—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Steelworkers rally, protest ArcelorMittal’s demands

CHICAGO — “We jeopardize our health and safety every day on the job, and now the company wants to cut health care,” said ladle operator Christopher Turner, who was attending a Jan. 27 rally at ArcelorMittal’s headquarters here to oppose concessions demanded by the company. Some 100 United Steelworkers members who work at ArcelorMittal mills in northwest Indiana joined the protest.

More than 13,000 workers at company facilities in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Minnesota, South Carolina and Louisiana have been working under the contract that expired Sept. 1. The pact with U.S. Steel Corporation ended at the same time.

ArcelorMittal’s initial proposal included a three-year contract with no wage increase, a two-tier system of lower wages and benefits for new hires, major reductions in vacation pay and sickness and accident benefits, and reductions and increased costs in health care coverage for active and retired workers.

Just before Christmas the USW and U.S. Steel announced they had reached a tentative agreement. Union members are voting by mail, with the count to occur Feb. 1.

“Safety and retirees’ benefits are the big issues,” said electrician Carla Zabalydriga.

“Forty percent of current employees are eligible for retirement, so what the retirees get in the contract affects us all,” said USW Local 1010 training coordinator Don Siefert.

“What happens with the Big Steel contract will impact our upcoming contract,” said Jeff Tuinstra, financial secretary of Steelworkers Local 9777 at Maruichi Leavitt Pipe and Tube, who came to support the ArcelorMittal workers.

— Dan Fein and Alyson Kennedy

Atlanta workers at Centers for Disease Control fight for contract

ATLANTA — Some 100 unionists picketed in front of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national headquarters here Jan. 26 supporting maintenance workers fighting for a union contract. The nearly 200 workers voted to join the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 926 in February 2015, but the contractor they work for, Four Seasons Environmental, has been trying to overturn the election and refuses to negotiate, in defiance of National Labor Relations Board rulings.

“We voted the union in because we needed a voice for our people,” electrician Lewis Mulligan, 43, told the Militant.

“We have no paid sick days, we need a better pension and higher wages,” said Darryl Huff. “I get no night differential.”

Wages start at $12.22 an hour for landscapers and go up to $22.57 for plumbers and pipe fitters. “Five years ago I was making $32 an hour, said plumber Paul Hollifield, 62. “I had been against unions before, but I got involved when I saw that what was going on was wrong.”

Jackie Turner, one of several union supporters recently fired, told WRFG Radio that workers who need to enter the labs are not provided with proper personal protective equipment and have to wash their own clothes at home, risking contamination.

Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators, and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union came in solidarity.

— Janice Lynn

NLRB: Walmart must reinstate workers fired for striking

LOS ANGELES — A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Jan. 21 that Walmart unlawfully retaliated against employees who took part in 2013 strikes. The judge ordered the retail giant to reinstate 16 workers with back pay, remove from company files unlawful disciplines of other strikers and hold meetings at 29 stores to inform workers of their right to strike.

“This is a victory,” Evelin Cruz, who worked for 11 years at the Pico Rivera store near here until she was fired in 2014. She is one of the workers who received disciplinary actions the company must expunge. “It is important to go back and show you can organize and go on strike and have the right to speak out on our jobs.”

Jovani Gomez, fired from the Lakewood store for striking, was among those ordered reinstated. “Walmart workers have a right to stand together for change without fear of being fired,” he said in a message sent to supporters.

The NLRB hearings revealed that the company hired Lockheed Martin to spy on workers involved in organizing. The surveillance outfit contacted the FBI, ranked stores by degree of labor activity and solicited reports on conversations workers had. Walmart took actions against the most active workers, writing them up or “coaching” them for missing work, even though workers had notified the company they were going on strike.

Cruz was fired as a result of an accumulation of coachings.

At stores where the company fired or harassed workers, it must post and read aloud notices stating that protests such as strikes are protected activity and that workers who were disciplined for labor organizing may “act together with other employees for your benefit and protection,” said the NLRB ruling.

The findings by the judge will now be reviewed by the labor board. Walmart is expected to appeal. “We will pursue all of our options to defend the company because we believe our actions were legal and justified,” company spokesperson Kory Lundberg told Reuters.

— Laura Garza