Vol. 78/No. 38 October 27, 2014
The Militant defends the interests of the working class, which has no country. It’s an internationalist paper, and so is its “On the Picket Line” column, which covers workers’ growing resistance, and has overflowed into a second page this week.
— Maggie Trowe
Lockout against dockworkers
in Oregon, Washington, ends
PORTLAND, Ore. — Lockouts against dockworkers at two Northwest grain terminals ended when members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union returned to work Aug. 27, after signing an agreement with the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association.
ILWU members had been locked out by Columbia Grain here since April 2013. At United Grain’s terminal in Vancouver, Washington, they had been locked out since February 2013 — 18 months.
The contract dispute involved four companies covered under a collective bargaining agreement between the ILWU and Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association. One of the companies, Temco, broke ranks with the bosses’ group in 2012 and signed a separate agreement at their grain elevators in Portland and Tacoma, Washington.
The ILWU has organized work at all West Coast terminals since it won hard-fought battles in the 1930s. The union hiring halls dispatch workers to fill bosses’ requests.
In the latest contract, workers pushed back the companies’ demand to hire by “pre-approved lists,” ILWU spokesperson Jennifer Sargent told the Columbian, which would have allowed bosses to essentially blacklist union fighters.
Such a list was imposed on members of ILWU Local 21 by bosses in 2011-12 during an eight-month lockout by the Export Grain Terminal in Longview, Washington. Local 21 members fought company and cop violence and frame-ups as they pushed back EGT’s drive to operate its new terminal without ILWU workers.
“These multinational corporations want more and more power and must be fought,” Dan Coffman, former president of ILWU Local 21 and one of those EGT chose not to select, told the Militant Oct. 1. Coffman said Local 21 wants to end the list when the contract with EGT expires in two years.
The four-year contract includes a $2 per hour wage increase. But it allows two jobs previously under union jurisdiction — the master console operator, who directs the grain flow from the ship to the terminal, and supercargos, who supervise loading and unloading of ships — to be done by company managers.
“The most important thing to me was that we retained the grievance procedures which the companies wanted to make inroads into,” Cager Claybill, president of ILWU Local 4 in Vancouver, said in an interview.
The new contract was approved by 88 percent of members of five ILWU locals. These included the locals at Columbia River terminals in Portland, Vancouver and Longview, as well as those at Puget Sound terminals in Seattle and Tacoma. More than a quarter of U.S. grain exports go through those terminals.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation, which includes maritime unions in a number of countries, supported the locked-out dockworkers. The captain and crew of the Ramada Queen, members of the Japanese Seamen’s Union, honored the ILWU picket lines in 2013.
— Mary Martin
Striking teachers in Waukegan,
Illinois, march, gain support
WAUKEGAN, Ill. — More than 400 striking teachers, students and others marched here Oct. 8 to school administrative offices to demand a contract.
The 1,200 teachers, members of Lake County Federation of Teachers Local 504, went on strike Oct. 2 demanding a pay increase, protection of health benefits, clear anti-bullying procedures and compensation for longer workdays. Some 17,000 students attend schools affected by the strike.
“It’s a shame it had to come to this, but it’s awesome to be here today. It’s nice to see lots of support from the community,” said Tasia Fields, a teacher at Carman-Buckner Elementary School.
“Teachers are not getting a fair share,” said Trishell Bardwell, the parent of an elementary school-aged student, as she held a sign supporting the strike in front of her house along the march route.
“We want a salary increase, better health insurance and compensation if they increase the length of the school day,” said Sofia Garcia, who has been teaching for 10 years in the district.
Dozens of high school students joined the march. “Teachers are like a second family,” said Brandi Armstrong, a senior at Waukegan High School Washington Campus. “I stand up for my teachers.”
Mike McGue, president of the union, told the Lake County News-Sun that he felt “honored and humbled” by the support from parents and the community. “There’s a tremendous support for teachers and I’ve never seen that out on the picket line. Never in my career, and I’ve been at this for 25 years,” he said.
— Dan Fein
Atlanta transit workers rally
for contract, against outsourcing
ATLANTA — “Who moves the city? We move the city!” chanted some 150 members and retirees of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 732 as they picketed in front of the law office of Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Chairman Robbie Ashe Oct. 6.
“We’re tired of getting run over,” Kenneth Clark, a 14-year city bus driver, told the Militant. “We haven’t had a raise in years and our health care costs keep going up.”
The transit workers’ contract expired in June 2013. They have not had a raise since 2006, which has meant a 15 percent pay cut, according to the union.
Workers were also protesting MARTA’s plans to outsource paratransit service for seniors and those with disabilities, as well as cleaning, payroll and other operations.
“They’re taking, but giving nothing in return,” mechanic Kimberly Hill told the Militant. “They always go to arbitration and it’s never a win for us,” she added. Hill started at MARTA as a car cleaner 21 years ago.
“MARTA plays by their own rules,” said Harvey Smith, who has worked in bus maintenance for 28 years. “They feel they can do whatever, whenever. That’s why I’m out here.”
The workers rallied in front of a giant inflatable camel, which is used by ATU locals around the country to call attention to the workers’ protests.
