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INSIDEUSW@WORK
“
Rebuilding America’s manufacturing base is
central to rebuilding our nation’s economy.
Richard Trumka
AFL-CIO President, May 4, 2011
”
I N T E R N AT I O N A L E X E C U T I V E B O A R D
Leo W. Gerard
International President
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Stan Johnson
Int’l. Secretary-Treasurer
Thomas M. Conway
Int’l. Vice President
(Administration)
Fred Redmond
Int’l. Vice President
(Human Affairs)
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ARTISTRY IN METAL
RG STEEL
USW members working for Wendell August
Forge maintain a tradition of quality craftsmanship at the decorative metalwork business, which
burned to the ground a year ago in 2010.
Some 6,000 USW members have ratified
a contract with newly-formed RG Steel,
which purchased facilities from Severstal,
the Russian steelmaker.
Ken Neumann
Nat’l. Dir. for Canada
Jon Geenen
Int’l. Vice President
Gary Beevers
Int’l. Vice President
Carol Landry
Vice President at Large
DIRECTORS
David R. McCall, District 1
Michael Bolton, District 2
Stephen Hunt, District 3
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INTERNATIONAL PAPER
WE ARE ONE
USW members at 15 local unions at International Paper Co. mill locations overwhelmingly
ratified a new four-year contract that covers
6,000 workers and sets a bargaining standard.
F E AT U R E S
Speaking Out
CAPITOL LETTERS
News Bytes
03
33
34
The USW participated in multiple rallies on
April 4 as part of the AFL-CIO’s “We Are One”
campaign, meant to pay tribute to Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. and his fight for social justice.
ON THE COVER
Union activists participate in USW-led rallies across the country.
William J. Pienta, District 4
Daniel Roy, District 5
Wayne Fraser, District 6
Jim Robinson, District 7
Volume 06/No.3
Ernest R. “Billy” Thompson, District 8
Daniel Flippo, District 9
John DeFazio, District 10
Robert Bratulich, District 11
Robert LaVenture, District 12
J.M. “Mickey” Breaux, District 13
C O M M U N I C AT I O N S S TA F F :
Jim McKay, Editor
Wayne Ranick, Director of Communications
Gary Hubbard, Director of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.
Aaron Hudson and Kenny Carlisle, Designers
Lynne Baker, Jim Coleman, Deb Davidek,
Connie Mabin, Tony Montana, Scott Weaver,
Barbara White Stack
Spring 2011
Official publication of the United Steelworkers
Direct inquiries and articles for USW@Work to:
United Steelworkers Communications Department
Five Gateway Center
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
phone 412-562-2400
fax 412-562-2445
online: www.usw.org
USW@Work (ISSN 1931-6658) is published four times a year by the United Steelworkers AFL-CIO•CLC Five Gateway Center, Pittsburgh,
PA 15222. Subscriptions to non-members: $12 for one year; $20 for two years. Periodicals postage paid at Pittsburgh, PA and additional
mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: USW@Work, USW Membership Department, 3340 Perimeter Hill Drive, Nashville, TN 37211
Copyright 2011 by United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO•CLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the
written consent of the United Steelworkers.
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U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
Big Money Waiting to Pounce
This is an open letter to all those naive under
age 60 people who say the era of the labor union
is past. They have the idea that benefits such as
the 40-hour week, time and one-half for overtime,
vacations, health care, pensions, safe working conditions and other benefits were won, and we don’t
need to worry about those things anymore.
Well guess what, big money hasn’t given up.
They were waiting for the right moment to pounce
and wipe those benefits out. All the blood, sweat
and tears of my father’s generation and my generation that were put into gaining a respectable life for
the working person can be gone in an instant, and
politicians are doing it right in front of our eyes.
I am 84 and it won’t harm me much, but
younger folks are going to get a hard lesson in reality. Greedy people are like hogs at a feed bin. They
push one another out so the biggest hog can get
more. That’s what is happening with your pay day
and good-paying jobs.
Donald Renzenbrink, Local 2879
Poland, Ohio
VEBA Thank You
Thank you for the VEBA (trust fund benefits
for retirees who lost health care coverage in bankruptcies). I sincerely appreciate the union. My late
husband was a member from 1955 to 1982, retiring
from the LTV Cleveland Works. Thank you for
being there for us retirees and surviving spouses.
You have been a life savior to me.
Novella Reese
Mountain City, Tenn.
Buy American, But How?
I am retired. All I read is buy union and buy
American made, but I don’t see any articles that
tell us what is made in this country. I believe
unions should help us make American decisions.
Vince Castelli, SOAR
Levittown, Pa.
Praying for Jobs and Workers
I am thankful for the fact that my husband
worked for Goodyear Tire at Union City, Tenn.,
before he died with Alzheimer’s disease in l987.
His union affiliation has been a godsend for me.
I am troubled that Republicans are trying to
bust the unions … I’m 78 years old and praying
for good union jobs and workers. We need jobs
here and more goods made in America.
Bless all union leaders and workers. I’m so
proud of workers in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and
all who stand against the Scott Walkers of this
world.
Patsy Wilkerson
Dresden, Tenn.
Fighting for Everyone
For a while there I was really worried that
people just didn’t get unions and were going to do
nothing. I really love what I’m seeing. I now know
there are a lot of people who get it. Even nonunion
people get it. Unions are the backbone of this country. They fight for everyone.
Glen Dunaway, Local 735 President
Cleveland, Ohio
Proud to Stand Up
I am very proud to stand in unity with union
brothers and sisters who stood beside us during our
lockout by one of the biggest union busting corporations in the world: Honeywell International.
Only with the help of the USW International
could a small local of 230 dare stand up to our employer. Now we are road warriors and attend rallies
to support others in their fight against those trying
to destroy the middle class.
In Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa – at every
event we find new friends and allies in the war
against the middle class.
Luckie Atkinson, Local 7-669
Metropolis, Ill.
Don’t Worry About What I Watch
I am a very proud, vocal union member who
actually attends my local union meetings without
fail. Now that said I would like to make it clear that
I don’t agree with your blatant partisan politics.
Do you really think that I am going to suddenly
tune in Ed Schultz because it is approved by the
higher ups at the USW? Are you kidding me?
Both sides in this little culture war are idiots.
How about concerning yourself more with the
needs of the rank and file and not worrying so
much about how we vote or what we watch on TV?
Douglas Hansen, Local 12934
Weidman, Mich.
We’re Being Screwed
I was a member of USW for 30 years until
Northwestern Steel and Wire of Sterling, Ill. shut
down. I was and still am proud to have been a
union member.
But the reason I am writing is that I am very
unhappy with the state of America. We the people
are being screwed in every way possible and in my
opinion there are only a couple of ways to fix this.
One way is an American Bastille Day, but this
would be an all-out revolution. A better way would
be to have a national union with all working people
as members. If someone is getting screwed over,
the entire country would be with them.
Rick Stoudt, Retired Local 63
Rock Falls, Ill.
USW active and retired
members and their
families are invited to
“speak out” on these
pages. Letters should be
short and to the point.
We reserve the right to
edit for length.
Mail to:
USW@Work
Five Gateway Center,
Pittsburgh PA 15222
or e-mail:
editor@usw.org
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g
2011
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Greg Summerville, left, and
Bill Saunders, work polishing wheels
USW Photos by Steve Dietz
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U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
W
alk into any home
where a hand-crafted
piece of Wendell
August Forge giftware
is displayed and you might think you
are viewing an exquisite heirloom
made by European artisans.
In reality, Wendell August Forge
is American-made artwork produced
by Steelworkers who are keeping
alive a business that has for 88 years
furnished generations with distinctive decorative metalwork.
With the help of its employees,
customers and the local community,
the company is rising like a phoenix
from the ashes of a devastating fire
that destroyed its shop last year on
March 6.
“It’s rewarding for me to make
something that customers will
value as a keepsake gift, something
that they will cherish,’’ said Jason
Fleischer, a member of Local 634615 and one of 40 employees hired
by Wendell August after the fire
completely destroyed the shop in
Grove City, Pa.
The USW represents about 40
production workers at Wendell August. Total employment, including
distribution, sales and management,
is 115.
“I really wanted to find a job
where I would be doing something
that I believe in, where I would be
rewarded through the concept of
hard work,” he said.
The destroyed factory, a tourist
attraction where customers walked
among the craftspeople, was listed
on the National Register of Historic
Places before the fire burned it and
a gift shop to the ground within a
couple of hours.
All was not lost though. The
company’s heritage – more than
4,000 unique dies used to imprint
designs onto end products – was
spared from the fire. About 35 percent of the dies were in a fire proof
vault. The rest required painstaking
restoration, a task that is not yet
complete.
Digging through the rubble
Employees searching through the
remains of the old building found
much more than the dies that were
needed to continue the operation,
said Local Unit Chair Ed Hodge.
“We dug through the rubble,
recovering anvils, hammers and
various scorched but salvageable
tools,” he said.
Will Knecht, the company’s
president and current owner, said
employees “have done a phenomenal job” in getting the business up
and running in a temporary location.
“They literally worked around
the clock after the fire, never a
complaint; an amazing group of employees,” he said. “I am proud to be
associated with workers who have
a true dedication to their job, and a
work ethic that is beyond compare.”
Knecht said during the fire, “Everyone was watching, wondering, as
our building was engulfed in flames,
‘have I just lost my job?’
“But we rose together as a group,
digging our dies from the still smoldering ashes to begin the renewal
process. The fire was a galvanizing
moment for all of us.”
The business quickly reorganized to fill the biggest order in the
company’s history – 20,000 pieces
commissioned two days before
the fire by the Pittsburgh Penguins
hockey team.
There was only four weeks to
complete the huge order – each
piece a metal image of a ticket from
the final NHL game played at the
now closed Mellon Arena.
“Five days after the fire we had
our first hammering ceremony,”
Knecht said. “Everyone agreed
to work around the clock, six and
seven days a week – and this work is
very physical.”
The order was delivered on time.
Jason Fletcher
Established in 1923
The forge was established in
1923 by Wendell August, a coal broker who got the idea after he asked
a mine blacksmith, Ottone “Tony”
Pisoni, to make him decorative door
latches. The business started out
making ornamental iron fireplace
andirons, candlesticks, latches, railings and the like.
Eventually, August, who had lost
his coal mine interests in the 1929
stock market crash, got involved
with aluminum, then a new wonder
metal produced by Aluminum
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
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Company of America, now Alcoa.
The blacksmith Pisoni, who had
been apprenticed to an ornamental
iron maker in Italy, applied his old
art to the new metal and learned
to make architectural elements.
Rust-free aluminum was lighter than
iron and thus easier and cheaper to
install.
Alcoa, looking for new markets
and wanting to dress up the front
of its new research laboratory near
Pittsburgh, awarded Wendell August
a contract to make elaborate entrance gates.
The product line grew over the
years to include a wide variety of
hand-hammered metal items including Christmas ornaments, trophies,
serving trays and even a line of
jewelry.
At one time, there were more
than 200 companies making handhammered aluminum giftware. Wendell August Forge now claims to be
the last hand forge of its kind in the
United States, if not the world.
Craftsmen cross-trained
All of the shop’s craftsmen are
cross-trained in the production process. It can take up to three years to
become proficient at each phase of
the operation.
A unique part of the work is dieengraving and hammering. Master
die engraver David Bruck, a 31-year
veteran, taught Len Youngo, a 30year veteran, the artistry of drawing, hammering and chiseling dies.
Youngo is now passing the knowledge to the next generation, his son
Mike, an apprentice.
