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.
HUNTINGTON, West Virginia - Some 480 members of Local 37 of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) went out on strike here June 6 against Steel of West Virginia Inc. (SWV). The Steelworkers had rejected the contract by 80 percent. Workers on the picket line described seniority rights as the key issue in the strike. SWV produces tractor-trailer sections, housing frames, highway guide rails, and mine beams.
As we went to press, the Militant learned the strikers ratified a new contract June 20 and returned to work the next day.
For some time the company has not been filling job bids by seniority. Instead, they have been putting who they claim is the "most qualified" person into new job openings.
The bosses have taken away several personal days that workers were previously entitled to and enforced a 56-hour workweek for the first time. This was something the company could do according to the contract, but had never implemented before. One longtime worker was fired as a result of this in 1998, because he continued to go to church on Sunday. The union had even arranged for someone else to cover his work. Another worker with 34 years seniority was fired for failing to attend a company meeting. The union considers this pattern of firings as a mechanism to drive out workers close to retirement.
According to USWA Local 37 president Sam Perry, since Roanoke Electric Steel Corporation of Roanoke, Virginia, bought Steel of West Virginia last December, SWV's profits have gone up 43 percent.
"We bent over backward to get them up and running and profitable," said Perry, a millwright with 22 years in the plant. "We had to make concessions and we feel that we've sacrificed enough. People are tired of getting mistreated."
The strikers are paying close attention to contract developments at other union plants such as Century Aluminum in Ravenswood, West Virginia.
Several unions have already offered support to the striking Steelworkers, including the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members at Cabell Huntington Memorial Hospital, who were recently on strike themselves. Members of the United Transportation Union from CSX Railroad, whose tracks pass just yards away from the picket tents, are backing the strikers. As are members of USWA Local 40 at INCO, also in Huntington, who carried out a successful strike earlier this year.
Northwest Airlines flight attendants discuss contract
MINNEAPOLIS - Flight attendants, members of Teamsters Local
2000 at Northwest Airlines, are discussing the terms of a
tentative contract June 10 offer from the company. The offer
came two days after union officials announced that flight
attendants voted, by more than 99 percent, to authorize a
strike against the company.
On June 9 union members staged informational picketing and leafleting at a number of airports, including in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Atlanta, Memphis, and Seattle. Thousands have worn green ribbons and attached "I will strike" tags to their luggage.
Full details of the contract are not yet available. Teamster officials released a summary that includes an immediate 57 percent raise in retirement benefits, with increases of up to 80 percent overall after 54 months. Pay would go up an average of 13 percent to start, including a 25- percent increase for junior flight attendants with less than six years of service. Further raises totaling 11 percent are spread over the five-year life of the contract. The deal includes retroactive pay of 3.5 percent for the last two years and nine months of working under an extension of the old contract.
The old contract is one of the worst in the industry. Northwest flight attendants have sunk to 17th in salary among the airlines. They have not received a raise since 1988, and in 1993 agreed to a 15 percent wage give-back and other concessions when the company said it was losing money. The company has reaped record profits in two of the last three years.
Karen Schultz, a veteran flight attendant at Northwest, said the retirement proposal is not what they were fighting for. "Folks are most disappointed with the 3.5 percent retro- pay," she added. "We were told we would get quite a bit more than the other union groups or a signing bonus plus 3.5 percent since our pay was so far behind. What does this pitiful retro- pay say to the company about future contracts?"
Another issue is the five-year length of the contract. "There is discussion on the proposed length of the contract," said Schultz. "It was a surprise to us all."
Each member of Teamsters Local 2000 will receive copies of the agreement in the mail and Teamster officials will present the agreement for discussion in union meetings starting June 26 in Memphis, Tennessee. Voting on the contract will take place sometime in July.
Bell Canada workers end strike, 1,400 will lose jobs
MONTREAL - The 9,500 telephone operators and technicians at
Bell Canada, members of the Communication, Energy and
Paperworkers Union (CEP), have been back at work since May 16.
Workers at Bell in Ontario and Quebec had struck Bell April 9
in response to Bell's announcement to essentially transfer its
telephone operator service to a newly established company
partially owned by Bell. The transferred workers would find
themselves without a union and their wages cut in half. Bell
had promised monetary compensation and retirement packages for
those losing their jobs, but the operators demanded more.
To settle the strike Bell agreed to keep 100 more telephone operators, for a total of 900 out of the current 2,300, and increased the monetary compensation and retirement packages for those losing their jobs. One operator with 18 years' seniority said her compensation offer had increased by Can$15,000 (Can$1= US$0.66) after the strike, almost double the original offer.
The technicians got a 13.2 percent wage increase over the life of the five-year contract and their workweek has been reduced from 38 to 37.5 hours. The technicians and the remaining operators have been promised job security until December 2000.
Fernand DeSilva, a technician in Montreal, said the majority of people were glad to go back to work. The women who were forced to leave were leaving with a lot more than they had before the strike. Nonetheless, he added, "It was not a total loss but a lot of jobs were lost."
Tony Prince, a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Cleveland; Bill Scheer, a member of AMFA Local 33 in Minneapolis; and Annette Kouri, a member of the USWA in Montreal, contributed to this column.