The Hytrol Story

Hytrol took a radical idea and made it work. Today, Hytrol’s Stockyard ships virtually every 24- hour order on time. And even though many other competitors have copied this service in one way or another, no one has been able to duplicate it or match it. There’s really no magic formula. Just dedicated Hytrol employees. 1964 also gave Tom and Hytrol their first and only experience with a union. That year, the United Automobile Workers petitioned and bargained for a union for Hytrol. It was de-certified in March, 1966, the first UAW Union to be de-certified in Arkansas. Sam was, of course, in St. Louis at the time, working hard to promote Hytrol and set up new distributors. He was hearing some off-hand remarks about the problems Hytrol was having with the union. During this time, whenever Sam would make a visit to Jonesboro, he would always be excited and enthusiastic and feeling very good about all the positive work he was doing for the company. Tom and Ralph were, on the other hand, upset over the union’s demands and insisted Sam “--didn’t know what was going on!” Sam would just tell them everything would be fine which, in a way, upset Tom and Ralph even more! But in all actuality, they didn’t tell Sam the whole story. They really didn’t want Sam to know the whole story because they didn’t want him to worry. They wanted him to continue doing his job without any additional burdens. In some ways, the union incident brought the three men even closer. The union experience also brought about some positive changes to Hytrol. For one, it was a wake-up call that triggered the need for Hytrol to take better care of its workers. Tom, Sam, and Ralph had been so busy with trying to grow the company they had overlooked a lot of issues dealing with the company’s employees. That began to change almost immediately. Hytrol began to organize worker job classifications and look at more benefits for the employees. Tom has, over the years, been very insistent that his employees receive many aids other larger companies do not offer. First-class health insurance, a yearly Christmas bonus dictated by company profits, and a health club with free medical care are just some of the benefits Hytrol employees enjoy.