“Because we don’t have color,
we work towards creating different
shades. We use texture to imitate
color,” Bruck said. “Everything
we do is shallow so we try to
create minute depth.”
The intricacies like leaves
on a tree or details of bird feathers are no easy task. Depending
on the size and detail, it takes
from one day to eight weeks to
create each die.
The engravers begin with a
drawing. Then, using various sized
hammers and carbide chisels, they
create the image into a one-inch
thick piece of malleable tool steel.
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U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
Remarkably, the design is chiseled in reverse image. Once finished,
the die will be annealed to harden
the steel.
The die’s image is then transferred into the metal using a technique called repousee – pressing
or hammering on the reverse of the
metal to form a raised design on the
front.
Metal sheets, in most cases
aluminum but sometimes copper,
pewter or bronze, are placed on top
of the die and then a craftsman hammers the metal into the chiseled out
portions of the die to create a raised
design.
Old world craftsmanship
USW craftsmen then use an anvil
to smooth rough edges created when
the metal is cut. They then add hammered, scalloped edge marks one
hammer swing at a time.
The design is brought to life with
black coloring that is applied before
buffing. Polishing removes most of
that color, leaving just enough to
help “pop” the design. Finally, the
piece is polished with a bees wax
electric buffing wheel to enhance the
shine.
USW master craftsman Bill
Saunders describes their work as,
“quality, hand-made, old-world
craftsmanship with a modern flair.”
Fleischer is happily living the
amazing story of recovery and
renewal. He said his grandfather
worked as a Steelworker for over 30
years at Armco Steel, and frequently
reminded him that a “job worth doing is worth doing right.”
Fleischer said he believes in the
quality and value of the hand-made
craftsmanship visible throughout the
shop floor. The outcome is extraordinary hand-crafted heirloom metal
gifts.
Today’s customers, he said, seem
drawn to quality goods made in
America by skilled craftsmen who
earn their livelihood in good familysupporting jobs.
“Consumers want to make quality purchases, items that will last,
just like what we create here,” he
said. “My entire life outlook has improved since I started working here.”
Ed Hodge, Unit Chair Local 6346-15,
hammers edges on a piece of aluminum
USW Photos by Steve Dietz
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
7
S
ome 6,000 USW members who
have worked for a variety of
owners and been through the
bankruptcy process multiple
times are now employees of newlyformed RG Steel.
The former Wheeling Pittsburgh
Steel, Bethlehem Steel – Sparrows Point
and WCI Steel workers ratified a new
contract with RG Steel on May 5 when
ballots were counted in Pittsburgh.
RG Steel had purchased the facilities
in Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia
from Severstal, the Russian steelmaker
that had acquired them in 2008 as U.S.
steel prices surged, only to idle capacity
following the global financial crisis.
“Our members and our retirees at
these plants have endured some of the
most difficult challenges related to the
steel industry, and they have more than
earned the security that comes with
working for a viable employer,’’ International President Leo W. Gerard said.
USW District 1 Director David McCall, who chairs the USW’s RG Steel
negotiating committee, said, “The road
to RG Steel was not the fastest or easiest,
but with the support and solidarity of our
brothers and sisters on the shop floor, we
ended up in the right place.”
McCall was referring to the fact that
the USW committee was hamstrung
in negotiations with Severstal North
America for over two years while the
company changed business and operating
plans several times, then announced it
was looking to sell its USW-represented
facilities.
The first meeting between a negotiating committee representing eight units of
hourly production, maintenance, office
and clerical employees from what were
then three separate companies took place
in October 2008 with Severstal after it
purchased the plants.
After all, back in the first three
quarters of 2008, integrated steel producers were reporting record shipments and
profits. For many reasons, Severstal’s
purchase of the USW facilities in Wheeling, Warren and Sparrows Point, Md.,
made perfect sense.
Seeking viable employer
Severstal wanted a greater presence in
the U.S. market and the union supported
and encouraged the company to purchase
the facilities because it believed a third,
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U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
consolidated integrated steel producer
would be a more viable company in the
long term and better equipped to provide
members and retirees with economic,
employment and retirement security.
A strong and stable Severstal never
materialized. Instead, the global economic collapse that began in October
2008, literally while the USW and
Severstal bargaining committees were
trying to wrap up negotiations, changed
everything.
Beginning in 2009, the business and
operating challenges of the industry
changed Severstal’s focus, and the company’s inability to develop and maintain
a clear vision and strategy in regard to
its USW-represented plants eventually
made success impossible. The company
also could not understand the needs of
USW members for real security and
sustainability, which became a major
impediment to moving forward with
Severstal management.
Before long, due to circumstances far
beyond our control, thousands of USW
members were laid off, and to make matters worse, the negotiating committee
was challenged in bargaining for over
two years of month-to-month (and sometimes day-to-day) contract extensions,
just to maintain the status quo.
The delegation from USW Local 9477
counts ratification ballots on May 5, 2011
at USW headquarters in Pittsburgh.
“
A “stand alone” Wheeling-Pittsburgh
Steel, Bethlehem-Sparrows Point or
WCI Steel would almost certainly have
been bankrupt by the end of 2009, if not
for our consolidation efforts. Instead,
members remain protected by the provisions of their Basic Labor Agreement.
Health care coverage and supplemental
unemployment benefits were protected
under agreements with Severstal, which
required the company to continue its
obligations to pension funds and laid-off
members.
After an excruciatingly long sales
process, where realistic bidders and
potential new owners with plans to keep
making steel in our plants were few and
far between, RG Steel signed an agreement to purchase the USW-represented
facilities of Severstal in early March
2011.
Having withstood the crisis in steel
from 1998 to 2003, when over 50
American steel companies – including
all of these plants’ previous employers – sought protection from creditors
in federal bankruptcy court, the USW
applied some of the lessons learned from
the past to protect the future.
At that time, the USW provided the
leadership that was needed to consolidate and restructure the industry, create
THE ROAD TO RG STEEL WAS NOT THE
FASTEST OR EASIEST, BUT WITH THE
SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY OF OUR
BROTHERS AND SISTERS ON THE SHOP
”
FLOOR, WE ENDED UP IN THE RIGHT PLACE.
When the time came, the committee supported and in fact demanded that
Severstal sell the facilities, knowing that
with the right strategy and the right owners they would be successful. However,
it should be recognized that without
Severstal, the plants could have been
shut down during the collapse of 20082009 and our “safety nets” (health care
continuation and supplemental unemployment) might have been lost.
job security, improve retirement security
and ensure that incomes and other benefits would be protected in good times
and bad.
Unity and determination have been
our strongest allies in the struggle to
achieve our goals, and for the first time
since the global economic collapse
in late 2008, we are working with an
employer that has a clear vision and
business plan for the future.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
9
U
SW members at Gamesa Technology Corp. in
Pennsylvania are expected to help build 51 wind
turbines for a utility-scale wind farm in the Central
American Republic of Honduras.
The project won Gamesa the 2011 Renewable Energy Exporter of the Year award from the Export-Import Bank of the
United States. The award was presented at the bank’s annual
conference in Washington, D.C. on March 31.
“Gamesa is an excellent example of how innovative,
renewable-energy companies can help meet energy needs
across the globe and create jobs here at home,’’ said Ex-Im
Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg.
A few days after the Ex-Im Bank award, Gamesa was
in the spotlight again when President Obama stopped by its
plant in Fairless Hills, Pa. to tout his administration’s energy
program, among other topics.
Glimpse of the future
“I think what you do here is a glimpse of the future, and
it’s a future that is less dependent on foreign oil, more reliant
on clean energy produced by workers like you,’’ Obama told
employees gathered for a town hall-style meeting.
The Ex-Im Bank, an independent federal agency, is financing the project with a direct $159 million loan to Energia
Eolica de Honduras SA for the Cerro de Hula Wind Farm, the
first large-scale wind power project in Honduras.
Obama said projects like this, aided by financing through
the Ex-Im Bank, will help meet his goal of doubling U.S.
President Obama greets USW members
at the Gamesa plant in Fairless Hills, Pa.
Photo courtesy of Gamesa
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U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
exports over the next five years.
“The way countries succeed over the long term is by making stuff and selling it to somebody else,’’ the president said
to applause from the workers around him.
“We’ve got the best technology. We’ve got the best workers in the world. But we are such a big market that a lot of
times we’ve been focused more internally than thinking about
how can we sell to other countries. And we can’t be afraid of
competition. We’ve got to go after it.”
When operational, the wind farm will be the fourth largest
power generator in Honduras, producing about 6 percent of
the country’s power needs.
Gamesa employs 900 here
Gamesa employs 900 in the United States, including about
800 at manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania where the
USW represents production workers. Gamesa, based in Spain,
opened its U.S. operations in 2005.
“It’s a remarkable story when a Spanish company such as
Gamesa invests in high-paying U.S. jobs in Pennsylvania and
then is able to export wind turbines to customers in Central
America,” Hochberg added.
The mechanical part of a wind turbine – nacelles and the
equipment inside them – are assembled in Fairless Hills on
the site of a former U.S. Steel Corp. plant. Gamesa spent an
estimated $70 million to develop the site.
Wind turbine nacelles sit on top of a large steel tower and
house a drive train that consists of a gearbox, connecting
shafts, support bearings, a generator and other equipment.
Gamesa also produces wing-shaped blades at a USWrepresented plant in Ebensburg, Pa. that it spent $80 million
to develop. But those blades, Gamesa’s newest design, are
larger than what is required for the Honduran project.
Smaller blades of an older design more suited to the wind
in Honduras are expected to be built for the project by LM
Glasfiber Inc. in North Dakota, a Gamesa supplier.
Critical for our nation’s future
Obama’s visit to Gamesa in Fairless Hills was his second
one. The president had campaigned at the plant three years
earlier while a candidate for president.
Employees heard the president tell them that the type of
energy they make possible is “absolutely critical” for the
future of our country.
Within a decade, the president said he wants the nation to
cut by one-third the amount of oil we import. He also wants
to double the amount of electricity that the nation generates
from clean sources including renewables like wind and solar,
as well as natural gas, clean coal and nuclear power.
“If we follow through on this, if we actually tackle this
challenge, here’s what will happen. Our economy will be
less vulnerable to wild swings in oil prices. Our nation will
no longer be beholden to the countries that we now rely on
for oil imports. We won’t be sending billions of dollars a
day to the Middle East. We can potentially keep some of that
invested right here at home.
“We’ll reduce the pollution that’s disrupting our climate
and threatening the planet that we leave for our children and
our grandchildren. We’ll become more energy independent.
And we’ll spark innovation and entrepreneurship across
America.”
Making a difference
While at Gamesa, Obama called out for Jim Bauer, a
former Steelworker who lost his job at U.S. Steel some eight
years ago when the company closed its Fairless Hills plant.
“This has made a difference in the community. It has
made a difference for folks like Jim Bauer,” the president
said. “This company brought back jobs to these floors. Buildings that were dark, they’re now humming again.”
Bauer had 25 years of service with U.S. Steel when the
closure of the Fairless Hills plant sent him into early retirement and computer school. He then came across a helpwanted ad that offered travel abroad and a high-paying job in
a new venture.
Bauer got the job and in 2006, Gamesa sent him to Spain
for training in production techniques. He came back as a
USW member, and for a time led a team of workers who built
giant hubs for wind turbines. Today he works in administration.
“Jim’s story should give us hope,” Obama said. “It should
give us some idea of the promise of clean energy for our
country.”
