NEWPORT NEWS
Shipbuilders to march against Navy strikebreaking
By Mary
Owen
Striking members of Steel Workers Local 8888 from Newport
News Shipbuilding are taking their struggle for justice to
Washington on July 23. The workers have been on strike since
April 5 against the only builder of Navy aircraft carriers in
the country. Sixty percent of the workers are African
American.
The 9,200 ship builders went on strike after NNS slapped a
paltry "take-it-or-leave-it" final offer on the table and
walked out of negotiations a week before their last contract
expired. The workers are fighting for decent pensions, wages,
health benefitsrespect.
"Stop Navy Strikebreaking!" is the theme of the July 23
demonstration. Busloads of strikers will rally at the Navy
Memorial and march to the Capitol to protest the Navy's pattern
of fostering inequality and subsidizing union busting in the
military shipbuilding industry.
"Workers in the Northern shipyards--Electric Boat and Bath
Iron Works--enjoy substantially better wages and benefits than
workers in Southern shipyards--Newport News, Ingalls, Avondale
and Norshipco," says the union handout for the event.
"Unlike the Northern shipyards, all four Southern shipyards
have largely minority work forces. In a least two instances--at
Newport News and Avondale--the Navy has reimbursed management's
efforts to either break a union or break a strike."
At NNS the Navy has given the company new million-dollar
contracts even though the shipyard has missed three major
deadlines because the work was being done by inexperienced
"replacement" scabs. The company just announced that during the
second quarter, which is when the strike began, it was awarded
an $89 million contract to overhaul the carrier
Enterprise.
This is on top of the $3 billion in outstanding U.S. Defense
Department contracts Newport News already has.
Fighting for dignity
The Washington protest comes a month after Newport News
strikers and supporters demonstrated June 23 outside the NNS
stockholders meeting in Richmond, Va. Undaunted by a
last-minute switch of the meeting's location, the strikers
marched downtown to the new site, loud and strong.
There they confronted stockholders and demanded decent
wages, health benefits and pensions.
At that rally, Ernie Ricks, a retired shipyard worker with
42 years of service at NNS, compared his $214 monthly pension
to a retiree at Electric Boat in Groton, Conn. After 30 years
on the job, the Connecticut retiree takes home a retirement
check of over $1,900 per month.
Shipbuilders work in the second most hazardous U.S.
industry. They brave caustic and toxic chemicals, extremes of
heat and cold, exposure to radioactive materials, and countless
other job-related dangers for most of their lives.
Yet NNS pensions are more than $2,000 below the federal
poverty level, according to the union.
Meanwhile, NNS Chief Executive Officer William Fricks
tripled his salary and benefits this year. The shipbuilders
have had no raise in six years.
Mediated bargaining resumes
Prompted by a federal mediator, NNS and the union resumed
bargaining in Hampton, Va., on July 7. Mediator Fred Reebals
said he planned to push hard for a settlement.
Clearly, his bosses in the federal government and the
Pentagon want to pressure the union to end the strike so they
can duck the charges of racism and injustice being leveled at
them by the workers.
The company said it might modify its pension proposal to
$589 monthly, up from $506, but less than the $900 the union
wants. Local 8888 President Arnold Outlaw said that to reach a
settlement NNS will have to do better on wages and health care,
too.
The company has offered to increase the workers' wages over
47 months, depending on pay grade. This would raise the average
$13.50 hourly wage by $2.49. The union wants across-the-board
raises of $3.70 an hour over 36 months.
"We've got a whole package we're trying to put together,"
Outlaw said. "I always try to be optimistic, but the company
hasn't given us a whole lot."
Workers on the picket line agreed.
"There's more to it than just the pension," said striker
Jimmy Hall, 40, a 20-year NNS worker who tests fuel and water
tanks. Health insurance and wages are just as important, he
said.
"If he (Fricks) gives something, he will take something, and
we'll be right back where we started," said Quentin Rainey, 44,
a machinist with 21 years at the shipyard. "There will be no
real gain when he's finished."
That's why the workers are marching in Washington on July
23--to turn up the heat on NNS and the Navy, and to show they
are strong and determined to win this struggle. For
information, updates and to show support, readers can contact
Steel Workers Local 8888 at (757) 896-9045.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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