The Militant - May 20, 2013 -- On the Picket Line

Vol. 77/No. 19 May 20, 2013

On the Picket Line

Chicago fast-food workers: ‘$7.25 got to go, $15 and a union!’

CHICAGO — Hundreds of fast-food and retail workers here walked off the job April 24 and joined protest actions demanding higher wages. They picketed stores and restaurants and marched with other workers from Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis through the Magnificent Mile shopping area.

Before the march stepped off a group of workers sang, “$7.25 has got to go … $15 and a union,” referring to the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage and their demands for a pay hike.

“I have to try to take care of my family on these wages and it’s just not enough,” Andre Rodgers, 20, a worker at Kentucky Fried Chicken who came with a carload of workers from Milwaukee, told the Militant. “We only get 25 to 28 hours a week. So after taxes I take home about $285 for two weeks’ work.”

“They promise us 30 to 35 hours a week,” said Jennette Foster, 18, a McDonald’s worker from Detroit. “But I haven’t got that once. Nobody else I’ve talked to gets it. I make $7.40 an hour and many days I get sent home because they’ve called too many people in.”

“Low wages aren’t just a problem in fast food and retail,” said Helen Albea, a member of Service Employees International Union Local 1 at Community Care Systems, a senior care facility in Chicago. “I’ve been with the company for more than six years and only make $10.35 an hour. That’s not really enough either. If fast-food workers win a wage increase it will help us. Our contract is up in June.”

— John Hawkins

Drivers at New Zealand gas company strike for contract

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — “We’re overworked, not paid enough, and we want to feel safer at work,” said Lenny Whittingham, 23, on the picket line April 26. He is one of the drivers at Rockgas who went on strike that day to win a collective union contract.

The workers fill and deliver LPG gas cylinders. Strikers on the picket line said they start at 6 a.m. and work until deliveries are finished — as much as 13 and a half hours later.

Cylinders weigh up to 80 kilograms (176 pounds), and drivers deliver them single-handedly. Whittingham said the company gave two injured drivers six weeks to recover, then fired them because they couldn’t deliver by themselves.

Workers say they earn $NZ2 an hour less (US$1.70) than drivers at other gas supply companies.

Three months ago nine out of the 10 drivers at Rockgas decided to join FIRST Union after a coworker was fired following a customer complaint.

Nick Robinson, a spokesperson for Contact Energy, which owns Rockgas, told the Militant by phone that the company was “disappointed the dispute has escalated because we are still in active discussion with the union.” He wouldn’t comment further on the dispute.

— Janet Roth

US Steel locks out nearly 1,000 Steelworkers in Ontario

MONTREAL — Workers at Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke, Ontario, set up round-the-clock picket lines April 28 after being locked out by United States Steel Corp. Members of United Steelworkers Local 8782, which organizes 978 workers at the plant, voted 70 percent a week earlier to reject the company’s “final offer.”

U.S. Steel employs some 49,000 people in the U.S., Canada and Central Europe. Lake Erie Works accounts for 10 percent of U.S. Steel’s flat-rolled steel.

“A central issue is the attempt by the company to introduce for the first time copayments on health benefits,” Terry Barnard, chair of the strike defense committee, told the Militant by phone.

“U.S. Steel also wants to modify cost of living allowance provisions to the point of making them meaningless,” Barnard added. “In the last 12 years, we had no wage raise except through this COLA. In addition the company wants to reduce vacation time for most workers.”

Workers at the Lake Erie Works were locked out for eight months 2009-2010 and at U.S. Steel’s Hamilton plant from November 2010 to October 2011.

U.S. Steel did not respond to the Militant’s request for comment.

Send messages of solidarity to Bill Ferguson, Local 8782 president, at billferguson@uswa8782.com or by mail at P.O. Box 220, Jarvis, Ontario, N0J 1J0.

— Michel Dugré