Vol. 79/No. 13      April 13, 2015

The crowd included strikers’ families, members of the United Auto Workers from the nearby Ford Torrance assembly plant, Steelworkers from nearby mills, UNITE HERE Local 1 casino workers, members of the Service Employees International Union, railroad and transportation union workers, members of Chicago Jobs with Justice and others.

The bosses at BP in Whiting and at BP/Husky in Toledo, Ohio; at Marathon in Galveston Bay, Texas, and Catlettsburg, Kentucky; and at LyondellBasell in Houston have refused to sign the March 12 national industry pattern agreement worked out between the Steelworkers and Shell, and are demanding concessions in local agreements.

Shell and Tesoro bosses have signed with the union and workers are returning to work.

Union officers from the Teamsters, Laborers and Steelworkers unions, local politicians and the president of the Indiana AFL-CIO addressed the crowd here. “One day stronger, one day longer!” chanted participants after each speaker. Then they marched to BP’s offices.

Drivers of cars, including those blocked by the march, honked support and waved to strikers.

BP is demanding to be able to make changes in the contract without bargaining with the local. “We are not giving up the right to collective bargaining,” Mike Millsap, director of Steelworkers District 7, told the rally. “We will never give up that right.”

“We will hold the line until we get a fair contract,” USW Local 7-1 President Dave Danko told the rally. “If we continue down the company’s road, we will lose everything.”

He said the union met with company representatives that morning and he could report “there was good dialogue.”

“In the last five years, things have really gone downhill with safety,” Mike Mikesell told the Militant. “There are two people on my job now. Two years ago five people were responsible for the same job. With the so-called fatigue policy you can’t take a day off. You can work 16 to 18 hour days up to 19 days straight. They do maintenance with people who are not regularly working on the same machines. They can get sent out to do different jobs every day, sent to locations they may not be familiar with.”

The oil workers “are doing what’s right, fighting for safety,” said Greg Stokes, a retired UAW member at the Ford assembly plant. “In 1955 there was an explosion at the refinery and the fire burned for more than a week. My neighbor remembers her mother protecting her from flying steel and concrete that blasted into the houses. Gasoline ran through the sewer lines.”

On Aug. 27, 1995, a brand new hydroformer, known as a “cat cracker,” made of steel plate and concrete to withstand heavy operating pressures required to get more gasoline out of every barrel of crude, exploded. It leveled businesses and houses in Whiting and ignited 30 tanks that held 3 million gallons of fuel.

One USW Local 7-1 striker at the rally, who did not want his name used for fear of reprisal, told the Militant that during the year he has worked at BP he has seen “three full evacuations, a couple of dozen unit evacuations, a handful of fires, one hydrogen explosion and a discharge of crude oil into Lake Michigan.”

“What BP is doing is pure union busting,” said Terry Steagall, a member of USW Local 1010 at the ArcelorMittal steel mill. “If we don’t stand up to this kind of thing now, 30 years from now we won’t have rights. Our contract expires this year and we may face the same thing.”

“I admire their strength,” said Dominique Wilson, 26, a casino worker and UNITE HERE member whose union is in negotiations with Ameristar Pinnacle casino bosses. USW Local 7-1 strikers joined a March 4 labor rally in front of the casino, protesting the bosses’ demand that workers pay up to $4,000 a year for health insurance.

“The company was hoping the younger generation would be resentful of the union and not strike,” Miguel Negrete, a machinist at BP, told the Militant. “As of today, only seven of the 1,100 Steelworkers have crossed the picket line. I think BP thought more would follow them. But we are standing strong. The strike has brought us together. It’s easier now to understand what the strength of a union is.”

In Houston, Steelworkers Local 13-227 members on strike against LyondellBasell held a crawfish boil March 28. Overtime was a big topic of discussion. The company can force employees to work 13 days straight before they get a day off. Workers also were angry about the bosses’ proposal to not provide holiday pay to workers not scheduled to work that day.

“We’re not asking for anything new,” Marcos Velez, 28, told the Militant. “All we want is to hold on to what we currently have and create a safer work environment.”

Steve Warshell in Houston contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
DC transit workers speak out against bosses’ safety violations
Toledo oil strikers fight for safety, more union power
On the Picket Line
Engineer in Lac-Mégantic disaster faces frame-up trial
 
 
 
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