—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Minnesota Teamsters keep up fight against pension cuts

BURNSVILLE, Minn. — More than 100 Teamster union retirees and supporters from the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota rallied outside U.S. Rep. John Kline’s office here Dec. 10 to protest threatened pension cuts. Passing motorists honked support.

The workers were protesting the congressman’s latest bill, which would change fixed benefits into “flexible” benefits based on returns on investments that fluctuate with the stock market. Kline was co-author of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act, passed in 2014. Officials of the Central States Pension Fund have used this law to try to cut pensions of 270,000 union drivers and retirees. After a national Teamsters protest earlier this year the Treasury Department temporarily halted the cuts.

Workers turned out in spite of the fact that Kline’s new bill was temporarily halted the day before.

“The battle will continue,” retired Teamster truck driver Bob McNattin told the rally. “It has to. It’s not just Teamsters who are under attack now, it’s all workers.”

McNattin helped organize Save Our Pensions-MN, which organized a forum of 350 workers against pension cuts Dec. 3 at Macalester College in St. Paul.

Jim Hiebel, who worked 37 years for YRC Worldwide, told the Militant that he was there “so that everybody’s benefits wouldn’t be taken like they tried to do with us.”

“Are we supposed to shut up when the benefits we have earned with our work all these years are cut?” asked Charlene Marchese, another YRC retiree.

Protesters welcomed workers from Roseville who lost their jobs Nov. 20 when Lakeville Motor Express shut the door on nearly 100 Teamsters with no notice and no final paycheck. Those workers now picket two “new” companies, FLE and LME, run by former Lakeville Motor Express executives that serve the same customers.

— Jacquie Henderson

UK rail workers strike against driver-only operations

LONDON — Train drivers here walked out Dec. 13-14 and Dec. 16 in a dispute with Southern Rail that has also seen guards (conductors) walk out several times since April.

The unionists, members of the Associated Society of Locomotive Steam Enginemen and Firemen and the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, oppose Southern Rail’s efforts to reduce guards for safety, open the door to job cuts, and impose driver-only-operated trains.

A Southern platform worker at London’s Victoria station, who didn’t give his name, said he supported the drivers’ actions. “A 12-coach train has over 1,000 passengers,” he said. “You need a second person with responsibility for safety.” He described a derailment near Watford in September where the driver was trapped in the cab and the guard helped evacuate passengers.

A third of trains, including most commuter trains from key London stations, are now driver-only operated.

Conductors can “step away from the train … they will have a much wider vision” than drivers, a Southern driver told Sky News. “They can also hear. Our cameras don’t have sound. They don’t show people running for the train.”

Southern Rail failed to get courts to block the actions, but Transport Minister Christopher Grayling denounced the strikes as politically motivated and “futile.” The government has tried to whip up resentment among commuters and recently passed laws imposing greater restrictions on unions’ right to strike.

“It’s necessary to support the unions when they fight to defend safety, even if that disrupts commuters’ access to travel,” Sean Winning, a window cleaner in south London, told a member of the Communist League who knocked on his door Dec. 17.

A six-day strike is planned in January.

— Paul Davies