Steelworkers on strike in Alabama stay strong

By Brian Taylor

Birmingham, Alabama— A strike by workers at the Meadowcraft plant here remains solid after four weeks on the picket line. As members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 8285 win broader layers to join the union, the bosses have launched a series of attacks against the strike. Workers struck the plant June 30 after rejecting a concessionary contract that would cut $2 or more from the hourly wage of welding department workers. Under the bosses’ thinly masked “incentive” plan, welders at this lawn furniture plant would have to average 104 percent production in a workweek for an 88-cent raise. If they fall short, their hourly wage would drop to $7–8 an hour. On July 21 workers held a mass rally and barbecue in front of the plant that drew more than 200 strikers and their supporters. “Can we do it? Can we do it? Yes we can! Yes we can!” was one of several chants that day. A number of strikers less familiar with all the issues in the fight used the event as an opportunity to ask questions of union officials and others. An information sheet on the strike is being translated for workers whose first language is Spanish. Company begins attacks Two-and-a-half weeks into the strike Meadowcraft managers passed out a letter to pickets slandering the union. It claims that the union officials would not sit down and negotiate, and attempts to prettify the company’s takeback contract. “The letter is bull,” said Willie Hall, who has worked at Meadowcraft for 31 years. “They say the union has not gotten in touch with them. But we just don’t accept the contract. As far as their statement that not every worker is in the union and voted against the contract—majority rules and the union rules. We are on strike.” A few days later Zen Pearson, USWA Local 8285 president and a worker in the plant, drafted a response to the company’s lies. Pearson explained that a 55-cent raise over three years—held up as so great by the bosses—doesn’t even offset the rise in insurance costs in the company’s contract. The company letter is “all about destroying our unity and solidarity.” The letter ends giving special thanks to “our MEXICAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS.” (Emphasis in original.) Support grows for strike, union Strikers have won support from a substantial layer of toilers here in Birmingham. They have also gotten favorable television and news coverage. “Bell South workers brought us donuts, Ken’s Barbecue brought us a pan full of ham, and other locals have been bringing us ice and drinks,” Margie Shockley said. Finishing welder María García noted that since the strike began the majority of Latinos in the plant have signed union cards. Local 8285 vice president Lewis Graves said, “They hired a lot of Mexican workers and tried to turn them against us and each other. The Mexicans are good workers and the company thought they could use that against us to push the incentive plan. But Mexican workers rebelled and 25 of them got written up for low production. They joined the union. That’s why we are strong today.” Tim Mabry, 30, who has worked two years in the shipping department, noted, “If you put welders on incentive who have to do so much to make the rate, shippers who pull those orders will basically be put on incentive too.” One young Black worker who asked that his name be omitted, said, “I hope the company knows that we are not budging. This struggle is not just about fighting off a concession contract, but also about regaining some of what we lost in previous contracts.” There are several demands along those lines being discussed on the picket line. One is for resumption of plant-wide seniority. Some years ago the company instituted departmental seniority, which gives the company a freer hand in layoffs and job placement. Another complaint from many strikers is the company’s sick-day policy. “The company does not honor sick days if it’s not for chronic illnesses,” Mabry told reporters. “If you get pneumonia and have to take a couple of weeks off, you can be terminated because it’s a curable disease.” One victory was the reinstatement of Steve Yancy, a machine operator who has seven years at the plant. “I was fired because I was a union representative filing grievances against racial discrimination. The supervisor claims that I refused to obey a direct order,” he said. The termination took place late last year. Yancy was on the picket line from day one. The union won his reinstatement into the second week of the strike.

The Militant: www.themilitant.com

AFL-CIO backs Arctic Refuge oil drilling plan

By Robert Schlesinger Washington, DC— On the eve of consideration by the House, President Bush’s energy legislation received new fuel from an unlikely source yesterday when the AFL-CIO endorsed the president’s plan to open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. “The AFL-CIO has long supported the development of appropriate energy sources to meet the needs of the nation and the concerns of consumers, as long as the environment is protected,” wrote William Samuel, director of the union’s department of legislation, in a letter to House members. “At our 1993 convention, delegates adopted a resolution that, in part, called on the country to ‘explore the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for oil with safeguards to protect the environment.’ The entire policy ... remains in effect.” The Teamsters Union and building and seafarers unions had vocally supported the Arctic drilling provision previously, but the AFL-CIO had remained neutral. The Service Employees International Union opposes opening the section to drilling. Ordinarily, the AFL-CIO takes no position when member unions do not agree. The House is expected to start considering the plan today, with the effort to remove the Arctic drilling provision as one of two highly contentious issues. The AFL-CIO also supported the GOP plan on the other flashpoint issue, how much to raise federal fuel efficiency standards for automobiles. “Because of their discriminatory impact on domestic production, such proposals could have a serious, negative effect on US production and employment,” Samuel wrote. Addressing the oil drilling proposal, Representative James V. Hansen, Republican of Utah and chairman of the House Resources committee, said, “This endorsement just underscores what we have been saying all along: This energy bill is good for American workers, it’s good for American jobs, it’s good for America’s economy.” Ken Lisaius, White House spokesman, said the proposal “shows that the president’s energy plan is not about partisan politics, but about the future of our country.” The Teamsters had for several days been quietly saying that they had 40 Democratic votes in favor of drilling, which could be enough to offset expected losses among moderate Republicans. “This sinks us,” one environmental activist said. Phil Clapp of the National Environmental Trust said: “This administration may very well have just outsmarted itself. I seriously doubt you can pass in the House a bill that opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and does nothing about fuel efficiency standards. If you do both of those things and it’s an unvarnished version of the Bush energy plan, you are very likely to have a coalition of House moderate Republicans and Democrats voting against passing the bill.”

Source: Boston Globe

AFL-CIO announces call to action for fall mobilization

Statement of AFL-CIO

This fall, America’s unions will unite with a broad range of activists from around the world to insist on transforming the rules and institutions of the global economy to ensure that they work for working people. The international union movement, student organizations, women’s groups, human rights advocates, faith-based activists, solidarity groups, immigrants, environmentalists, unemployed people, small farmers and business people will come together in a week of action to reject the global economic system that values profits over people. As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank hold their annual joint meetings in Washington, DC, during the week of Sept. 26-Oct. 2, 2001, we will come together for a massive march and rally and related events in the nation’s capital. As we approach the November meeting of the World Trade Organization in Qatar, we also will be joining together with unions from around the world in global solidarity actions being planned by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). And, also in Washington, DC, from Sept. 24-25, the National Council of Women’s Organizations will hold its Women’s Equality Summit, Congressional Action Day with a focus on Social Security privatization — another item on the World Bank’s agenda. The fall meetings of the IMF and World Bank will be among the most significant gatherings of the proponents and decision makers of corporate-led globalization in 2001. We cannot stand by as these institutions continue to structure global economic rules for the benefit of corporations and the wealthy and deny basic justice to the majority of the world’s people. The IMF/World Bank are forcing national “structural adjustments” that include privatizing, downsizing and slashing spending by governments; recklessly opening trade doors to exploitative foreign investment; and promotion of so-called “labor flexibility” moves, such as reducing the minimum wage and weakening workers’ protections. Some countries are spending more each year trying to repay loan debts to these institutions than they are able to spend to meet the basic health, sanitation and education needs of their people. Both domestically and abroad, the World Bank continues to promote privatization of our public systems with dangerous consequences for the well-being of workers. The struggle against the IMF and World Bank is about much more than trade. It is the struggle to address the inequalities of the global economy through the institutions that perpetuate them.

Source: www.aflcio.org/globaleconomy/global_justice.htm