— Janice Lynn and Rachele Fruit
Canadian bus drivers win
solidarity in wage, pension fight
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan — City transit workers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 615, held a picket line and barbecue in front of City Hall here Oct. 6. Some 300 people took part in the event, supporting the 330 locked-out workers.
Workers carried picket signs as well as union banners representing the Canadian Union of Public Employees, United Food and Commercial Workers, Firefighters and Service Employees International Union.
“Our fight is part of the fight going on across Canada and North America to defend defined benefits pension plans,” said Jim Yakubowski, ATU Local 615 president. Among participants was a contingent of transit workers from Edmonton who have been working without a contract since December 2013. “Our brothers from Edmonton donated all the nourishment received today,” Yakubowski said. “We certainly support everything our UFCW brothers in Martensville are going through.” Thirty-four UFCW members at the oat mill there were locked out Sept. 10 in a contract dispute over wages.
Bus drivers here top out at $23.85 per hour, less than their counterparts across the country. The union is fighting to close the gap with other western Canada transit operators, seeking raises above what the other eight Saskatoon municipal unions settled for in recent contracts.
The fight is “good bonding for us,” said bus driver Daryl Strugnell, “because normally you don’t get to know your co-workers that well. It’s amazing what you can learn in one loop on the picket line. On Thursday, this bus shelter was packed with food. It was potluck for everybody. It was really good for morale.”
The lockout began when dispatchers called in drivers from their routes at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 20, stranding passengers waiting at stops, bus driver Joji Joseph said. “We’re OK to keep working and keep negotiating but the city doesn’t want that.”
On Sept. 22, the city council unilaterally increased the pension contributions required from ATU members, citing a deficit in the fund. The union is challenging this move in court.
Picket lines are up seven days a week in front of city hall and the downtown bus terminal.
— Katy LeRougetel
NY gas workers prepare to battle
wage freeze, health cost hike
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Hundreds of members of Transport Workers Union Local 101 and supporters rallied for three hours in front of the National Grid gas company building in downtown Brooklyn Oct. 9. Carrying placards that read “National Greed puts profits over people” and “More work, less pay? No way,” they were protesting the utility company’s demand that workers agree to increase out-of-pocket expenses for medical, pharmacy, dental and optical services, or take a five-year wage freeze.
“Our number one issue is they want us to pay a higher deductible and then pay 40 percent of medical bills,” said William Gorman, 49.
“I’m a single parent working and raising three children,” said Eleanor Pettway, 40, a customer service representative who came out to the rally on her lunch break. “The increase in my health care annual deductible the company is proposing — from $500 to $2,000 — will price me out of health care.”
National Grid workers from Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island attended. Others came from Long Island, upstate New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Machinists and other unions, to show solidarity.
“I came out to support my brothers and sisters at National Grid because they supported us when we were locked out in 2012,” said Bob Lewis, 55, a member of Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2, who has worked for Con Edison electric company for 30 years. The utility locked out some 8,000 workers for more than three weeks in July 2012.
Four days later a meeting attended by several hundred members voted to authorize a strike. “I hope National Grid comes to their senses,” Dave Chandler, 48, a meter reader, told the Militant as he came out of the meeting. “They’re making huge profits and it doesn’t trickle down.”
On Oct. 14 union officials announced that a tentative agreement had been reached.
— Maggie Trowe
Dockworkers in Somalia
fight to keep jobs
After a monthlong strike and two demonstrations of thousands of dockworkers, the Somali Stevedoring Union has won a 30-day temporary agreement from Turkish firm Al Beyrak and the Somali government that none of its 5,000 members will be laid off or have their pay slashed while negotiations continue for a permanent settlement, the union reported Oct. 9. The protest actions were the largest in Somalia in more than 23 years.
Turkish firms have contracted to rebuild and expand the Mogadishu airport and to modernize and manage the port there. Al Beyrak was awarded management rights of the port and negotiated a contract with the federal government of Somalia that unconstitutionally bypassed parliament. The federal government controls Mogadishu and parts of the central and southern areas of the country, which has been embroiled in a civil war for more than two decades.
“Before this new company we earned $6.60 for a 50-kilogram [110-lb.] load,” Yusuf Warsame Afrah, chairman of the union, told Sabahionline Oct. 2. “The company has now proposed that we should earn $1.80, which is a rate so low that we cannot live on it.”
Al Beyrak plans to install new cranes and mechanize dock work, which would sharply reduce the labor force. Their 20-year deal grants 45 percent of profits to the Turkish bosses and 55 percent to the government. After taking control of the port Sept. 21, Beyrak bosses started to implement job and pay cuts.
“We have to unite and be a force that moves together,” Mohamed Osman, chairman of the Somali Congress of Trade Unions, told the crowd at a Sept. 23 demonstration in Mogadishu. “Turkey’s intervention and exploitation will result in thousands of our port workers losing their livelihoods, and that is simply unacceptable.”
The Mogadishu port is the largest employer in Somalia, which has virtually no modern industry.
“The Somali Congress of Trade Unions would welcome any agreement between the government and foreign firms that enhance the living standards of Somali workers, but we are against the planned job cuts because they will harm the working class,” Osman said.
— John Studer