Windmill blade under construction at
Gamesa plant in Ebensburg, Pa. USW
Photo by Steve Dietz
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
11
U
SW members at 15 local unions at International
Paper (IP) mill locations overwhelmingly ratified
a new four-year contract that covers 6,000 workers
and sets a bargaining standard for the paper industry.
The agreement was approved by a 73 percent voting
margin, the USW and IP jointly announced May 3. A tentative
agreement was reached in April and had been recommended
for approval by an 80-member union bargaining committee.
The new agreement includes wage increases in each year of
the agreement, improvements to pensions and 401(k) retirement savings plans, health care cost stabilization and employment security.
The second generation Master Economic Agreement builds
on a previous contract that gave USW members benchmark
language to protect them in the event of a sale.
Strong local leadership
International President Leo W. Gerard said strong leadership and solidarity among local USW members at each of
the IP locations was vital to reaching the agreement with the
company, the union’s largest paper employer.
“The USW is extremely proud of the progress made by our
members in the paper sector,’’ Gerard said. “The success of our
local unions here sets a precedent for bargaining in the rest of
the industry.”
USW members covered by the contract include those represented by local unions in Augusta, Ga.; Campti, La.; Cantonment, Fla.; Courtland, Ala.; Georgetown, S.C.; Pine Hill,
Ala.; Port Hueneme, Calif.; Prattville, Ala.; Riegelwood, N.C.;
Savannah, Ga.; Selma, Ala.; Texarkana, Texas; Ticonderoga,
N.Y.; Valliant, Okla.; and Vicksburg, Miss.
Activism and the participation of local unions made the
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U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
difference in the negotiations. They were engaged, active and
vocal about their priorities and it paid off, said International
Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson, who chaired the union’s
bargaining committee at IP.
“Local leadership did an outstanding job of representing the
bargaining objectives of its membership,’’ Johnson said. “And
the membership’s resolve was demonstrated by its solidarity
throughout these negotiations.”
Year of planning, strategic meetings
The agreement was reached after nearly a year of planning
and strategic meetings, culminating with face-to-face discussions between IP and the 80-person bargaining committee
representing the 15 locals.
In the years since the 2005 merger that brought PACE into
the USW, the union has changed bargaining in the paper sector to make it more centralized, an approach that gives USW
members more bargaining power and more say on the shop
floor.
International Vice President Jon Geenen, who leads the
union’s paper sector bargaining, sees the accord with IP as an
historic moment for USW members, an important foundation
for members to have more of a voice than ever before at the
bargaining table.
No longer does the union engage in company-dominated,
table-to-table, location-by-location negotiations where management implements a national agenda locally.
“We really succeeded in everyone having a voice in shaping the contract package,’’ Geenen said. “Long gone are the
days of the union bargaining site-by-site, while the company
negotiates from an overall national strategy.”
S
aying thousands of American
jobs are at risk, International
Vice President Tom Conway
has urged the U.S. International
Trade Commission (ITC) to continue
trade actions against hot-rolled and flatrolled carbon steel products from Brazil,
Japan and Russia.
Accompanied by USW members
who make those products in the United
States, Conway told the ITC in April
that the domestic industry remains vulnerable from the severe recession that
began in 2008.
“Fortunately, the market has begun
to recover, but that recovery is by no
means complete or even certain, and
the industry is still far from healthy,’’
Conway said.
Under World Trade Organization
rules agreed to in Uruguay, the ITC and
the U.S. Commerce Department must
revisit trade actions every five years
to determine whether they should be
continued or revoked.
Specifically, the ITC is reviewing
a countervailing duty order on certain
hot-rolled, flat-rolled carbon quality
steel products from Brazil, antidumping
duty orders on products from Brazil and
Japan and a suspended investigation on
hot-rolled steel from Russia.
USW members produce hot-rolled
T
steel in the United States at over 20
facilities and supporting operations including coke and iron ore suppliers. The
industry supports 21,000 employees.
“Let me emphasize,” Conway said,
“those jobs are at risk from unfairly
traded, dumped and subsidized imports.
That is what we are fighting for today.”
International Vice President Tom Conway
Conway told the ITC that USW
members working in the industry can
beat import competition from any country so long as the competition is fair.
“USW members work very hard and
play by the rules and they expect others
to do so as well,” Conway testified.
“They also expect that our government will make foreign producers play
by the rules by enforcing the trade
laws.”
The union, its members and retirees
he U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted
to back countervailing and antidumping duties on imports
of most aluminum extrusions from China.
The USW said it was pleased with the April 28 ruling,
which clears the way for the U.S. Commerce Department to
impose antidumping duties of about 33 percent and countervailing duties of 8 percent to 374 percent beginning in May
for five years.
“Our members and employers deserve a fair shake in the
marketplace,’’ said International President Leo W. Gerard.
“Leveling the playing field with duties on illegally dumped
and subsidized foreign goods is a step in the right direction.”
The union and its partners in the Aluminum Extrusions
Fair Trade Committee argued that Chinese extrusions are being sold in the United States at less than fair value.
Extrusions are shapes squeezed out of aluminum alloys
and often used in construction products such as windows and
door frames. The products in question accounted for $503
million of imports last year. Heatsinks, used in computers and
electronics, were excluded from the tariffs.
have done everything possible to ensure
the viability of an industry hurt over the
years by unfair trade, Conway said.
“Factors like unfair trade are beyond
our control, but they are within your
control,” he told the ITC. “These orders
must be continued, particularly following the deep recession from which the
industry is only just starting to emerge.”
During those profitable years, the
USW insisted that steel companies contribute into voluntary employee benefit
funds, or VEBAs, to help provide health
care, prescription drug benefits and
supplemental Medicare for current and
future retirees.
Demand for steel products plummeted in the recession. That led to lost jobs,
idled furnaces and rolling mills, deferred or cancelled capital expenditures,
deferred VEBA payments, and lost
incentive payments at some facilities.
“We are just starting to see mills
reopen and steelworkers getting back to
work,” Conway said.
“But for this recovery to continue,
the mills need to be able to increase
prices to cover rising raw material costs
and to regain profitability at reasonable
levels. They need to be able to increase
production and sales so that they can
continue to reopen facilities and put
steelworkers back to work.”
T
he USW has joined the labor movement in Colombia in
opposing a modified free trade agreement (FTA) between
the United States and the South American country.
The USW said it was disappointed and outraged to learn
that the Obama administration had in April reached a tentative
agreement with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
The USW has opposed a FTA with Colombia ever since
former President Bush in 2007 signed an agreement with then
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe that was never ratified.
Then, as now, the USW opposes an FTA with Colombia because of decades of uncontrolled violence and murder against
union leaders and workers.
The White House said Colombia agreed to expand protections of trade unionists, enforce its labor laws with greater
vigor and hire new labor inspectors.
The USW said the reality on the ground in Colombia has
not changed since the first agreement was signed. A record 52
unionists were killed in Colombia last year.
The Confederation of Workers (CUT), Colombia’s largest
labor federation, is protesting the U.S.-Colombia FTA deal,
because of the continued killings.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
13
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U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
F
orty-three years ago, on April 4, 1968,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had
gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: The right
to bargain collectively for a voice at
work and a better life.
Today, around the nation, we are fighting to
keep Dr. King’s dream alive as we continue fighting for economic and social justice. While the ultrarich and big corporations get tax breaks, working
families are being hit with anti-union legislation in
several states, the elimination of collective bargaining, and big cuts to education, transportation and
other essential programs.
“We’re fighting not just for a voice on the job,
but also for an economy that is equitable for all.
Unions – and in particular our union – are the last
line of defense against the renegade corporate
greed and power that are threatening these rights,”
said International President Leo W. Gerard. “The
dream Dr. King died for is at risk and it’s up to us
to keep fighting to keep it alive.”
Paying tribute through protest
On April 4, the United Steelworkers led
multiple actions as part of the AFL-CIO’s “We
Are One” campaign meant to pay tribute to King.
Actions included a massive march and protest in
Pittsburgh, the USW’s headquarters city; a fish fry
and sign-making party that included a viewing of a
documentary about King’s final days on the picket
line in Memphis; church services recognizing the
moral attack we’re facing and rallies in all 50 states
including Connecticut, New Hampshire, Ohio,
Indiana and Washington.
“What started in Wisconsin has spread to every
state across the country as working people stand
together to say ‘enough.’ The immense activity is a direct result of the backlash provoked by
overreaching governors and state legislatures,”
said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “Working people’s energy and commitment to coming
together will continue until the priorities of many
of our politicians are realigned to create jobs rather
than undermine the middle class.”
Many of the USW events were put on in
partnership with civil rights, religious, student and
community organizations.
“Just like the movement led by Dr. King and
others all those years ago, today’s grass-roots
movement for good jobs and economic and social
justice is being driven by hard-working Americans
from diverse backgrounds. This isn’t any corporatefunded Tea Party. This is a real movement for real
change driven by real people,” said Fred Redmond,
international vice president for human affairs.
Union members rally in Pittsburgh on April 4.
USW Photo by Steve Dietz
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
15
Now is the time to be active
The USW’s Rapid Response network of local
union activists showed up in full force on April 4,
leading hundreds of actions including posting “I
Support Workers’ Rights” signs in local businesses
and on car windows.
“Once again, we’re under attack and local union
activists are fired up and working hard as we do
what Steelworkers do, which is stand up and fight
back,” said Kim Miller, director of the USW’s
Rapid Response program. “Now is the time for
every single USW local and member to be
educated and active.”
“Greedy corporations and CEOs and the politicians they bought and paid for are trying to cut the
throats of working Americans and the unions who
fight for them,” Gerard said. “They’re using phony
budget crises and wedge issues that have nothing to
do with creating jobs as a way to try to take more
from us. Meanwhile, they’re paying themselves
huge bonuses and getting away with paying little or
no taxes.
“We’re uniting as a labor movement with community, faith, environmental, student and other
groups to send a clear message: We are one and we
Union members and
supporters march in
Pittsburgh.
USW Photo by Steve Dietz
16
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 1
are not going down without a fight.”
For more information about how the USW is
leading this fight, visit our website at www.usw.
org, hit the like button on our Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/steelworkers and follow us at
www.twitter.com/steelworkers.
USW
Nation:
Standing and Fighting Everywhere
I
n every state, Steelworkers are leading the fight
back against corporate-funded politicians who
are trying to bust unions while cutting education, health care, benefits for the sick and disabled
and other priorities as they give tax breaks to their
rich friends. Your energy has been inspiring.
There are thousands of photos from actions
across the nation on our Flickr stream at:
www.flickr.com/unitedsteelworkers and daily
updates from you on our Facebook page at:
www.facebook.com/steelworkers. There are
video highlights on our YoutTube channel at:
www.youtube.com/steelworkers, too! Check it
out and keep it up!
California
Olympia, Wash.
Blaine, Wash.
New Bedford, Mass.
Pittsburgh
Oklahoma
New Haven, Conn.
Madison, Wis.
Pittsburgh
New Haven, Conn.
Austin, Texas
Little Rock, Ark.
Columbus, Ohio
Indianapolis, Ind.
New Hampshire
Texarkana, Ark.
Portland, Ore.
Philadelphia, Pa.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
17
W
hile millions of Americans are struggling,
worrying about holding on to their homes and
their jobs, paychecks for top American executives are growing again – by leaps and bounds.
The CEOs of the nation’s largest companies received
average compensation last year of $11.4 million, a whopping
23 percent annual increase, and enough to cover the salaries
of 700 minimum wage workers or 28 U.S. Presidents.
