Vol. 76/No. 32      August 27, 2012

Jason Miller, local union president, told the Militant Aug. 12 that workers wanted the union bargaining committee to hold the line on health care costs. Their slogan is “Keep your hands off our health care!”

Under the current plan workers are responsible for copays. There is no vision care and dental coverage “is so minimal as to be nonexistent,” Miller said. Steelworkers note that the proposed increase in insurance costs would “more than wipe out” the small wage increase the company offered. Workers are currently paid on average $19 an hour.

Miller added that the company also wants to increase its use of outside contractors, which the union opposes.

From 1990 to 1992 workers at the Ravenswood Aluminum Corp. complex here were locked out for 20 months. Through their fight for a contract they won solidarity from other workers in the U.S. and Europe—including workers on strike against the Daily News in New York City—turning the lockout into a successful strike.

Some of the workers on the picket line are veterans of that fight, but most are younger and on strike for the first time.

In May 2011, Constellium bought the Alcan Rolled Products plant, which was part of the Ravenswood complex. The rest of the complex is now Century Aluminum, which closed down in 2009 and is seeking to reopen. Local 5778 organizes both plants as well as other workplaces in the area.

Since the early 1990s workers have given up wages to keep their health care coverage, Miller said, and prided themselves in maintaining health benefits.

“This is our chance to let everyone know that these corporations are trying to attack the working man,” continued Miller, who works at the Century plant. “They keep inching at us to give up a little and then a little more and soon we will be working for nothing. The most important thing is that we take a stand against the big companies, showing them that the workers are the ones making the money for them.”

Constellium has accused union members of placing jack rocks on the road, puncturing the tires of trucks entering or leaving the mill. But Randy Moore, a union negotiator, told the Charleston Daily Mail Aug. 9 that it’s the company guards that are causing problems, videotaping picket lines and insulting and harassing picketers.

State police arrested two union members Aug. 9 accusing them of felony destruction of property.

Constellium did not return calls from the Militant requesting comments.
 
 
Related articles:
Caterpillar strikers say,‘We have to take a stand’
Tens of thousands of autoworkers strike Hyundai in South Korea
Labor rally in Philadelphia protests attacks on workers
On the Picket Line
Marx: ‘Trade Unions: Their Past, Present, and Future’
Why bosses ‘go after workers so hard’  
 
 
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