—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Dominion Gas lockout ends after a week of spirited picketing

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va — After a seven-day lockout by Dominion, a company that produces and transports natural gas, more than 900 members of United Gas Workers Union Local 69 in six states returned to work in mid-September with full back pay and benefits.

After the union’s representative council recommended a “no” vote, workers voted 766 to 75 against the company’s contract offer June 30. Two months later the council angered bosses when it voted not to send a second, similar company offer to the ranks for a vote.

In the offer Dominion demanded new hires get a cash savings account instead of a pension and receive no medical care in retirement. This would be a boon to a company that anticipates hiring 300 to 400 workers in the next few years. Dominion is also demanding that workers who retired before 2003 lose supplemental Medicare insurance and instead receive a stipend to buy insurance.

The unionists learned of the lockout from a 2 a.m. robocall, telling them not to report in the morning.

Spirits were high on the picket line during the lockout.

“We became complacent, but if you don’t keep fighting you lose every day,” Bill Nolan, a worker with 37 years experience, told the Militant on the picket line here Sept. 12. “I could make a phone call and retire and I’m done, but this is too important.”

“I’d like to be in there making a paycheck,” said picket Joan Lucas, “but I feel better out here because I have my integrity.”

The fighting attitude of the locked-out workers had an impact. A joint agreement issued Sept. 14 by Local 69 and Dominion said the company would end the lockout, both parties would continue bargaining and the union agreed not to strike until next April. The union has been without a contract since April 1 this year.

— Ned Measel

10,000 rally in Australia to support sacked brewery workers

MELBOURNE, Australia — More than 10,000 workers rallied here Sept. 8 to protest the sacking of 55 maintenance workers at beer giant Carlton United Breweries. Hundreds of construction workers, bus and tram drivers, tradesmen and others walked off the job to join the rally. They marched through the city to the state Parliament Building, chanting “CUB, Shame, shame, shame!” and “CUB, no beer at the G!” (The huge Melbourne Cricket Ground stadium is known as the G.)

The 55 electricians and fitters, members of the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, have been on the picket line for 13 weeks at the brewery’s Abbotsford plant. The company fired them, replaced them with nonunion workers, then told them to apply for jobs with the new contractor, Programmed Skilled Group, on individual nonunion contracts with as much as a 65 percent cut in wages and benefits.

The union scored a victory when Programmed Skilled quit the brewery Aug. 29. AMWU officials said beer production has fallen by two-thirds since the firings.

“At first I felt dismay that CUB could treat us this way,” Chris Pore, 33, one of the sacked maintenance workers, told the rally, “but now I feel strong and confident.” Pointing to the large crowd he said, “We will win this battle!”

— Linda Harris

Prairie bus drivers in Canada rally to defend pensions

CALGARY, Alberta — Bus drivers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union locals from Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary and Regina, traveled across the prairies Sept. 10 to join union postal workers and others in support of Saskatoon city bus drivers, members of ATU Local 615. More than 150 people attended the rally and corn roast in front of Saskatoon City Hall.

“I feel proud to be part of this group,” Saskatoon bus driver Daryl Strugnell told the Militant by phone the next day.

The bus drivers’ contract expired in December 2012. They weathered a four-week lockout in 2014 and continue to fight to keep their defined-benefit pension plan, something eight of the nine municipal unions in Saskatoon have lost. “The city says, ‘Everybody else has signed, get on board with this,’” said Strugnell.

In March, bus drivers went to work without their uniforms to draw attention to their fight.

“The politicians anticipated that over time the union would self-destruct,” Jim Yakubowski, Local 615 president, told the rally. “But we still have some fight left.” Following the rally, negotiations resumed.

— Katy LeRougetel

Washington berry pickers win union representation vote

MT. VERNON, Wash. — “We won 192 votes for the union and the company got 52,” Ramón Torres, president of the farmworkers union Familias Unidas por la Justicia (Families United for Justice), told a gathering of 250 Sakuma Brothers Farms berry pickers, family members and supporters Sept. 12. They enjoyed a barbecue and live music while waiting at the United Steelworkers hall here to hear the results of the union representation election. Torres’ announcement in Spanish was followed by a translation into the indigenous Mixteca language, spoken by many workers who hail from southern Mexico.

The victory was the product of a fight that began with a series of strikes in 2013 in the berry fields of the Skagit River Valley, 60 miles north of Seattle. Workers at Sakuma Farms struck this summer during the strawberry harvest and again during the blueberry and blackberry season.

While waiting for the election results, longtime union supporter Benito Lopez told the Militant he was confident in a positive outcome. “People who weren’t with us before are supporting us now,” he said. “They feel mistreated by the company and they see the union keeping on and supporting them.”

“We talked to a lot of people and explained what Familias Unidas is all about” leading up to the election, Javier Ramirez said.

“This is just the first step,” union Vice President Felimon Pineda told the Militant. “We still have to win a contract. That’s what the workers are waiting for.”

Rich Austin Jr., president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 19 in Seattle, who attended the celebration, told the Militant that longshoremen refused to load Driscoll’s brand berries from Sakuma on cruise ships. As part of the agreement leading up to the election, Familias Unidas called off a boycott of Driscoll’s and Sakuma berries.

— Clay Dennison