BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia - As the Steelworkers' strike here
enters its third month, federally mediated talks between
United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 8888 and Newport
News Shipbuilding collapsed June 7. Using a little-known
provision of the antiunion Taft-Hartley Act, federal
mediators had stepped in and ordered both sides back to the
bargaining table on May 24. Over the next two weeks, the
mediators met alone with the company two times and the union
three.
"We're remaining strong," stated Wanda Walters, a top-grade welder with 26 years at the yard. "Eventually, they'll have to give in. There's no question we can hold out as long as we need to."
"We were down very low in union members, but we started about two and a half years ago, before the strike, to sign up new members," said Jerry Goode, the chairman of the volunteer organizing committee in the yard. "By the time the contract expired, we were up to 90 percent in the union. The company didn't take us seriously. Now they do."
"We're still fighting for the same things for as long as it takes," said Elaine Utterback, a pipefitter with 24 years' seniority. "We're just not going to give up."
USWA Local 8888, which represents 9,200 hourly workers, struck the shipyard on April 5 after rejecting the company's "final offer" of $1.50 in raises over 47 months, plus a pay- for-performance package that could add up to another dollar for some of the workers. The last raise at the shipyard was in 1993. The union has been demanding a $3.95 wage increase over three years and a hefty increase in pensions from $500 a month to $900 for workers with 30 years of service.
On the first day of mediated talks the union offered to reduce its proposed across-the-board wage increase by 25 cents to $3.70 per hour over 36 months. This would raise top hourly pay at the yard by 25.5 percent, and the lower pay grades by a larger percentage. The company offered nothing new. Yard spokesman Jerri Dickseski insisted that the union's proposal "came nowhere near to what we'd consider within a competitive framework." Instead, the yard has teamed up with the U.S. Navy brass in a scheme to cut an additional $360 million in labor costs and materials over the next five years. Most of Newport News Shipbuilding's contracts are with the Navy.
"We don't buy their argument about keeping labor costs low," stated Brian Riblett, who has been at the yard 22 years. "If that was true, then why do they have 17 vice presidents, each with six- or seven-figure salaries once you include bonuses and stock options? They even have a vice president of commercial shipbuilding, even though they don't do commercial shipbuilding.
"Most people, after being out this long, don't miss the shipyard," continued Riblett. "The work is hot, dirty, and can be dangerous. We don't miss that. We just miss our paychecks. But we will not go back without something decent. We didn't want the shipyard's offer two months ago. We certainly don't want it now."
A recent article in the Newport News Daily Press pointed out, "The yard has maintained throughout negotiations, which began in January and initially broke off March 30, that its contract offer is the best in the industry. That's no longer the case, following the resolution Saturday [June 5] of a three-week-old strike by hourly workers in Ingalls Shipbuilding, another of the country's six biggest shipbuilders." Nearly 8,000 workers at the shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, ratified a contract that increases wages 16.3 percent (see article on page 11).
"I'm glad for them," stated Utterback. "Anybody else who would go out makes us feel good. When we get a big group to go out like us then maybe we can do something for the people of tomorrow."
In another development, Litton Industries, which owns Ingalls, is acquiring the Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana for $529 million in cash. In January Newport News announced plans to acquire Avondale in a stock deal then valued at $470 million. Avondale, however, opted for the larger cash offer so terminated its planned merger with Newport News.
Brian Williams is a member of the USWA in Sparrows Point, Maryland. Susan LaMont, a member of the USWA in Birmingham, Alabama, contributed to this article.