you can do to help, contact me, the Oregon Glass Guild, or Bullseye's website has some information. I subscribe to several Facebook glass newsgroups and the entire glass community around the world has rallied to hopefully save our art and the livelihood of thousands of artists, employees and others who rely on glass arts to survive. For me, it's a small business and my art, but it's not my only source of income. It still would devastate me to see things completely dissapate. My argument has been to see Bullseye implement the changes they've been proposing all along. Changes of this extreme take time, effort and funding to put in place. If those picketing and protesting would see that and have an open mind to the full picture, there could be a peaceful end to the situation. But then again, it's just my opinion.
We've already lost Spectrum Glass - or will, later this year. Even with Uroboros taking over a portion of their glass, some of the Fuser's Reserve glass will be permanently gone. I don't use anything but Bullseye typically, but some of the Uroboros 90 will also be disappearing, which is what my dichroic is coated on. CBS (my dichroic manufacturer) is working on an alternative.
