Vol. 78/No. 45      December 15, 2014

— Maggie Trowe

Los Angeles port truckers make gains in eight-day strike
LOS ANGELES — Drivers for seven trucking companies who move containers from the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports have ended more than a week of job actions after all the companies agreed to negotiate with the Teamsters union. An eighth company, Green Fleet, agreed to negotiate before the strike.

The workers are demanding union representation and an end to the bosses’ scheme to keep them divided and more exploitable as so-called independent contractors.

On Nov. 15, two days after drivers struck Total Transportation Services Inc. and Pacific 9 Transportation Co., the two companies agreed to negotiate. The strike expanded to Quality Transportation Services Inc., LACA Express and WinWin Logistics two days later, then to Pacer Cartage and Harbor Rail Transport. By Nov. 21, all of the companies had agreed to meet with the union, and the picket lines came down.

The strikers picketed rail and port terminals that accepted trucks driven by strikebreakers. Most port terminals turned away scab trucks to avoid pickets.

When bosses at International Transportation Service accepted a struck company’s trucks Nov. 19, they were hit with an expanded picket, causing long lines at the facility.

In the pre-holiday period of increased port activity, shipping bosses, already contending with massive congestion and a contract fight with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, put pressure on trucking companies to end the dispute.

“We made some progress,” Daniel Linares, 58, a driver at Pacific 9 Transportation, told the Militant. “This will mean better wages and benefits for the drivers who come after us.”

— Bill Arth

Solidarity boosts Texas aluminum workers locked out since October
GREGORY, Texas — Solidarity has boosted the determination of 450 members of United Steelworkers Local 235A locked out by Sherwin Alumina here since Oct. 11. The company has hired strikebreakers to extract aluminum oxide from bauxite ore at the plant, located near Corpus Christi.

The company’s “last and final offer” included cuts in overtime pay for unscheduled work, increased health care premiums, elimination of health care for retirees, and no pension, disability and widows’ benefits for new hires. It was voted down by 98 percent Oct. 10.

“Sherwin is trying to degrade us or drive us out or both,” said David Pohlers at the picket line.

Five union workers from Noranda Alumina (formerly Kaiser) in Gramercy, Louisiana, cooked a pot of jambalaya for locked-out workers and supporters Nov. 22. From 1998 to 2000 some 3,000 workers struck and then were locked out by Kaiser at five plants in three states.

“There’s power in unity,” said Claude Forsythe, one of the Noranda workers, at the feast. “We’re kindred spirits.”

Locked-out Sherwin workers and supporters picketed Nov. 19 outside the Houston offices of Glencore, Sherwin’s parent company and one of the world’s largest natural resources companies.

— Bernie Senter

Florida bus drivers demand long-delayed ‘step raises’
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Some 75 bus drivers, many members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1577, and supporters picketed county government buildings here Nov. 18 demanding long-delayed “step raises” stipulated in their contract, but put on hold during the recession in 2008.

“It’s bait-and-switch,” Ken Brown told the Militant, holding a copy of the contract listing annual hourly raises totaling nearly $10 over the first five years of service. Starting pay for drivers is $13.70 per hour. “They say no county employees have gotten a raise for the last five years, but we learned the firefighters did.”

“All of management is at top pay,” said driver Tom Romano, “but the bus drivers can’t get a step raise.”

After picketing, some 50 drivers and their supporters packed into the County Commission meeting. One driver after another took the floor to present their grievances.

“I’m a single mom,” extra board driver Yvette Balom said, “and all I’m asking for is the top pay I was promised.”

County and transit administrators claim the union lost step raises in arbitration, but agreed to hold another meeting on the issue, this time closed to public comment.

“The picket expanded solidarity for our struggle,” Dwight Mattingly, Local 1577 president, told the Militant. “That means more than the meeting with the commission.”

— Naomi Craine

Boston school bus drivers: ‘Drop frame-up charges’
BOSTON — “Drop the frame-up charges! Now!” chanted 100 school bus drivers, members of United Steelworkers Local 8751, and supporters of Steve Kirschbaum, the local’s grievance committee chairperson, as they rallied on the steps of the Dorchester District Court here Nov. 24. Kirschbaum faces charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and criminal trespass. The charges stem from a union meeting held on company property June 30, the day the union’s agreement with Veolia, now called Transdev, expired.

That day some 200 members and supporters of the local held a rally at the Veolia school bus yard in Dorchester, followed by a meeting on contract negotiations in the building’s drivers’ room. Prosecutors charge Kirschbaum forced the door open, “assaulting” Manager Angela Griffin “with a dangerous weapon” by pushing a table into her.

At the opening of Kirschbaum’s trial, defense lawyers filed a motion to dismiss, presenting records of text messages sent by Veolia officials showing they were monitoring every movement by union members on company property, with no mention of an assault by Kirschbaum. Judge Jonathan Tynes took the motion under advisement. The trial resumes Feb. 2.

Kirschbaum is one of four current and past union officials of the local fired for instigating an “illegal strike” last year.

— Ted Leonard

Striking mechanics win wage raise in Oakland, California
OAKLAND, Calif. — After five days on strike, 14 mechanics at Cromer Equipment here won a wage increase of $3.85 an hour over four years and a reduction of health care expenses.

The workers, members of International Association of Machinists Local 1546, repair forklifts and other industrial equipment. They had not gotten a raise for nearly five years.

“We discussed it together and came to the conclusion that enough is enough,” mechanic Mel Lopez told the Militant. Picket lines went up Nov. 12.

Still unresolved is the workers’ demand that the company cease sending repair work to nonunion shops.

“I can see that union efforts are getting stronger today,” said union member Ben Hernandez. “But we need them to get even stronger. If you don’t have the union your future is in jeopardy.”

— Betsey Stone

Philadelphia airport baggage handlers demand wage hike
PHILADELPHIA — Several dozen baggage handlers who work for PrimeFlight Aviation Services, a subcontractor at the Philadelphia International Airport, struck for one day Nov. 20 and picketed outside the US Airways terminal here. Workers make between $7.25 and $8 an hour with no health insurance or sick pay. They are supported by SEIU Local 32BJ, which is working to unionize some 2,000 airport workers employed by subcontractors.

The workers are demanding that the airlines comply with a city referendum passed in May raising the airport minimum wage to $10.88, and protesting the firing of Misha Williams, who had led a delegation to the company’s office to demand a wage increase.

— Chris Hoeppner

Food workers strike Liverpool biscuits factory
LIVERPOOL, England — More than 100 food workers, members of an 800-strong GMB union local, protested outside the United Biscuits Jacobs factory here Nov. 24 during a two-day strike.

The workers are striking against the company’s demand to impose new rules for the amount of sick leave workers are allowed to take and to schedule work during part of the annual Christmas shutdown. “They want to discredit us and break our union,” Betty Doyle, GMB convener at the plant, told the Militant.

Around 300 workers at the plant who are employed by an agency have refused to cross the picket line.

The agency initially threatened to fire the workers who stayed out on strike days, but backed off and recorded their absences as holiday or unpaid leave.

A solidarity delegation from the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers and the Unite union at the United Biscuits plant in Manchester visited the picket line here.

The unionists plan more walkouts in December.

— Paul Davies