Vol. 77/No. 31 August 26, 2013
Locked-out Steelworkers in Canada reject ‘final’ offer
NANTICOKE, Ontario — After more than three months on the picket line following an April 28 lockout by the U.S. Steel bosses, members of Steelworkers Local 8782 on July 31 rejected the company’s “final” contract offer by 71 percent.The lockout shut down U.S. Steel’s Lake Erie Works, which employs more than 1,000 workers, 771 of whom took part in the latest contract vote. The lockout began after workers voted in April by 70 percent to reject the company’s initial contract proposal.
U.S. Steel’s latest offer did not include the bosses’ initial demand to end seniority rights for job openings and allow free reign to contract out union jobs, according to workers on the picket line. But it did include other concessions, including cuts to vacation time and changes to the cost-of-living allowance.
“They are trying to do everything they can to break the union,” Mark Lombardo, a shop steward in steel casting, said at the union hall Aug. 3.
The current lockout is the third since U.S. Steel bought Canadian-owned Stelco in 2007.
“Forty percent of the workforce did not go through the last lockout in 2010,” Lombardo said. “But the vote shows they didn’t succeed in dividing us.”
The vote was supervised by government labor officials and held at the behest of the company, which under Ontario law had the right to force a vote on its proposal once during the lockout.
In a July 15 public statement, the company claimed the vote was necessary “to give our employees the chance to have their voices heard — something the union leadership refused to afford them.”
U.S. Steel also sent letters to the workers saying a “no” vote would result in an indefinite lockout. “Keep in mind that the previous lockout at Lake Erie lasted 10 months, and the Company never did back off its position,” read one dated July 29.
“For me the biggest issue is lack of recognition by U.S. Steel for the bargaining team,” 32-year veteran millwright Graham Hartwell told the Militant at the main gate picket line. “They don’t bargain in good faith. It’s like not recognizing the union. There is no respect.”
Support for the workers in the surrounding community is broad. While these reporters were on the picket line, retired pipefitter Larry Symonds and his wife drove up to the line. “I heard about the vote and I came here to bring my solidarity,” said Symonds. “I am glad you are united and still fighting.”
Union officials are now preparing a counterproposal to the rejected offer.
To donate funds or give your support, contact Local 8782 official Terry Barnard at (519) 587-2000 ext. 225.
— Michel Dugré and John Steele
Bay Area transit strike ends after governor orders injunction
SAN FRANCISCO — On the request of Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow issued an injunction Aug. 11 barring 2,600 unionists from striking the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system for 60 days.Workers on the fifth-busiest heavy-rail transit system in the U.S. organized a four-and-a-half-day strike at the beginning of July. That action ended when officials of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 agreed to return to work and continue negotiations.
The union is demanding a 15 percent pay raise over a three-year contract. BART is pressing a 9 percent raise over four years.
The company also wants to downgrade its health plan and implement employee pension payments of 2 percent the first year, to be increased by 1 percent annually for the following three years. The union responded to the pension demands with an offer to set employee payments at 7 percent each year in exchange for an additional 6.5 percent wage raise.
— Eric Simpson and Jeff Powers
Washington berry pickers defend strike gains, union
BURLINGTON, Wash. — Berry pickers at Sakuma Brothers Farms in Washington’s Skagit Valley are organizing to defend their gains amid ongoing negotiations with the company after conducting two strikes in July that won higher wages and better living conditions. The pickers, mostly indigenous Mixteca and Trique people from southern Mexico, have been organizing through their newly formed union Familias Unidas por la Justicia (Families United for Justice).“What we have won is piece rates based on $12 an hour,” said Ramón Torres, president of the 11-person steering committee elected by the workers, in an Aug. 3 interview. “The company brought us new mattresses in the cabins. We won the right to a three-person committee that test-picks each field to negotiate the rate with the bosses.”
“This has been a very good experience,” Torres said. “With the union, everything is possible. When people unite, they gain confidence and get respect.”
Security guards posted in the fields and near housing were withdrawn by the company when the workers made that a precondition for continuing negotiations through a mediator. And 15 young workers fired Aug. 5 were reinstated the next day.
Sakuma Brothers Farms has not responded to calls from the Militant requesting comment.
Messages and donations can be made to Community to Community Development, labeled “Sakuma Workers’ Fund,” at 203 W. Holly St., Ste. 317, Bellingham, WA 98225.
— Clay Dennison
New Zealand warehouse workers fight for pay raise, union contract
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Warehouse workers employed by the freight forwarding company Kuehne & Nagel struck for one day Aug. 9 to press their demand for a wage raise and union contract.“We just want to be treated fairly,” said union delegate Richard Anniss on the picket line. Workers began joining the First Union in April, and within a couple of days the company was encouraging them to leave by giving all nonunion workers a $1 an hour pay raise and premium pay for Saturday overtime, he said.
Eighteen of the 30 workers are on fixed-term contracts. These can be as short as three months, and it is up to the company whether they are renewed. “We are fighting for fixed-termers to be in the union,” Anniss said.
Elva Pritchard said she joined the union “to stop harassment by a boss,” such as phoning sick workers to tell them to come to work.
A member of the Maritime Union addressed the pickets to extend support from port workers, who are also in a contract dispute with their employer.
— Janet Roth