The data was disclosed by the AFL-CIO in its annual
Executive PayWatch, a searchable database of publicly
available pay data gleaned from corporate proxy statements
(www.paywatch.org).
“Despite the collapse of the financial market at the hands
of executives less than three years ago, the disparity between
CEO and workers’ pay has continued to grow to levels that
are simply stunning,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
said.
The data was released as part of an AFL-CIO campaign
to strengthen Wall Street reform, close corporate tax
loopholes and ensure that middle-class Americans are no
longer required to pay for the greed of those at the top.
Compare CEO pay to yours
Users can search the database to get information by state
and industry and compare the pay of top-paid CEOs with the
median pay of nurses, teachers, firefighters and other workers. Facebook users can access the data for the first time.
Specifically, the AFL-CIO looked at the pay practices
of 299 companies on the S&P 500 index. The chief executives of those companies received combined compensation
totaling $3.4 billion in 2010, enough to support 102,325 jobs
paying median wages. The median wage for all occupations
was $33,109 in 2009, the most recent year for which data is
available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Over the past decade, CEOs of the largest American
companies received more compensation than ever before in
U.S. history while shareholders – including workers – lost
trillions of dollars in retirement savings through the collapse
of the Internet and real estate stock bubbles, corporate accounting scandals and the Wall Street financial crisis.
Executives whose compensation was highlighted by the
AFL-CIO included Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, 54, who
was awarded salary, stock and other benefits totaling $84.5
million during the first nine months of 2010, more than double his 2009 compensation of $34 million. The company’s
brands include MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures.
Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irani, 76, was paid more
than $76 million in compensation in 2010, followed by Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison, 66, who received $70 million.
New tools to fight back
While CEO pay is still out of control in corporate
America, shareholders have new tools to fight back. CEOs
must now give shareholders a “say on pay” thanks to the
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act signed by President Obama in July 2010.
While the advisory votes of shareholders on executive
18
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
compensation are not binding, they hopefully will encourage corporate boards of directors to reform executive pay
practices.
“For the first time, we have hope that things can
change,’’ Trumka said, referring to the Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act.
Executives seem to particularly dislike the act’s
requirement that companies disclose to investors the pay
disparity between the CEO and a typical worker. Investors
appear to be increasingly concerned about growing CEO
pay and pay disparities within companies.
“The law will help investors and the public learn
which companies provide fair wages and good jobs to
their employees, compared with those that have outrageous CEO-to-worker pay disparities,” Trumka said.
Practices under microscope
The legislation is putting pressure on companies to
eliminate practices that may catch the attention of investors. Golden parachutes, corporate jet travel, preferential
pensions and perquisites unrelated to performance are
under the microscope.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act requires the compensation
committees of a company’s board be composed of independent directors and financial companies must ensure
that their incentive pay plans to not create excessive risk.
Pointing to attacks by some large banks and Wall
Street lobbyists on the Dodd-Frank Act, Trumka said the
AFL-CIO campaign will work hard to defend historic
reform. “Their brazen attempts to undermine reform surprise
and offend me, and I think they will surprise and offend
most Americans.” Trumka said. “Apparently Wall Street
doesn’t want people to know that while working Americans paid for the economic crisis with their jobs, their
homes and their retirement savings, these Teflon CEOs
escaped unscathed.”
A
merican multinational corporations threw patriotism
to the wind when it came to hiring in the global
economy over the last decade, according to new data
from the U.S. Commerce Department.
The brand name companies that employ a fifth of all Americans cut their work forces in the United States by 2.9 million
people in the first 10 years of the new century while increasing
employment overseas by 2.4 million.
That’s a big switch from the 1990s. Back then U.S. multinationals added more jobs in the United States than overseas: 4.4
million here and 2.7 million abroad.
The data underscores the vulnerability of the U.S. economy
at a time when unemployment is high and wages are stagnant.
Jobs at multinational companies usually pay well and are a
ticket to the middle class.
Overall, U.S. multinationals employed 21.1 million people
in this country in 2009 and 10.3 million people elsewhere. The
new jobs created overseas were increasingly higher skilled.
Some big companies are shrinking employment at home and
abroad while improving productivity. Others are hiring abroad
while cutting jobs at home. Some are hiring everywhere.
General Electric, for example, has been reducing the size
of its work forces domestically and internationally with more
of the job cuts coming in the United States than overseas. The
company cut 28,000 workers in the United States between 2005
and 2010 and 1,000 overseas.
GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, recently appointed by
President Obama as his chief outside economic advisor, confirmed that the globalization of jobs involves more than poorly
paid work that Americans shun. GE, Immelt said, is following
its customers, not looking for the world’s lowest wages.
“We’ve globalized around markets, not cheap labor,’’ Immelt said. “The era of globalization around cheap labor is over.
Today, we go to China, we go to India, because that’s where the
customers are.”
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
19
A
century ago, the Triangle Shirtwaist factory
fire that killed 146 garment workers in New
York struck a deep nerve with the American
people, who demanded reforms that remade
the nation’s industrial landscape and helped to build the
middle class.
The fire on March 25, 1911, can only be described as
horrific. Workers, mostly immigrant women and teenagers, were trapped on the upper floors of the factory building by fire and locked exit doors.
Witnesses including reporters and crowds of Saturday
strollers in nearby Washington Square watched helplessly
as terrified women jumped from the top floors of the burning building, their bodies falling like bales of cloth.
Today, the garment industry is global and the sweatshops that make clothing are mainly overseas. Yet history
continues to repeat itself with astounding parallels.
Just three months before the 100th anniversary of the
Triangle fire, on Dec. 14, 2010, 29 women garment workers in Bangladesh who were sewing clothing for American
retailers died in a multi-story fire that also injured 100
others.
“The fire alarms did not go off and the emergency
exits were blocked on the ninth floor,” said Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the USW-backed Institute
for Global Labour and Human Rights.
A century earlier, the Triangle fire started on a lower
floor of the former Asch Building, now part of New York
University. Flames came through the eighth floor and hit
oiled rags under the sewing machines, creating an inferno.
Fire escape collapsed
The regular exit door was engulfed and the fire escape
collapsed under the weight of workers trying to flee.
An emergency exit was also locked, apparently to deter
theft. Some say the doors were locked to keep out union
organizers.
Just as trapped workers in the Triangle fire jumped
from open windows, Kernaghan said workers trapped in
the Hameem Apparel Group factory in Savar, Bangladesh,
leapt from the 11th floor. In both cases, firefighters could
not reach the top floors of the burning factory buildings.
Workers at the Hameem factory said security guards
were ordered to lock exit gates during fire to prevent garments from being stolen in the chaos. Hameem supplies
major multinational retailers including Gap, JCPenney
and Wal-Mart.
While the New York tragedy 100 years earlier led to
decades of positive labor reform, there has been no public
outrage in Bangladesh and no serious investigation.
Trapped in race to bottom
“We are racing backward in the global economy,
competing over who will accept the lowest wages and the
most miserable living and working conditions,’’ Kernaghan said.
The public was inflamed by the tragedy a century
ago in New York City. Some 100,000 people marched in
a funeral procession through the city streets as another
400,000 people lined their path.
20
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
To see a USW-produced video on the fire,
go to the Steelworkers’ channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/Steelworkers
and click on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire icon
displayed on the right side of the page.
Photos of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist
fire, left, and 2010 fire in Bangladesh,
right, provided by the Institute for
Global Labour and Human Rights
Within two months of the Triangle fire, an investigatory
committee was established and 2,000 New York factories were
inspected. There was a surge in organizing by the International
Ladies Garment Workers Union, which for a time became the
most powerful workers’ union in the country.
“Triangle outraged the public and offered a grisly example
of how powerless workers are without collective bargaining,
because unionized workers received better pay and had safer
conditions,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said in commemorating the 100th anniversary of the fire.
Calls for reform came from a broad coalition of unions, religious leaders and the middle class. Laws were enacted requiring mandatory fire drills, automatic sprinkler systems and exits
that opened outward and could not be locked. Factory owners
fought back but lost.
Frances Perkins, who later became Secretary of Labor under
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was an eyewitness to the
Triangle tragedy. “The New Deal was born after watching these
people jumping from the windows,’’ she recalled.
Union power accelerated
Kernaghan said the Triangle fire victims did not die in vain.
“Unions’ power accelerated after the fire, providing a push that
just wouldn’t stop,” he said. Positive labor reforms continued
for the next 40 years.
“By 1938, sweatshops were wiped out in the United States.
Minimum wage laws were in place. There were limits on working hours and extra pay for overtime work,” Kernaghan said.
“By the 1950s, 34 percent of all American workers were
organized, and the middle class was built. People worked hard
and their lives were improved.”
Today in Bangladesh, the Hameem workers toil seven days
a week, 12 to 14 hours a day with an eight-hour shift on Fridays. A century after the Triangle fire, senior sewing operators
earn just 28 cents an hour, or $2.24 for an eight-hour day.
Prior to both events workers were trying to organize in the
hope of achieving dignity in the workplace and modest improvements in their economic existence.
Starting in February 1909, garment workers in New York
City struck and won union-only shops in hundreds of factories.
Triangle management, however, successfully fought to remain
nonunion.
If the Triangle workers had formed a union, Kernaghan said
it is possible that the exit would not have been blocked, and the
fire would have been less tragic.
In 2008, Hameem management busted a union organizing
drive at their factory, imprisoning the union leader and firing
19 activists even though a majority of the workers had shown
support.
Workers’ rights still under siege
The lack of unions continues to be a common denominator in such tragedies. Consider the 2010 explosion at the Big
Branch coal mine in West Virginia, where 29 nonunion miners
perished, and the 1991 fire at an Imperial Foods chicken processing plant in North Carolina that killed 25 people who were
locked inside.
When you hear the often-repeated rhetoric that labor unions
are no longer necessary in the modern world, remember those
workers who died behind locked doors.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
21
T
his year’s annual USW Rapid
Response conference for union
activists began with USW officers inspiring the hundreds of
attendees to fight for their rights.
It continued with instruction on how
to combat the efforts of conservative
state lawmakers to foreclose on collective bargaining rights. And it ended
with USW activists meeting with former
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The activists who converged on
Washington, D.C. from local unions
across the country for the conference
learned how crucial their efforts were in
labor’s confrontation with conservative
state lawmakers who are voting from
Florida to Michigan to end the routine
practice of collecting union dues from
workers’ paychecks, to unilaterally cut
public sector workers’ pay, and to allow workers to freeload by refusing to
pay union dues while receiving union
benefits.
Conference instructors urged activism on the state level not just because
the USW has 20,000 public sector
workers, but also because these conservative campaigns against unions actually
are aimed at reducing labor’s political
power.
“You are the front line troops to
bring the message
to the workplace, to the church, to your
community group, to your family at the
dinner table, to the whacked out uncle
who doesn’t get it – everybody has one,”
International President Leo W. Gerard
told the group.
“I want to sit in my rocking chair
and know that my grandson will have as
good a chance in life as I did,” Gerard
continued, “and that will only happen if
we push. We’ve got to get out there and
fight.”
International Secretary-Treasurer
Stan Johnson explained that the conservatives in state houses across the country
aren’t just cutting public sector workers’
wages and rights, they’re attempting to
enfeeble labor politically by reducing the
number of unionized workers, and, as
a result, reducing the number of dollars
union workers contribute to political action committees.
“This is about silencing your voice,”
Johnson said, “This is about destroying local union finances, international
union finances, and impeding our ability
to fight. That is what they want to do –
destroy your ability to fight.
