BY MARY MARTIN AND STU SINGER
NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia - Nearly 9,000 workers, most of them
members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 8888,
went on strike against the largest U.S. military shipyard here
April 5.
Night shift workers who came out of the gates at 12:01 a.m. when the contract expired were greeted by hundreds of cheering co-workers who had gathered over the last two hours. The workers, most of them wearing union hats and T-shirts, were slapping high fives, applauding, and chanting, "88, Close the Gate!" and "What do we want? A contract!"
Other workers drove past the picket lines honking horns in support. One car that drew great cheers from the pickets was covered in spray painted slogans, including, "No sell out, 8888, Frick this," a reference to the much disliked company chairman William Fricks. A rally and extended picket line involving some 300 strikers and supporters at the 50th Street gate lasted until around 2:00 am. Most people then left to get some rest, but some were back at 5:00 a.m. to begin picket duty. Many signs read "Shipyard Offer Sucks," expressing blunt dissatisfaction with the company's final offer, which would guarantee the average shipyard worker about $1.50 in raises over a 47-month contract, substantially less than the union is asking.
By 8:00 a.m., some 1,000 Steelworkers were marching in front of the several shipyard gates along Washington Ave. demanding a contract with a pay raise. Salaried supervisors, as well as Navy sailors and officers who work on the ships in the yard, went to work through the picket lines.
In addition, no more than half a dozen workers walked through the 50th Street gate. But more parked inside the yard at another gate and were shuttled to their work locations. In the background overhead cranes stood idle, proof that no production was taking place, according to several striking workers.
Newport News is the only U.S. shipyard that builds nuclear- powered aircraft carriers. An article in the Newport News Daily Press April 6 floated the idea that President William Clinton could seek a court order to end the strike under the antilabor Taft-Hartley Act if it would "imperil the national health or safety."
Jeremy Lawe, 21, an apprentice shipbuilder, said, "If everybody sticks together like we are today, things will work out. It's a lot different with us today than in times past. All of us being out here together shows progress. Some of the others in the apprentice school were scared to walk. I told them, `You've got a right to work and a right to strike.' "
Amanda Styer, 19, came down to the gates to support her family and friends on strike at the yard. "Newport News [Shipbuilding Company] is not doing what it should," she said. "It comes down to us not having had a raise forever and we are just not going to go to work. This is what it takes."
No pay raise since 1993
The strike deadline passed with the company refusing to
budge on its offer of an 11 percent raise over 47 months. For
the average shipyard worker, this would amount to raises of 54
cents per hour the first year, 42 cents the second, and 58
cents the third, or $1.54 over the nearly four years of the
contract. Further raises based on seniority and
performances - which would widen differences in workers'
wages - would supposedly add up to nearly $1 more. In addition,
the company wants workers to pay more for health insurance.
The union's proposal in contrast would raise wages by $3.95 across the board, with the average worker's pay going from $13.50 per hour to $17.45 per hour by the end of a three-year contract.
The last raise workers got was in 1993. In 1995 the union took a concession contract, with a wage freeze, giving up holidays and vacation days. Workers received three lump-sum bonuses during the last contract in lieu of a pay raise. Workers had originally asked for a total of $10 in pay raises -$6 the first year, and $2 for each remaining year of a three-year contract, to put them at the same wage levels as workers employed at the Anheuser-Bush plant in Willamsburg, Virginia. In addition to a raise, the union is demanding restoration of holidays and vacation and an increase in pension rates.
The union wants to restrict the hiring of nonunion contractors, which has been on the rise over the past few years. And it also wants a pledge that the company won't interfere with union organizing attempts at its San Diego shipyard or at Avondale Industries, a Louisiana yard the company is in the process of acquiring.
The company's plans to increase the costs to workers for health insurance is a sore point for many strikers. Gene Hopson, a pipefitter in the yard for 27 years, said, "Under the new insurance plan the company wants, if you have coverage on a couple of kids, the little pay raise they propose would be swallowed up by the insurance premiums. And if you have three kids, you'll be in the hole."
Because Virginia is a so-called "right to work" state, the USWA cannot have a union shop agreement where workers in the bargaining unit automatically join the union.
Those hired on at the yard have to decide to seek out the union and sign up. Union membership is currently at an all- time high, with approximately 7,600 or 83 percent of 9,200 hourly workers in the union. Crystal Lloyd is a material supply clerk and has worked in the yard for seven years. She told the Militant 10 people she works with joined the union last week.
`The war is here at the gate'
The strike takes place at the same time Washington is
escalating the NATO assault on Yugoslavia. Many workers,
including Lloyd, said they thought the war should have no
bearing on their contract fight. "The war is here at the gate,"
she said.
"War or no war, this strike is about business," said Kennedy Barnes, a painter for 19 years in the yard.
David Bridwell said he supported the bombing of Yugoslavia to a point, but that this strike had to go on because every day his life and the lives of others on the job are put in danger just to make ends meet.
The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which was recently in the yard, was just sent to the Adriatic Sea as part of the U.S. naval force attacking Yugoslavia. Two other U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, the Nimitz and the Harry Truman, are currently in the yard for refueling or maintenance and can be seen from the picket line.
According to workers on the picket line, the Nimitz is scheduled to stay in the yard for another two years as part of a three-year project to replace its nuclear fuel rods and remodel the ship.
Sailors assigned to the ships in the yard for extended periods live around Newport News and are ordered to continue working during the strike. One, who did not give his name, said, "Just tell them the Navy wishes them the best and hopes the Steelworkers get everything they want!" reflecting his own views, not the official Navy position.
Strikers include veterans of 1979 battle
In 1979 workers in the yard conducted a strike to win a
first contract, after gaining recognition of the USWA and
ousting the company union, called the Peninsula Shipbuilders
Union, (PSA), a year earlier. Many strikers point to the unity
forged among Black and white workers during that strike.
On the picket line are many participants in the previous strike. Horton is one of them. "There is more unity now and there are more workers who are white involved in the union now," he said.
Brian Ribblett, a welder who has worked in the yard for 22 years, carried his picket sign from the 1979 union organizing strike. Ribblett was one of several workers hospitalized after an assault by local and state cops.
The incident, known as Bloody Monday, took place on April 16, 1979. The cops attacked picket lines and tried to storm the union hall, after workers rejected a company demand for an unconditional surrender. Unionists repulsed the cop assault, but many were injured and arrested, and some like Ribblett were fired. Ribblett fought the company to win back his job.
Recalling that incident, Ribblett said, "That could never happen now. The situation is not muddied now by the existence of the PSA. We're sticking together. Plus we are mad as hornets and we are not going to break."
Ribblett said he was furious to come to work one day a while ago and find a big banner in the yard with a company "mission" statement: "To Produce with a Sense of Urgency."
"I said, `What is this? Goebbels' propaganda for the Nazi Party?' " Ribblett declared. "The company thinks we are uneducated, but we read."
Newport News Shipbuilding has put in place a 40-person Special Team for "security," armed with clubs and wearing bulletproof vests in anticipation of the strike. The city police parked a big arrest van right next to the picket line at the 50th Street gate. This, plus stepped-up patrols by local and state police, company cameras, and Navy military security, are very visible to all the pickets at the Washington Avenue shipyard gates. Union picket captains are organizing a disciplined presence by strikers and their supporters.
Messages of solidarity and other strike support can be sent to: USWA Local 8888, 4306 Huntington Ave., Newport News, Virginia, 23607.
Mary Martin is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1759 in Washington, D.C. Stu Singer is a member of the United Transportation Union.