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OAKVILLE, Ontario - About 600 workers at the Lear Corp. here struck for 48 hours over mandatory overtime and for wage parity with another Lear plant in Whitby, Ontario, that supplies seats to General Motors of Canada. The Oakville plant supplies seats for Ford's nearby Windstar minivan plant. Margaret Manwaring, a member of Canadian Auto Workers Local 707 at Ford, told the Militant that production in the van plant was disrupted, as dummy seats had to be installed to drive the vans off the assembly line. The unfinished vans soon overflowed Ford's parking lots.

The strikers accepted a contract that includes provisions for working out a system that ends overtime at the Lear plant in Oakville when Ford is not working overtime. Lear workers in Oakville will be making $21.25 (CAN) an hour by the end of the three-year contract. Workers at the Big Three - Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors - in Canada will be earning approximately $23.75 plus cost-of-living raises at the end of their three-year contract.

Tosco buys refineries, forces many workers out
OAKLAND, California-Tosco Refining Co. concluded its buyout of four California Unocal refineries April 1. Beginning one week prior to the formal take over, former Unocal supervisors hired by Tosco began calling 900 members of Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers locals in the Rodeo, Los Angeles, and Santa Maria refineries into their offices. They read from a prepared statement either offering or not offering jobs with Tosco.

As of the writing of this article, about 200 of the workers were either not offered jobs or chose to retire. This attack on the union membership was not done by seniority. Many members not hired speculated that the company got rid of "troublemakers," union activists, and workers who had filed grievances and workers compensation cases. The majority of those not hired are over 40 years old. A majority of those not hired at the Rodeo refinery are members of oppressed nationalities.

When workers first caught wind of Tosco's "last and final" offer in February, there was near unanimity for its rejection. The statewide negotiations caught this wind and formally rejected the offer. It included 15 percent cuts in the workforce at all refineries, the gutting of seniority for the layoffs, and big job combinations calling for operators to do maintenance work, thereby threatening more jobs of maintenance workers. Included in Tosco's package was the total elimination of the fire and safety department, with the idea that all operators would be trained to do their duties.

There were at least three protests by oil workers in Los Angeles involving hundreds of members against accepting Tosco's concession proposals. This included a march of about 150 oil workers to the hotel where the negotiations were taking place.

At the Rodeo refinery, more than 125 workers and community supporters protested March 5 against the then- proposed layoffs. Informational picket lines went up at the hotel where negotiations were held.

Many oil workers got to hear for the first time the positions of the environmental and community groups. Before, company propaganda spread by the local union officials, claimed these groups wanted to shut down the refineries and throw workers out of a job. But what they heard was that these groups thought more workers should be hired and the refineries forced to adhere to strict standards with review by both the community and the union - free of company pressure.

Health and safety are important issues, both for the unionists and those who live near the refineries. A January explosion at Tosco's Avon refinery, not far from the recently purchased Rodeo facility, killed one worker and injured 44 others.

The sentiment for strike action against Tosco mounted as the company refused to backtrack on its concession demands. This was particularly evident at a series of local meetings on March 25. Worker after worker demanded action be taken to halt the job cuts. Instead, members of the negotiations committee argued that a yes vote would put the local in a "better position to fight down the road."

In the March 18, 1997, issue of Financial World, Tosco's rise to the top of the refining business was duly noted. "Tosco is also not afraid to duke it out with the unions.... It succeeded in renegotiating the terms of the labor agreement with the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers union representing workers at the [Trainor, Pa.] facility." The Financial World writer noted that "Reducing the workforce at UNOCAL should not be as difficult because the local union's three-year contract, signed this past February, does not require a new owner to abide by its terms."

Under pressure from International and local officials, the membership of the locals in Santa Maria, Rodeo, and Los Angeles voted the new concession contract up by 52-48 percent in balloting March 27-28th. The Los Angeles refineries voted the contract down by small margins, but the Rodeo membership voted it up by a vote of 191 to 64.

Owens Corning strikers reject contract offer
FAIRBURN, Georgia - Cheers went up from the dozens of strikers on hand April 9 to hear the results of the vote that turned down Owens Cornings' latest contract offer. Workers had gathered around a tent set up as a strike center across the street from the plant while the votes were being counted. The 331 members of Local 236 of the Glass Molders and Potterers union went on strike March 26 in this town 20 miles south of Atlanta, in the first strike ever at the plant. In spite of Georgia being a "right to work" state, all but 4 of the 331 workers have joined the union.

Strikers Glenna Thompson, Pam Craw-ford, and Linda Zaske jumped up and down with excitement when they heard that the membership had rejected the company offer. Thompson was glad that the union had decided to "stand our ground."

Zaske pointed out that: "We've all stuck together as brothers and sisters." Crawford explained that this contract offer was voted down because the union is strong enough to fight for more. "The union is together," she said. "There's no sense going back in for the same thing we went out on strike for."

Owens Corning, which manufactures insulation, is demanding concessions from the union. A number of strikers see this contract fight as a test for the company's other plants whose contracts expire in the weeks ahead. Owens Corning operates plants across the United States and in Canada.

At first the company demanded a two-tier wage setup, but backed off after the union rejected this outright. Local union president Willard Marks told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Any union that accepts a two-tier system will self-destruct." Marks explained that the April 9 rejection of the Owens Cornings' second offer effectively answered the company's claim that the union officials forced the strike: "They can say the leadership went on strike the first time. On this contract proposal the negotiating committee didn't recommend what to do. The membership rejected it. It is rejected."

The company has also backed down from their original proposal to force job combinations that would reduce the number of job classifications from 48 to 22. But Owens Corning continues to demand that workers go through "education" programs and then pass tests in order to qualify for the jobs that will be redefined.

Several strikers at the April 9 gathering across from the plant said the company's plan is to get rid of older workers and force younger workers to work at a faster pace on the "new" jobs. This is seen as a direct attack on seniority rights, and is the basis for vote by the union ranks to twice reject the company's proposals and keep up their fight.

Joanne Pritchard, member of CAW Local 1285 at Chrysler Bramalea; Omari Musa, a member of OCAW Local 1-326 at Unocal in Rodeo, California, who was not rehired by Tosco; and Michael Italie, member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Atlanta, contributed to this week's column.  
 
 
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