“If we do not do something in the
next two to three years,” he warned,
“look at everyone in this
room and
think about who is here and who will not
be here. . . If you are ever going to fight,
now is the time. It is not the time to be
aggravated with your union. It is the time
to be aggravated with the system that has
put us in the situation we are in.”
International Vice President Tom
Conway agreed, noting that the conservatives are dishonestly blaming firefighters, policemen and teachers for state
deficits. Referring to the conservatives,
he said, “They mean to break your back
and if you don’t fight now, they will
break your back.”
For all of the bluster, Conway said
the American public is not fooled. They
know the deficits occurred after gambling by Wall Street banksters collapsed
the economy. “The country knows we
are right,” he said. “The country is with
us.”
On the last day of the conference,
more than 700 activists converged on
Capitol Hill, thanking lawmakers including U.S. Rep. Joe Baca, (D-Calif.), who
has voted against every free trade agreement during his time in the House, and
urging lawmakers like U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl
(R-Ariz.) to preserve trade adjustment
assistance for workers such as the USW
members laid off by auto parts maker
Cooper Standard in Bowling Green,
Ohio.
Speaking out at USW Rapid Response conference.
USW Photo by Steve Dietz
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U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
They took a break mid-day to conduct
a press conference with former Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.), who
said the primary job of Congress should
be creating jobs. “Democrats will measure
every effort to see if it creates jobs and
strengthens the middle class,’ Pelosi said
to cheers from the group crowded into a
Congressional meeting room.
“If we make it in America, then American families can make it in America,” she
said.
Aaron Patterson, president of Local
1152 at Cooper Standard in Bowling Green,
asked Pelosi to create policies that sustain
American jobs. Cooper Standard had announced the week before that it was moving
his plant to Mexico, destroying 200 U.S.
jobs and devastating 200 Ohio families.
Patterson and 24 other Cooper Standard
workers who had driven from Ohio to the
Rapid Response conference went from
the press event to Kyl’s office to ask for
passage of trade adjustment assistance that
would help the 200 workers get new skills
for new jobs.
When a young man at Kyl’s reception desk said the group could not see the
senator, Patterson asked him to pass on the
message that trade adjustment assistance
is critical to families like his and the other
Cooper Standard workers.
Local 1152 members at Cooper Standard
USW Photo by Steve Diez
A
clean environment requires construction such as assembling
wind turbines and retrofitting buildings, projects that provide
good, family-supporting jobs.
That was the message of the 2011 Good Jobs Green Jobs
National Conference conducted by the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation in
Washington D.C. prior to the annual USW Rapid Response Conference.
“We need a jobs plan and a green energy plan and a carbon reduction
plan, and they can all fit together,” International President Leo W. Gerard,
a plenary speaker, told 2,500 conference delegates.
Gerard noted that the modern wind turbine was invented in Sandusky,
Ohio, and asked, “Why build that elsewhere when we invented it here?”
Research and development follows manufacturing, and when U.S.
factories move offshore, high tech and research jobs go with them, Gerard
noted.
“If we don’t succeed in creating the next level of green jobs here, we
will lose the next level of research and development, and I don’t know
how we will catch up then,” he said.
Stopping illegal practices
Last October, the USW filed a petition under Section 301 of U.S. trade
laws that attempts to stop illegal practices by China that have enabled it to
surpass the United States in production of certain green technologies.
These violations have damaged American green industries, costing
good American jobs. Illegal practices cited in the petition include China’s
massive subsidies to exporters, technology transfer requirements and
restricting access to critical raw materials. In some cases, these practices
prompted American companies to move production to China, eliminating
hundreds of good, green jobs in the United States.
Late last year, the Obama administration agreed to investigate the
issues raised in the Section 301 complaint and in December announced
that it would take the next step, which is consulting with China to resolve
those issues where the data and evidence provided by the USW appear to
be irrefutable.
United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk said of the case, “The
USW has raised issues covering a wide array of Chinese government policies affecting trade and investment in green technologies. This is a vitally
important sector for the United States. Green technology will be an engine
for the jobs of the future, and this administration is committed to ensuring
a level playing field for American workers, businesses and green technology entrepreneurs.”
This was a crucial victory for the USW and for American jobs, Gerard
told the conference, “We want to build a supply chain. We want these jobs
here. We can’t compete when China is breaking every rule they agreed
to.”
The three-day conference in Washington, D.C. was sponsored by the
BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental groups created
by the USW and Sierra Club.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
23
T
he USW is calling for improvements to anti-terrorism
standards for high-risk chemical facilities, including strong
protections for whistleblowers.
The union unveiled its position at
a March 31 hearing before the U.S.
House Subcommittee on Energy and the
Environment regarding legislation (H.R.
908) that would extend for seven years
the Department of Homeland Security’s
Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program.
The CFATS program monitors more
than 4,000 high-risk chemical facilities
such as chemical plants, electrical generating facilities, refineries and universities, requiring them to identify and assess
security facility risks and develop and
implement security plans to protect those
facilities.
James Frederick, the USW’s assistant
director for health, safety and the environment, said the union is part of a broad
coalition that believes legislation must
be passed to improve chemical industry
workplace safety and security.
Frederick argued, however, that more
should be done than simply extending
existing interim measures that took effect
in 2007, as the proposed House legislation (H.R. 908) would do.
“We believe that this is absolutely
necessary to properly protect the communities where our members and their
neighbors live and work,” Frederick
testified.
In a statement supporting Frederick’s
testimony, International President Leo W.
24
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
Gerard criticized H.R. 908 for maintaining CFATS without improvements.
“It would jeopardize the hundreds of
thousands of USW members employed at
chemical-related facilities and residents
who live in surrounding communities,”
Gerard said.
USW supports Lautenberg bills
Gerard said the union supports more
comprehensive bills introduced by
U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) to
address the preventable hazards chemical plants pose. Those bills include the
“Secure Water Facilities Act” and the
“Secure Chemical Facilities Act,” which
require changes for the highest-risk
facilities while preventing undue burdens
on small, lower-risk facilities.
The USW has long been involved in
chemical plant security and represents
more than 125,000 members who work in
800-plus chemical industry workplaces,
Frederick told the hearing.
“Our union has always been actively
engaged and involved with our employers, communities, regulators and legislators to improve workplace safety for our
members as well as their families and the
community,” he said.
Changes sought by the USW include
the addition of “strong and effective
whistleblower protection” that would
make worker participation in the process
more effective.
The current anti-terrorism standards
fail to involve knowledgeable employees in the development of vulnerability
assessments and security plans or protect
employees from excessive background
checks.
Although there are no requirements
to involve workers, the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) has suggested
that facilities “may involve” employees
in their security efforts. But Frederick
said too many employers have chosen not
to do so.
Employee involvement beneficial
In cases of other regulations, such as
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standards, the government
encourages employees and employee representatives to be engaged and involved
in the process to assess and address
unsafe conditions and hazards.
“Time and time again, this inclusion has been beneficial to the employer
and regulator alike,’’ Frederick said.
“Workers are the best source to identify
vulnerable hazards and often have much
more hands-on experience to recommend
solutions.’’
Frederick identified a number of other
problems with CFATS. Among them,
the CFATS prohibits the Department of
Homeland Security from requiring any
specific security measure.
That means the standards, if reinstated
without changes, will continue to allow
employers to determine how they comply
with the rules, which typically result in
cost and productivity taking precedence
over safety.
Frederick said the CFATS fail to
develop smart security – safer and more
secure chemical processes that can cost-
T
effectively prevent terrorists from triggering chemical disasters.
CFATS also explicitly exempts too
many at-risk workplaces, Frederick testified. Thousands of chemical and port facilities are exempt including 2,400 water
treatment facilities and more than 400
facilities on navigable waters, including
the majority of oil refineries.
The standards also fail to address
the pervasive problem of risk shifting,
such as when a company moves chemical hazards to unguarded locations such
as railroad sidings. In addition, CFATS
denies the public information needed to
ensure an effective, accountable program,
Frederick said.
The USW believes legislation should
achieve the following:
• Require facilities that pose the
greatest risk to assess safer chemical processes and conditionally
require the use of safer chemical processes where feasible and
commercially available, and include a technical appeals process
to challenge Homeland Security
decisions;
• Provide resources to assist facilities to use safer and more secure
processes;
• Require worker involvement
in the development of security
plans and provide protections for
whistleblowers and limit background check abuses;
• Preserve state authority to establish stronger security standards.
he AFL-CIO has chosen the
National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers
of the Mexican Republic, also
known as Los Mineros, and its leader,
Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, to receive the
federation’s prestigious human rights
award this year.
The annual Meany-Kirkland Human Rights Award, created in 1980 and
named for the first two presidents of
the AFL-CIO, recognizes outstanding
examples of the international struggle
for human rights through trade unions.
The 2011 Meany-Kirkland award
was approved by the AFL-CIO Executive Council on April 18 and will be
formally presented later this year.
Over the past five years, the Mexican government has unleashed a systematic attack on workers’ rights. Some
of the most egregious attacks have been
on Los Mineros and its leader.
USW a key supporter
“This is an important public recognition that the fight of Napoleón Gómez,
his union and the democratic labor
movement in Mexico is just and will be
vindicated,” said International President
Leo W. Gerard.
“The Mexican government’s flouting
of international labor and human rights
norms has been exposed by the global
trade union movement and should be
condemned by all nations.”
The USW has been a key supporter
of Los Mineros, providing assistance to
striking workers in Mexico, support for
organizing campaigns and office space
in Vancouver, Canada, where Gómez
lives after being forced to leave Mexico.
In June 2010, the two unions set up
a joint task force to “propose immediate
measures to increase strategic cooperation between our organizations as well
as the steps required to form a unified
organization.”
Gomez, who was elected general secretary of Los Mineros in 2002,
incurred the wrath of the Mexican government by demanding higher wages
and resisting government efforts to
control the miners’ union. He also built
alliances with the global trade union
movement, including the USW.
When a February 2006 explosion at
Grupo Mexico’s Pasta de Conchos mine
killed 65 mineworkers, Gómez publicly
accused the government of “industrial
homicide.”
In response to this criticism, the
government filed criminal charges
against Gómez and other union leaders.
It also froze the union’s bank accounts,
assisted employers to set up company
unions in Los Mineros-represented
workplaces and declared the union’s
strikes illegal and sent troops to suppress them.
Four union members were murdered
and key union leaders were jailed. In
the face of this campaign of repression, Gómez left Mexico for Vancouver
with USW support. From there he has
waged a five-year effort to win justice
for his union and for all democratic
unions in Mexico.
Despite the massive repression,
the Mexican union has continued to
bargain contracts and organize new
workplaces with the help of trade union
allies around the world. Gómez has won
major legal victories, as Mexican courts
have thrown out the criminal charges
against him and rejected the government’s appeals.
On April 28, a Mexican appeals
court ruled against the government and
threw out the final remaining criminal
charge against Gomez. That same day, a
separate court ordered the government
to release funds in union bank accounts
that it froze years ago.
USW and Mineros leaders with Gomez (center) in Canada.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
25
T
he USW in Canada is undertaking an unusual private prosecution of a forest products company in the death of a sawmill
worker who was smothered by wood
debris.
The union is pursuing criminal negligence charges against U.S.-based Weyerhaeuser for the death of member Lyle
Hewer under the Westray Amendment to
the Criminal Code of Canada.
“Hopefully, our actions will convince
employers to think twice before they put
workers at risk,’’ said District 3 Director
Stephen Hunt (Western Canada and the
Territories).
