—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Pennsylvania Steelworkers, retirees fight ATI concessions

HARRISON, Pa. — More than 700 retired members of United Steelworkers Local 1196 turned out July 8 to support their union brothers and sisters at an informational meeting here on contract negotiations with Allegheny Technologies Inc. When the contract between ATI and 2,450 Steelworkers expired June 30, the union bargaining committee agreed to continue working on a day-to-day basis as negotiations continued.

ATI wants to slash health care for active, retired and future workers; institute 12-hour shifts; cut pension agreements for current and future workers; reduce wages and overtime pay; and change contract language to allow the company to contract out more work, a union fact sheet says.

The next day active and retired Steelworkers rallied here and in Washington, Pennsylvania. Some 350 took part at the protest here.

“What’s happening could have ramifications across the country,” said Fran Arabia, president of USW Local 1196 at ATI’s Brackenridge mill. Contracts for 30,000 Steelworkers at U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal expire Sept. 1.

“When the contract expired at midnight June 30,” Arabia told the Militant, “ATI brought in three busloads of scabs from Strom Engineering,” a strikebreaking outfit. “The company locked in Steelworkers from the four-to-midnight shift along with the scabs, and locked out the Steelworkers waiting to report to work for the midnight shift. Not until the company got the word about the day-by-day contract extension agreement did they release the locked-in Steelworkers and allow the midnight shift to enter the mill. Right now the scabs are staying in hotel rooms.”

At a rally of Local 7139-05 at the ATI Flat Rolled Products corporate offices in Washington, red T-shirts were everywhere. “We will not accept the offers that would put us back to the times of Andrew Carnegie,” Rick McFeely, USW Unit Chair of the Houston, Pennsylvania, Local, told rally participants. Carnegie was a strikebreaking 19th-century steel baron. “Back then they would make you work 12 hours or more with no overtime pay. We will not work in conditions that make us unsafe, we will not let them bully us around.”

According to Trib Total Media, the company has refused to comment on negotiations.

The Steelworkers have called a rally for July 30 at ATI headquarters in Pittsburgh.

—Josefina Otero, retired member USW Local 7139-05

New Zealand bus drivers protest longer hours, erosion of seniority

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Some 60 bus drivers and their supporters staged a lively protest in the central city here July 8. The drivers, members of the Tramways Union and the FIRST Union, are fighting moves by their employer, NZ Bus, to impose longer hours, more broken shifts with longer unpaid breaks in the middle and increased weekend work. NZ Bus, which employs 1,100 drivers, contracts to the Auckland Council to provide bus services in the city.

The drivers chanted, “NZ Bus, consult with us,” expressing their anger at the unilateral imposition of the new rosters, which are scheduled to go into effect July 19. Officials from both unions say going ahead with the rosters breaches the workers’ contract with the company. They have filed a grievance with the government Employment Relations Authority over this.

“We have always had one day per weekend off, or both days, or a four-day weekend,” said a night shift driver who asked that her name not be used. “Now we’ll be working up to five weekends in a row. That means we could be working every weekend in February at the height of summer. That doesn’t make for family life. What use are two days off in the middle of the week when the kids are at school?”

In a July 8 press release, the company said that the new rosters are “fairer to more drivers” and that younger drivers with families will not work an “excessive number of weekends.”

But Tramways Union President Gary Froggatt said that the changes will affect about 600 drivers at all levels of seniority. The new rosters also end a seniority provision that allows longer-serving drivers to work more humane schedules.

Driver Ian Taiaroa said he’d be starting earlier but still finishing at the same time with the new schedules. “I’ve never been a union man,” he said. “But I can see now the only way is to protest like this, in front of everyone. I drive the ‘bendy’ buses, so I’ll still only be working weekdays, not weekends, but I’m here to support my brothers and sisters. We’re all in this together.”

— Felicity Coggan

Seattle Macy’s workers march against concessions contract

SEATTLE — Macy’s workers, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, and supporters marched and rallied at two stores here July 8 and 9, protesting cuts to health care, staffing and pension funding and elimination of personal-time days off.

Close to 200 people demonstrated in front of the downtown store July 8, including members of Service Employees International Union, UNITE HERE and UFCW members from other retail stores in the area.

“They are cutting hours and with part time there is no guarantee for more work,” said Candice Hemphill, who has worked for 10 years at the South Center store in Tukwila, just south of here. “In addition, the company now pays 70 percent for benefits, but they want to change that to 50 percent.”

Of the seven stores in the bargaining unit, only two are in Seattle, where the minimum wage is being raised to $15 per hour by 2018. “We want the other five stores to get the same pay,” she said.

Some 150 people, including members of OUR Walmart, rallied at Macy’s in the Northgate Mall here July 9.

“Cutting back to 20 hours makes it impossible for people to support themselves and their families, said Marvella Joseph, a Macy’s worker in Lynnwood who was there with her two young children. “This is the first time I have marched like this but I am glad to know that the union is behind us and will not let the company intimidate workers.”

Nichole Booker has worked at the Federal Way Macy’s for 22 years as a sales associate. “When your hours get cut you don’t qualify for benefits,” she said. “And the company is increasing job duties, making us do the work of two or three people with no increase in pay.”

—Edwin Fruit