The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.5           February 5, 1996 
 
 
Teamsters In New Jersey Battle Union Busting  

This column is devoted to reporting the resistance by working people to the employers' assault on their living standards, working conditions, and unions.

We invite you to contribute short items to this column as a way for other fighting workers around the world to read about and learn from these important struggles. Jot down a few lines about what is happening in your union, at your workplace, or other workplaces in your area, including interesting political discussions.

Members of Teamsters Local 680 at Farmland Dairy in Wallington, New Jersey, have continued to picket around the clock in subfreezing temperatures since their strike began on December 10 in response to union-busting contract proposals.

Central to this battle is Farmland's plan to initiate a new third tier. While base wages are about $16 an hour and those on the second tier get $3 an hour less, the new third tier would have a base wage of $11.25. Len Myers, president of Local 680, said in an interview that the company is also demanding new hires pay for their own medical coverage with a $3.31 an hour wage deduction. "The whole picture is to break the union," Myers said.

Workers on the picket line also explained that Farmland is part of a master agreement with some 30 milk processors in New York and New Jersey. Concessions won by Farmland could be used by the other companies to reopen their contracts and push for the same takebacks.

Of the 200 Teamster-organized workers at the plant some 35 crossed the picket line. Along with newly-hired scabs and management they continue some production.

On December 14, hundreds of strikers and members of Teamsters Local 584 from New York City rallied outside the plant gate. The Bergen County "rapid deployment" cops were mobilized to the plant in riot gear. Hackensack judge Kevin O'Halloran slapped an injunction on the union limiting pickets to 18. Members of Teamsters local 680 at Tuscan Dairy voted to contribute $75 to $100 from every paycheck to support the Farmland strikers. Teamsters are also leafleting area supermarkets with flyers saying "Inexperienced scab workers are producing the Farmland Milk on this store's shelves." "Purchase your milk elsewhere," the leaflet adds.

Irving Oil workers continue fight
Striking workers at the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, turned down another "final offer." They voted by 82 percent on December 9 to reject the most recent company demands.

The latest contract offer would eliminate the jobs of 55 strikers and offer a "reorientation" program to the other 131. The refinery would rehire those who "successfully complete" the program. It would fire those who, in the words of company general manager Robert Chalmers, "were so bitter from their experience that they would not be productive in the workplace."

All but one of the members of the union executive committee are among those who would lose their jobs.

"There is no seniority or other rationale for the names they picked of those to be fired," explained striker Cathy Dube. "It's union-busting, pure and simple," said Dan Farrer, another striker describing company demands.

The proposed contract would also gut almost every clause in the previous collective agreement. New company regulations would include 22 rules for which a first violation would be grounds for firing. These include the loss or suspension of a drivers license due to an alcohol offense, smoking in a prohibited area of the refinery, and violation of plant safety rules.

Engaging in an argument with a scab who remains employed by the company would also be grounds for firing. The company calls it a "zero tolerance" policy.

The strike began on May 12, 1994. The workers are members of Local 691 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).

Following the latest vote, Chalmers held the first company press conference since the beginning of the strike to denounce the workers and say that all negotiations with the union were finished. He followed that up with an open letter to all strikers saying, "This note is simply to put on record that some of the terms of the last offer are no longer available." The letter lamented the December 9 vote by workers turning down the company demands even though the executive vice president for Canada of the CEP had strongly recommended a vote in favor.

Frank McKenna, premier of the province of New Brunswick, joined the company chorus on December 20 when he said that he would not intervene to pressure the company to negotiate anew.

The latest company plan was a slightly-modified version of one that strikers rejected by a 90 per cent vote on November 10.

The two votes have angered company officials because, they say, the strike is hurting sales and disrupting Irving Oil's business plans, including its expansion into markets in the U.S. northeast. The union has waged a widely-publicized boycott campaign against Irving Oil products across eastern Canada and in the U.S. state of Maine.

Prior to the November 10 vote, the union told the company that it had dropped opposition to the key issues that provoked the strike, including the company demand to lengthen the work week of shift workers from 37.5 to 42 hours and of day-shift workers to 40 hours. Since the strike began, 48 workers have crossed the picket line and 25 have taken a voluntary severance package. "Picketing and the boycott campaign continues," said union president Larry Washburn. "We're going to hold out as long as it takes to preserve our union."

Bob Miller, member of United Auto Workers Local 980 in Edison, New Jersey; and Roger Annis, member of CEP Local 841 in Montreal, Quebec, contributed to this column.

 
 
 
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