Hewer, 55 at the time of his death
in 2004, was trapped and asphyxiated
by wood debris while trying to clear a
jammed hopper at a Weyerhaeuser mill in
New Westminster, B.C.
The law being used to go after Hewer’s employer was passed at the USW’s
urging after another fatal workplace tragedy – a methane and coal dust explosion
that killed 26 coal miners in 1992 at the
Westray Mine in Nova Scotia.
Prosecutors criminally charged
Westray mine managers at the time, but
the case failed. In response, the USW
pressed for legislation that would allow
prosecutors to hold managers criminally
accountable for recklessly endangering
workers.
Westray established new crime
The 2004 Westray amendment, which
took a decade and several attempts to
pass, established the new crime of occupational health and safety criminal
negligence in Canada and changed the
liability of organizations.
Westray made executives and corporate directors responsible for the
deaths of workers, and senior officers
responsible for health and safety in their
organizations. Individuals charged and
convicted can face up to life in prison
in the event of a workplace fatality and
10 years in a workplace injury. The
fine for organizations is unlimited.
The police in New Westminster,
where the Weyerhaeuser mill is located, recommended criminal charges
against the company under Westray,
but prosecutors determined charges
were not warranted and dropped the
case.
After the district attorney twice
refused to proceed, the USW hired
26
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
criminal lawyer Glen Orris and launched
its own private criminal prosecution
against Weyerhaeuser.
“Nineteen years after Westray, after
ten years of lobbying, six years after Lyle
died, we’re going to court to prosecute
Weyerhaeuser for the death of a worker,”
Hunt said in launching the effort. “We
made a commitment to the victims and
the survivors to say we’d never have
another Westray and we meant it.”
A provincial court judge, Therese Alexander, gave the USW case a boost on
March 2 when she ordered Weyerhaeuser
to appear before her on the union’s
charges of criminal negligence.
Hearing adjourned until June
A March 28 hearing before Alexander covered procedural issues and was
adjourned until June 8. That followed
three days of hearings in October and
November 2010 when 23 witnesses gave
evidence concerning Hewer’s death.
The prosecutor, known as Crown
Counsel in Canada, is expected to have a
say in whether the private prosecution is
allowed to proceed, is taken over by the
Crown or stayed, which would kill the
charges. Typically, the government does
not let private prosecutions go forward.
USW Director 3 Director Stephen Hunt and union lawyer Glen Orris
discuss the Lyle Hewer case with the media in Canada. USW photo.
“We expect that our union will either
proceed on its own in the role of a private
prosecutor or that the Crown Counsel
may step in to prosecute the criminal
case,” Hunt said.
Hewer, assigned to unplug a wood
chopper known as a hog, was inside an
attached hopper when accumulated waste
wood products shifted overhead and
engulfed him.
WorkSafeBC, the agency in British Columbia that conducts workplace
inspections, issued a scathing report on
the accident and fined Weyerhaeuser
$297,000, the largest fine in its history.
In its report, WorkSafeBC maintained
that Weyerhaeuser violated safety laws
willfully and with reckless disregard. It
said senior management ignored safety
concerns and condoned a culture where
“complacency in the face of danger became the norm.”
Repair requests resisted
Workers regularly had to climb inside
the hopper to manually remove waste
wood and clear out jams, even though the
hopper constituted a confined space as
defined by workers’ compensation laws
in British Columbia.
It became clear that Weyerhaeuser’s
upper-level management was aware that
the hopper was a safety hazard but resisted repeated requests for repairs. After
Hewer died, the machine was fixed at a
cost of about $30,000.
Since Westray was passed, thousands
of workers have been killed on the job.
But prosecutors have rarely used the
legislation to press charges.
Earlier this year, however, a landscape contractor in Quebec was found
guilty of criminal negligence in the death
of an employee, Aniello Boccanfuso. The
court imposed a conditional sentence of
imprisonment of two years less a day.
Boccanfuso was killed when a
backhoe driven by his boss failed to
stop while moving soil on a commercial
landscaping job and pinned him against
a wall.
Evidence presented at court showed
the backhoe had not received regular
maintenance since its 1976 purchase. An
inspection found no braking capacity in
its front two wheels, no brake fluid in its
reservoir and an all-over braking capacity
of less than 30 percent. The horn, brake
lights, parking brake and brake pressure
gauge did not work.
Dan Wilson
F
or roughly a decade, the 1,000-member
Local 338 in Spokane, Wash., made no
contributions to the USW Political Action
Committee (PAC).
That changed in 2006, and the amalgamated local
membership has become a major source of PAC contributions, collectively donating more than $30,000 last year.
Local President Dan Wilson gives the credit where it’s due – to the Local
338 members who voluntarily donate to the cause with every paycheck.
“I wish I could take credit for what we are doing at the local, but there
are others who really deserve it more: our Local 338 members who faithfully
donate their hard-earned dollars each week to make life better for the working
class, who truly are the backbone of this country,” he said.
Wilson also acknowledged the work of International PAC Coordinator Michael Scarver, who nominated Wilson to be the PAC member of the quarter.
Contributions are voluntary
“He really connected with our guys here. He was very instrumental in this,’’
Wilson said of Scarver, who often says that politics impact everything that the
union does for its members.
Corporations routinely outspend labor in election campaigns and have their
own well-funded PACs to push their causes in Washington, D.C., and at the
state and local levels. Corporate interests typically outspend labor by close to
19-to-one in dollar-for-dollar comparisons, and the gap has been growing.
Member contributions to the USW’s PAC are voluntary by federal law and
are used to support labor-friendly candidates and their initiatives.
“Each dollar raised is used to help elect political candidates who will stand
up for working men and women no matter their party,” Scarver said.
Wilson, a member of the USW for 27 years, said the local didn’t promote
the program well from 1996 to 2006, partly because of disagreements over
political issues unrelated to labor.
“We found ways to get our guys who are pretty conservative on board as
well as the guys who are progressive,” Wilson said. “We’re able to sell it as being all about labor. We don’t get involved in all those other issues.”
Through programs such as PAC and Rapid Response, Wilson said his members have become more educated and involved on issues that affect workers
and their families.
“Our members understand that their PAC contributions will be used in a
non-partisan way to help elect legislators who will support working people.
They also know that their PAC dollars will be used to support labor
friendly legislation.”
Local 338 is an amalgamated local with
bargaining units at Kaiser Aluminum, Kaiser Alutek (rolling and drawing) and L.B.
Foster’s pre-cast and railroad tie division.
“Our members work in private sector
heavy industrial manufacturing jobs,”
Wilson said. “Because Washington state
is ranked fourth in the nation for union
density, I tell people we aren’t just prolabor, we’re labor pro-activists.”
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
Source: www.opensecrets.org
27
F
or years, children toiled alongside their parents
tapping rubber trees for latex on the giant Firestone
rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia.
That changed after more than 4,000 plantation workers voted in 2007 to be represented by the USWsupported Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia
(FAWUL), the first truly independent union since the Firestone plantation began operations in 1926.
In the years since the election, FAWUL negotiated collective bargaining agreements with the Firestone plantation that
banned child labor while also improving wages and working
conditions for the plantation workers.
For that collective effort, the U.S. Department of Labor
(DOL) in February presented FAWUL with its 2010 Iqbal
Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor.
The award memorializes Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani child
enslaved at age four who escaped from servitude and became
an internationally-known advocate against child slavery. He
was murdered at age 13 in 1995 in Pakistan.
Against great odds
“The USW is proud of our partners at FAWUL and their
efforts in challenging the horrors of child labor and other
injustices at the plantation,” said International President Leo
W. Gerard. “Against great odds, the members of FAWUL
have created a democratic and independent union.”
The USW has worked with the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity
Center to organize training programs and solidarity actions
with the activists and leaders of FAWUL to address child
28
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
labor and other exploitative practices.
The award was created by Congress to recognize the
work of an individual, company, organization or national
government to end the worst forms of child labor.
The International Labor Rights Forum nominated
FAWUL for the award after the DOL’s Bureau of International Affairs published a notice soliciting nominations.
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who announced the winner, called FAWUL’s efforts to combat the worst forms of
child labor extraordinary. “This group serves as a model for
others, showing that progress is possible and worth the effort,” she said.
Unions transform lives
“This is a huge achievement for a union dedicated to
transparency, workplace safety and fighting child labor in
a country that is still feeling the effects of years of devastation from civil war,’’ said International Vice President Fred
Redmond.
“Through the determination of FAWUL and its members,
Firestone has been forced into the 21st Century in regards to
workers’ rights.”
In 2008, with assistance from the USW, FAWUL negotiated a landmark collective bargaining agreement that reduced
the quota of rubber trees which a rubber tapper was required
to work by 25 percent and banned child labor.
Prior to those negotiations, tappers were compelled to put
their family members to work so they could meet quotas and
ensure they would have enough rice to eat.
In 2010, the union negotiated a second contract with the
Firestone plantation that went even further. The agreement
required the company to provide better schools for children
who live on the plantation, one of the world’s largest.
From sticks to tractors
FAWUL also succeeded in making changes in the system
used to transport latex gathered from rubber trees growing
on the sprawling plantation to weigh stations.
The latex produced at the Firestone plantation is a foundation material used by USW-represented rubber workers
in North America. When we help improve conditions for
impoverished workers worldwide, we help to secure our
own wages and benefits.
For more than 80 years, rubber tappers carried two metal
buckets, weighing as much as 150 pounds, suspended on
a stick spread across their shoulders. Tappers carried these
buckets long distances to weigh stations.
The new system, not yet complete, will use trailers
pulled by tractors to collect plastic buckets of latex, relieving the tappers of their heavy burden.
The USW will continue, Gerard said, to work side-byside with FAWUL to ensure there are continuous gains for
Firestone plantation workers and their families in the areas
of safety, housing and education.
“We need to ensure that the new latex transportation
system is extended to all parts of the plantation and that
workloads are further reduced so that latex will never again
be produced through child labor,’’ Gerard said.
A
s a young boy in Pakistan, Iqbal Masih was sold
into bonded labor at a carpet factory at age four
for the equivalent of $12. He was forced to work
14 hours a day on a carpet loom.
Iqbal’s hands were scarred and calloused and his fingers
were gnarled from the repetitive work of tying thousands of
carpet knots. His breathing was labored from the carpet dust
that he inhaled.
Whenever Iqbal did not obey orders, he would be
whipped, cut or beaten by his boss at the carpet factory. One
day he stood up for himself and other children and went to
the nearest police station to say he was being poorly treated
and wanted his freedom. A police officer brought him back
to the carpet factory and told his boss to chain him up.
At age 10, he escaped and joined the Bonded Liberation
Front of Pakistan, an organization that has saved thousands
of children from bondage and runs its own schools.
Spoke around the world
As an advocate for the millions of bonded child laborers in Pakistan, Iqbal made speeches about child labor all
around the world, including the United States and Europe.
On Easter Sunday 1995, Iqbal, a Catholic, was murdered
in the small village of Muridke where he was born. He was
shot in the back in the middle of a busy road while returning
from church.
Some locals were accused of the crime but it is assumed
by many that he was assassinated because of his famous
fight against the child labor industry.
In 1994, Iqbal was awarded the Reebok Human Rights
Award. In 2000, he was posthumously awarded The World’s
Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child. In 2009, the
U.S. Congress established the annual Iqbal Masih Award for
the Elimination of Child Labor.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
29
E
conomist Michael Mandel was doing research for a textbook when
he stumbled upon an entry in the
Federal Register that sheds light
on American manufacturing and government procurement policy.
