On the picket line

USW retirees occupy plant

More than 500 retirees from the Century Aluminum Corp. in Ravenwood, W.V., were shocked when, in June 2010, the multimillion-dollar company announced that it was canceling their health benefits and keeping $25 million they had paid into their pensions. Those hard-earned benefits were the only lifeline the retirees had after being exposed to multiple toxins that lead to cancers, heart disease, emphysema and other lung diseases as the workers age. That’s what emboldened the retired Steelworkers and their families to protest this injustice far and wide, even taking their case to Century’s shareholders’ meeting and confronting its millionaire CEO. The retirees also mobilized support from the Occupy movement, and the USW filed a lawsuit. But what ultimately succeeded was a 75-day occupation of the closed plant, Occupy Century, that began on Dec. 18, 2011, and ended in late March. The company agreed to restore the health benefits and grant $44 million to the retirees over 10 years, with up to $25 million in additional contributions. Karen Gorrell, the 62-year-old spouse of a Century retiree and an Occupy Century leader, summed up the workers’ hard-fought victory: “Every one of us believed that the sacrifice was worth the risk. … [And we showed] that a bunch of little senior citizens can take on corporate giants in West Virginia.” (occupy.com, April 2)

Machinists strike for benefits

More than 3,700 workers, represented by the Machinists union (IAM) at Lockheed Martin plants in Texas, California and Maryland, went on strike April 24 after rejecting a contract that reduced health care benefits and dropped defined-benefit pensions for newly hired workers. “This is ground zero in the health care and pension fight,” said IAM’s Southern Territory General Vice President Bob Martinez. “This is a nationwide fight to take good health care and pension benefits from working families, and our members …
are determined to prevail.” (www.goiam.org, May 1)

Likewise, IAM members of Local 851 at Caterpillar in Joliet, Ill., voted overwhelmingly to strike May 1 because the multimillion-dollar company’s six-year contract would hike health care premiums, abolish the defined-benefit pension plan, and offer no cost-of-living formula, while giving managers the unprecedented, unilateral right to establish pay rates. The union noted that pay for Caterpillar’s CEO jumped 60 percent to $16.1 million in 2011, while other top executives raked in huge salary increases.

Meanwhile, joining IAM were 17,000 passenger service and reservation workers at the newly reorganized United Airlines. These included formerly unorganized Continental workers and IAM members at United. Given the 14,800 ramp service workers and stock and store employees who are already IAM members, the union now represents more than 31,500 employees at the merged airline. (aflcio.org, March 8)

Writers Guild fights for health care

A strong showing of New York City unions, including members of United Auto Workers Region 9A and this writer (UAW Local 1981), held a picket line and rally on April 27 to support the Writers Guild of America East’s campaign to win affordable health benefits for writers of nonfiction TV shows. Writers and producers at four nonfiction basic cable companies, whose income is a fraction of that paid to network and premium cable writers, voted for WGAE to represent them in collective bargaining. Because they’re freelancers, they can’t endure long waiting periods before becoming eligible for health benefits or high premiums and deductibles. Go, WGAE!

Resolution: Save the Post Office

The resolution titled “Build a Powerful Nationwide Movement to Save the People’s Post Office” was passed unanimously May 2 by Golden Gate Branch 214 of the National Association of Letter Carriers for submission to the July 23-27 NALC national convention. Detailing the proposed “devastating attacks” on the U.S. Postal Service, the resolution noted how vital the USPS has been historically to this country, that the USPS “is a strategic ‘multiplier industry’ in transportation and communications, with up to 8 million workers in related industries,” and that it has continued “to thrive despite competition from the Internet” and effects of the continuing recession. Given that “the postal system belongs to the people,” the resolution resolved that NALC would work with the three other postal unions to encourage the formation of a national network of Community/ Labor Coalitions to Save Postal Jobs and Services to defeat these attacks and ensure that the USPS is “publicly owned and run in the public interest.”