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| Militant/Josefina Otero |
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FINDLAY, Ohio — Chanting “No contract, no peace,” some 50 workers, including striking oil refinery workers, other members of the United Steelworkers and supporters, rallied at the Marathon Oil headquarters here April 29 as company shareholders met. Tony Morgan, a committee member of USW Local 13-1 on strike against Marathon in Texas City, Texas, and Chad Culbertson, president of Local 1-346 that is striking the BP-Husky refinery in Toledo, Ohio, were among several unionists attending the meeting to present the strikers’ side.
Mike French, unit chair of Steelworkers Local 2324, was at the rally. His local was locked out April 16 by AP Green Refractories near Oak Hill, Ohio, when the union would not accept new hires getting $12 an hour and no benefits. Two carloads of USW Local 979 members who work at ArcelorMittal in Cleveland came to the rally. Their contract expires Sept. 1. “I have never been so proud of being a Steelworker, as I am today,” Culbertson told the crowd. “We will not allow them to stand on the backs of our members.” “When we were locked out, other unions came and helped us, so now we’re supporting them,” said Trevor Barrientos, a Steelworker at Cooper Tire here, where the union fought a three-month lockout in 2011-12. Steelworkers from AK Steel in Mansfield, Ohio, also attended. A tentative agreement was reached between USW Local 7-1 in Whiting, Indiana, and BP April 29. If the contract conforms to the national pattern oil bargaining agreement approved by Steelworkers on March 12, it will be sent back to USW Local 7-1 for a vote. Picket lines remain up. |
| — JOSEFINA OTERO AND ALYSON KENNEDY Josefina Otero is a member of USW Local 7139-05 in Washington, Pennsylvania |