The U.S. Air Force on March 21 waived
the “Buy American” provision of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
of 2009 for a housing construction project
at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska because
it couldn’t find American manufacturers of
many simple domestic items.
According to the Register entry uncovered by Mandel, a contracting official
determined that a long list of common
items needed for the project are not produced in the United States in sufficient
and reasonably available quantities and
of satisfactory quality.
The list includes clamps, screws, door
stops, light fixtures, microwave ovens,
paper towel holders, shower rods, towel
rings, robe hooks, handrail brackets,
air vents and ceiling fans. Those items
are manufactured almost exclusively in
China, the Air Force said, citing extensive market research and a thorough
investigation of the “domestic manufacturing landscape.”
Steven Capozzola, media director of
the Alliance for American Manufacturing
(AAM), said he found it hard to believe
there are no U.S. manufacturers of collated
screws, robe hooks or handrail brackets. He
invited U.S. manufacturers to look at the
Federal Register item and see if they can
fulfill the Air Force’s needs.
“It would be a shame to see taxpayer
money go to China because the U.S. can’t
even make screws anymore,’’ Capozzola
wrote in an Internet blog on the subject.
National security impacted
A week earlier, a study commissioned
by the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council
and authored by Dr. Joel Yudken found that
the ongoing erosion of the U.S. manufacturing base has negatively impacted America’s
national security.
According to Yudken’s report entitled
Manufacturing Insecurity, “there are
advanced technologies critical to military
systems – armor plate steel, defensespecific integrated circuits, night vision
goggles – for which domestic sources are
inadequate.”
Significant numbers of items once
supplied by U.S. manufacturers are now
obtained from foreign suppliers because
they are “not readily available from U.S.
producers,” Yudkin said.
At a forum hosted by the Industrial
Union Council, the AFL-CIO Metal Trades
Department, the AAM and others, Yudkin
said there is a “sustained erosion of the
manufacturing sector” across the board in
“industries critical for national defense.”
In his report, Yudkin cited Col. Michael Cole, of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, who warned that current strategies to deal with an industrial base that
increasingly cannot supply the military
are not working.
Cole said the problem is not just a
matter of a handful of highly specialized
items designed to meet narrow defense
requirements, but “the eradication of
U.S. industrial capability.”
Buy Union,
Buy American,
Buy Canadian.
T
he U.S. Department of
Transportation requires
that all tires sold in the
United States carry a
code which shows, among other
things, the company and plant
that made the tire. The code
would look like this:
DOT BE XX XXX XXX
The two symbols (either two
letters or a letter and a number)
which follow “DOT” indicate the
company and the plant where a
tire was manufactured. For example, the above code indicates
a tire made by B. F. Goodrich
in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The following is a listing of all U.S. and
Canadian unionized tire plants
and their DOT codes. By comparing this list to the code on the
tire you are buying, you can be
certain you are getting a USWmade tire.
In addition to company
brands, these codes will also
appear on “Associate Brand” and
“Private Brand” tires manufactured at the above plants. The
key, then, to being sure of getting
a USW-made tire is the DOT
code. Be sure and check it with
this listing.
* Any Goodyear racing tire
made in the United States is a
USW-made tire.
** Any Goodrich racing tire
or off-the road tire made in the
United States is a USW-made
tire.
30
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
Code Company, Location
BE
B. F. Goodrich
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
BF
B. F. Goodrich
Woodburn, Ind.
VE
YE
YU
8B
D2
E3
W1
Y7
2C
4D
5D
UP
Bridgestone/Firestone
Des Moines, Iowa
Cooper
Findlay, Ohio
UT
Cooper
Texarkana, Ark.
JU
PC
UK
Goodyear
Medicine Hat, Alberta
DY
Denman Tire
Warren, Ohio
JJ
MD
PU
Goodyear
Gadsden, Ala.
DA
Dunlop
Buffalo, N.Y.
JN
MJ
PY
JE
MC
PT
JT
MK
TA
JF
MM
PJ
CC
Goodyear
Topeka, Kan.
Photo by Jim West
Bridgestone/Firestone
Lavergne, Tenn.
Bridgestone/Firestone
Morrison, Tenn.
Goodyear
Danville, Va.
Goodyear
Union City, Tenn.
Kelly-Springfield
Fayetteville, N.C.
Yokohama Tire
Salem, Va.
T
hese vehicles are made in the United States or Canada by members of the
UAW and Canadian Auto Workers (CAW).
Because of the integration of United States and Canadian vehicle production, all the vehicles listed that are made in Canada include significant UAWmade content and support the jobs of UAW members.
However, those marked with an asterisk (*) are produced in the United States and
another country. The light-duty (LD) crew cab versions of the vehicles marked with a
double asterisk (**) are manufactured only in Mexico; other models are made in the
United States. When purchasing one of these models, check the Vehicle Identification
Number (VIN). A VIN beginning with “1,” “4” or “5” identifies a U.S.-made vehicle;
“2” identifies a Canadian-made vehicle.
Not all vehicles made in the United States or Canada are built by union-represented
workers. Vehicles not listed here, even if produced in the United States or Canada, are
not union made.
UAW CARS
Buick Lacrosse
Buick Lucerne
Cadillac CTS
Cadillac DTS
Cadillac STS
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Cruze
Chevrolet Malibu
Chevrolet Volt
Chrysler Sebring
Dodge Avenger
Dodge Caliber
Dodge Viper
Ford Focus
Ford Mustang
Ford Taurus
Lincoln MKS
Mazda 6
Mitsubishi Eclipse
Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder
Mitsubishi Galant
UAW SUVs/CUVs
Buick Enclave
Cadillac Escalade ESV
Cadillac Escalade/Hybrid
Chevrolet Suburban
Chevrolet Tahoe /Hybrid
Chevrolet Traverse
Dodge Durango
Dodge Nitro
Ford Escape/Hybrid
Ford Expedition
Ford Explorer
Ford Explorer Sport Trac
GMC Acadia
GMC Yukon/Hybrid
Jeep Compass
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Jeep Liberty
Jeep Patriot
Jeep Wrangler
Lincoln Navigator
Mazda Tribute/Hybrid
Mercury Mariner/Hybrid
Mercury Mountaineer
Mitsubishi Endeavor
UAW TRUCKS
Chevrolet Colorado
Chevrolet Silverado**
Dodge Dakota
Dodge Ram Pickup*
Ford F Series
Ford Ranger
GMC Canyon
GMC Sierra**
UAW VANS
Chevrolet Express
Ford Econoline
GMC Savana
CAW CARS
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Impala
Chrysler 300
Dodge Challenger
Dodge Charger
Ford Crown Victoria
Lincoln Town Car
Mercury Grand Marquis
CAW SUVs/CUVs
Chevrolet Equinox
Ford Edge
Ford Flex
GMC Terrain
Lincoln MKT
Lincoln MKX
CAW VANS
Chrysler Town & Country
Dodge Grand Caravan
Volkswagen Routan
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
31
AP Photo
32
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
I
n 1970, the year President Nixon
signed legislation creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an estimated 18 out
of every 100,000 workers were killed on
the job – a total of nearly 14,000 dead.
OSHA marked the 40th anniversary
of its 1971 establishment this April, and
Americans can celebrate the fact that
workplaces today are safer and healthier
than they were when the agency was
created.
Workplace fatalities, injuries and
illnesses are down more than 65 percent
over the 40 years in part because of
OSHA and its efforts, even though U.S.
employment has almost doubled since
then to 130 million workers.
Despite this progress,
workers still face many
dangers. Every year, more
than 4,000 workers die on
the job and another 4 million plus suffer work-related injuries and illnesses.
“We’ve got a lot of
room to go,’’ USW member Mike Weibel said during an April 21
symposium on OSHA that was sponsored
by the Center for American Progress and
broadcast on C-SPAN.
Although speakers generally lauded
OSHA for its role in cutting workplace
deaths, they noted that the agency and
its rules still have room for improvement, and that OSHA continues to meet
company resistance most every step of
the way.
“OSHA doesn’t kill jobs,” Dr.
David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational
safety and health, said in refuting the latest argument against
OSHA. “It stops jobs from killing
workers.”
The founding of OSHA was
the result of a Republican
president cooperating
with Democrats for
the good of the country. Today, however,
Republicans are
seeking to substantially cut OSHA’s
budget.
After the Obama
administration
stepped up enforcement, hired more
inspectors and increased the budget,
Republicans in the House want to push
the pendulum back by cutting at least $99
million from the agency’s budget in this
fiscal year alone.
In its latest initiative, Michaels said
OSHA is trying to prevent unhealthy
or unsafe on-the-job conditions before
someone gets hurt or killed.
“These deaths and injuries are
preventable by simple precautions – a
harness to prevent a construction worker
from falling off a roof, for example, that
compliance with OSHA standards is
designed to prevent,’’ he said.
Weibel is currently a USW-Goodyear
Safety and Health Coordinator, a position
created jointly by the union and management. He travels to other
plants to advocate and
Mike Weibel
investigate safety and
health issues.
Both he and Kathy
Stoddard, a union-represented nurse from Allegheny General Hospital
in Pittsburgh, discussed
changes they had seen at work as a result
of OSHA.
A member of Local 307L and a third
generation tire worker at Goodyear,
Weibel said his interest in health and
safety activism began 25 years ago when
as a new hire he witnessed a co-worker
fatally crushed by a new machine with
inadequate guards.
“It’s an image you never forget,’’ said
Weibel, who conducts OSHA training
and has acted as a first responder, medical officer, emergency medical technical,
captain and safety officer.
When unions bargain with employers, one of the primary focuses is setting
standards for safety and health. Unions
fought to get OSHA passed in 1970 and
virtually all of the standards now in effect came about because unions petitioned OSHA for them.
Noting that he has a contract that
“gives me extra rights above and beyond
OSHA regulations,” Weibel said in too
many other cases today workers “don’t
have a voice” in the process.
“We just don’t have enough education
for the workers out there to know what
their rights are and how to utilize their
rights without fear of being disciplined or
being discharged,” he said.
Paul Ryan’s budget plan a disaster
The Republican budget, better known as the
Ryan plan after its architect, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan
(R-Wis.) would batter Alabama as hard as any
tornado.
That is because it would slash federal funding for “discretionary” governmental services,
like the disaster relief that Alabama Gov. Robert
Bentley sought from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency after the April 27 tornados
that killed more than 300 across the South.
Gov. Bentley, a Republican, runs a state that
rakes in $1.71 from the federal government for
every $1 paid by its citizens. He announced at his
inaugural that he would govern “without federal
interference,” then turned to the feds immediately when his state got in trouble, insisting on
an expedited emergency declaration that would
speed the flow of more federal dollars to Alabama.
Sending relief to tornado-ravaged states is exactly what Americans want their federal government to do. The government, President Obama
said in his April budget speech, should perform
those functions that individuals cannot do well
alone.
The Ryan plan, opposed by every House
Democrat and approved by every Republican but
four, would strip the federal government of the
ability to serve communities in need.
That is because it would further throw the
economy out of balance, further erode the social
compact that attempts to provide every American
citizen with equal opportunity as a birth right.
The Ryan budget institutionalizes inequality by
further cutting taxes for the rich and for corporations while simultaneously slashing the social
safety net programs that offer some semblance of
opportunity for America’s poor and middle class.
Ryan’s plan is this: tax breaks for the rich; austerity for the rest.
Will it eliminate the deficit?
Though Ryan claims his plan is a deficit
eliminating “Path to Prosperity,” that’s a long,
hypothetical time off. Because of Ryan’s tax
cuts for the rich, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that his plan would cause
deficits of between 3.5 and 4.5 percent of Gross
Domestic Product until sometime after 2040 and
that it wouldn’t achieve a balanced budget until
sometime after 2063.
What is not hypothetical, however, is the
plan’s massive, devastating cuts to social safety
net spending. It would destroy Medicare, converting it from a program that pays the medical
bills of senior citizens into a voucher program
that the CBO estimated would cost each beneficiary $6,000 a year. The Alliance for Retired
Americans has launched a campaign against the
Ryan plan called, “Don’t Make Us Work ‘Til We
Die.”
The plan also would drastically cut the
Medicaid program that provides nursing home
services for the elderly and health care for the
poor.
The Ryan plan means more uninsured nonelderly as well. It repeals the health insurance
reform law, eliminating subsidies to help 32 million uninsured Americans buy coverage beginning in 2014.
In addition, the Republican budget path decimates programs that create economic security
and opportunity for the non-elderly poor and
working class. That includes Pell grants and
other financial aid programs that enable youngsters from poor and middle-income homes to attend college. It includes secondary education and
Head Start. It includes rental assistance and food
stamps, funding for veterans, cancer research and
law enforcement.
Poor and middle class will struggle
While the poor and middle class will struggle
under the Ryan plan, the rich and the nation’s
corporations will profit.
As it stands now, they pay a lower percentage
of their earnings in federal income tax than the
poor and middle class do. Large numbers of corporations, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Bank
of America, Citigroup and the nation’s largest,
GE, paid absolutely no income taxes last year.
The 400 wealthiest Americans paid an effective
income tax rate of 16.6 percent in 2007, while
the majority of Americans paid 22.5 percent.
Now, Ryan and the Republicans propose to
cut by 29 percent the taxes for the corporations
that do pay something and on the rich. It’s not
like they don’t have the money to pay. In the
fourth quarter last year, profits at American businesses were up 29.2 percent, the fastest growth in
60 years. And top executives increased their own
pay by 12 percent, with the median $9.6 million
for those controlling the leading 200 companies.
This is discrimination in favor of the rich and
corporations.
It means states like Alabama would not get
the assistance they need after tragedies. Republicans like Gov. Bentley, who asked for federal
help, and who refused to cut Medicaid to balance his state budget, must join Democrats in
opposing Ryan’s plan, which destroys America’s
treasured equal opportunity.
There’s another choice – The People’s Budget, developed by the Congressional Progressive
Caucus. It provides a responsible alternative and
respects the American value of equity. It sustains
services and lowers the deficit more and faster
than Ryan’s plan by asking the rich and corporations to pay their fair share.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
33
NLRB Orders Reinstatement
A
n administrative law judge for the National Labor Relations Board has ordered a
Pennsylvania company to reinstate three USW members it declined to hire after purchasing a
metal coil coating facility.
The judge, David I. Goldman, cited anti-union animus in his decision against Wismarq Valencia,
which had rehired 20 of 23 USW-represented employees after it purchased a plant in Valencia, Pa.
from Ply Gem in August 2010.
Goldman found Wismarq violated the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to hire the three
employee applicants because of their support of the union. One of the employees was the local union
unit chair. Another employee said in his interview that he believed that the plant’s workers needed
a union, and the third employee raised questions relating to plant safety and was perceived by
management as being “very pro-union.” Judge Goldman ordered Wismarq to offer them their
previous jobs and pay them lost earnings.
Honeywell Confronted
Gerard Addresses London Rally
I
nternational President Leo W. Gerard delivered a message
of solidarity from North American workers to a massive
trade union rally in London called to protest cuts in education, health care and other public services in the United Kingdom.
“We will stand with you. We will march with you,” Gerard
said at the March 26 “March for an Alternative” rally, organized by the U.K.’s Trade Union Congress and attended by
500,000 protestors.
Gerard linked the resistance that he witnessed in the U.K.
to opposition in Wisconsin and other U.S. states to legislation
aimed at taking away bargaining rights of public employees.
“We will fight together with you to demand that our governments protect the rights of public employees and all workers,’’
Gerard told the crowd.
Photo by Mac Urata
L
ocal 7-669 members who
have been locked out of Honeywell’s uranium processing
plant in Metropolis, Ill., since last
June confronted management at its
annual shareholders meeting.
“We stood before the shareholders, challenging the top managers
on the millions of dollars wasted in
disrespecting the bargaining process
by locking us out, hiring union-busting consultants, and threatening the
community with unknown production standards by locking us out,’’
said Local President Darrell Lillie.
Prior to the meeting, union activists from Honeywell facilities across
the United States held a demonstration outside corporate headquarters
in Morristown, N.J.
Making Best of it
L
Reinstate TAA Funding, USW Urges
T
he USW is urging Congress to reinstate funding for the
enhanced Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program
that helps retrain workers who have lost jobs because of
trade agreements.
Services were slashed in February when Republicans in the
U.S. House of Representatives voted to block a bill that would
extend the program begun in 2009.
Up to 170,000 Americans could be affected, from laid-off
steelworkers who lost work to China to office workers whose
jobs were outsourced to India.
The Department of Labor will retain the program with reduced funding for one more year. If Congress does not reinstate
funding, tax-paying workers will lose a program that helps
American workers be competitive in a global economy.
34
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
ocal 878L PAC Chairman
Mike McKenzie, left, and
Recording Secretary Johnny
Dyer review a banner advertising a
“financial expo” for members at the
Goodyear Tire plant in Union City,
Tenn. The event was held on April
26 to help Local 878L families get
information on retirements, pensions
and other financial issues. Goodyear
announced Feb. 10 that the plant
will close this year. It employs 1,900
and had recently built its 450 millionth tire. A career day attended by
local colleges and technical schools
was held May 12.
ICD Demonstration House
U
SW members are building a small demonstration
house at the ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor plant in Indiana that will be used by the union’s Institute for Career Development to offer energy auditor training. Each side
of the house has different windows, siding, insulation and
stud placement. It is equipped with normal home mechanical
systems including a furnace, duct work and hot water heater.
The project is funded by a federal grant designed to provide
green jobs training in economically-distressed regions to dislocated workers and current Steelworkers interested in green
jobs or retrofitting their own homes.
Bhopal Revisited
U
SW Health Safety and Environment Director Mike
Wright was interviewed in April by National Geographic for a television show on the 1984 toxic gas
release at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India.
Wright was a member of an international team that
investigated the accident, one of the world’s worst industrial
catastrophes. Hundreds of thousands of people were exposed
to leaking methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals and
thousands of people died.
Trade Representative Visits IEB
U
nited States Trade Representative Ron Kirk, shown
with International President Leo W. Gerard and International Vice President Tom Conway, addressed the
USW’s International Executive Board at a closed meeting in
Pittsburgh. Kirk is a member of President Obama’s Cabinet
and serves as the president’s principal trade advisor, negotiator and spokesperson on trade issues.
Member Recognized at White House
U
SW member Karla Stansberry was recognized at a
White House forum commemorating Women’s History Month and the 100th anniversary of the Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
Stansberry, who was fired during an organizing drive
at Cenevo Envelope Co. in Kirksville, Mo., was one of 16
women who spoke about their unions during the March event
hosted by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
Stansberry was rehired with back pay. “I work hard to
support my children and to now have a union means that
if I am treated unfairly, I have someone to stand up for my
rights,’’ she said.
Also attending the event from the USW were Women of
Steel Director Ann Flener and organizer Maria Somma.
Welcome Home!
M
embers of Local 1034 at World Kitchen’s Pressware plant in Corning, N.Y., joined management in
welcoming home Robert Myles, who was deployed
with the U.S. military in Afghanistan for more than a year.
Myles was met at the door on his first day back at work
with banners, cheers,
handshakes and hugs.
The plant makes Corelle
brand dinnerware and
co-workers presented
him with a signed platter
decorated with a decal of
a welcome-home poster
designed in house.
Season of Safety
P
aper locals across the country participated in a National
Day of Action on Workers Memorial Day April 28 to
kick off a yearlong “Season of Safety” campaign aimed
at making facilities safer and refocusing the industry on finding and fixing hazards. Local 266 officers and safety advocates at Appleton Papers in West Carrollton, Ohio, pictured
above, showed up early to start the campaign at their local.
Each paper local distributed “Fix the Hazards” stickers and
flyers explaining the program.
U S W @ Wo r k • S p r i n g 2 0 1 1
35
Have You Moved?
Notify your local union financial secretary, or clip out this form
with your old address label and send your new address to:
USW@Work
USW Membership Department,
3340 Perimeter Hill Drive, Nashville, TN 37211
Name ______________________________________
New Address ________________________________
City ________________________________________
State _________________________ Zip _________
5/11/10Ed Artic, 59Agrium Inc.
5/18/10
Mark Ferguson, 42
Buckeye Tech
5/23/10
Steve Mangona, 61
Unilever
6/12/10
Andrew Robinson, 31
Newman Paper
6/15/10
Lakeya Stallings, 30
Temple Inland Inc.
6/18/10
Timothy A. Bush, 29
US Siver Corp. (Galena Mine)
6/20/10
Thomas Benavidez, 52
Groupo Mexico (Asarco Ray Mine)
6/27/10
Jonathan Wager, 32
Clearwater Paper
6/30/10
John Bergen III, 35
Clearwater Paper
7/22/10James Taylor, 53Horsehead Corp.
7/22/10
Corey Keller, 41
Horsehead Corp.
7/29/10
Jackie Williams, 40
Monarch Tile
8/8/10
Denton Haske, 61
Interlake Steamship
8/10/10
Phillip Porter, 51
Gerdau Steel
8/11/10Glenn Kowis, 50Shell
8/31/10
Nikolas Kochaniuk, 51
Boise Cascade Corp.
9/29/10Kelly Caudal, 56Pilkington
10/6/10
Gregory Starkey, 33
Exxon Mobil (Team Inc.)
10/17/10 Dale Lentz, 63
BAE Systems
10/18/10
Apolonio Arras, 57
ArcelorMittal (Vinton)
10/19/10
John Mays, 49
Bush Burchett Corp.
10/20/10
Jason Ham, 33
ArcelorMittal (Indiana Harbor)
11/9/10
Rich Folaron, 57
DuPont (Mollenberg-Betz)
12/3/10
Ashley Weikel, 44
King Carriers Inc.
12/5/10
Marvin Krueger, 56
Cypress Technologies
2/01/11
Samuel Moyers, 33
ArcelorMittal (Bayou Steel Plant)
2/10/11
Angel Linares, 51
Franklin Empire Co.
2/12/11
Paul Benes, 39
Erie Coke Corp.
2/16/11
Arthur Smith, 57
Republic Steel (SES Inc.)
3/08/11
Charles Landers, 43
Allegheny Ludlum (Crane One)
3/27/11Joseph White, 48ABC Coke
3/31/11
Forrest Brent Finley, 61
AK Steel Coke Plant (Dixon Electrical)
4/14/11
David Roy, 47
Dow Chemical
4/14/11
Dannie Garver, 42
Dow Chemical
4/15/11
Larry Marek, 53
Hecla Mining Co.
4/22/11
Shawn Dixon, 31
Canton Drop Forge
Each year on April 28,
Workers Memorial Day,
Steelworkers join working
people throughout the world
in remembering our brothers
and sisters who were killed
or injured on the job during
the previous year. It’s a time
to reflect and recommit to the
struggle for safe workplaces.