Workers Struggles in America

Ontario premier feigns support for locked out Electro-Motive workers

February 1, 2012

Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) President Ken Lewenza has praised Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty for a speech he gave Tuesday in which he criticized Caterpillar-owned Electro-Motive for spurning “the balanced, made-in-Ontario approach” to labor relations that “requires that unions and management sit down and talk to try to work out their differences.”

Five weeks ago, Caterpillar locked out 470 workers at Electro-Motive’s London, Ontario diesel locomotive plant, after the workers rejected the company’s demands for a more than 50 percent wage cut, the destruction of their pension plan, and other sweeping concessions.

Speaking before the London Chamber of Commerce, McGuinty said he does “not look to insinuate myself into” contract disputes. “But this one strikes me as a little bit different.” His staff later told reporters that the Ministry of Labour was “reaching out” to Caterpillar to encourage it to resume negotiations with the CAW. The premier hinted that the province would be ready to work with other levels of government to provide tax or other benefits to Caterpillar if it scaled back its concession demands and desisted from shutting the London facility.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, Lewenza, whose CAW is the bargaining agent for the Electro-Motive workers, “thanked” McGuinty for “his support.”

Arkansas Cooper Tire local ratifies contract

January 27, 2012

The sellout contract orchestrated between Cooper Tire Company and the United Steelworkers (USW) union in Texarkana, Arkansas was ratified yesterday, leaving 1,050 locked-out workers in Findlay, Ohio isolated.

From what was a powerful position to unite Cooper Tire workers from both plants in a struggle against the company’s determination to impose concessions, the future of the struggle of the Findlay workers has been made more problematic.

USW Local 752L refused to release details of the proposed contract until the after the vote, but meanwhile participated in a media whitewashing of Cooper’s duplicitous attitude towards their employees. President David Boone issued a public statement before the vote, saying, “Of all the negotiations I have been involved with, this one was conducted in the most professional manner. The local community should be proud of the negotiation teams that worked to keep good jobs in Texarkana.”

These words deserve to come back to haunt Boone.

The Cooper Tire lockout and the lowering of US wages

January 26, 2012

Locked-out Cooper Tire workers in Findlay, Ohio

On the picket lines in Findlay, Ohio, important political questions are emerging as Cooper Tire workers grapple with the issues posed by their nearly two-month struggle.

A question frequently put to reporters from the World Socialist Web Site by the workers, who are resisting the company’s wage-cutting demands, is: “How can the economy function if wages are driven so low that workers can no longer afford the commodities they produce?”

Workers approach this question very practically. The lowering of wages leads to falling demand and lower sales. Why would the corporations cut off their noses to spite their faces? It seems to defy common sense.

The first thing to be said is that the experience of the parents and grandparents of the Findlay workers, whereby a manufacturing worker, especially at a unionized company, could expect to earn a decent wage and have decent benefits, is by no means the historical norm in America. The ability of American industrial workers to have a reasonably secure and even comfortable existence was entirely the result of bitter, bloody and protracted struggles involving millions and spanning decades.

United States Postal Service ends negotiations with two unions

January 25, 2012

Contract negotiations between the United States Postal Service (USPS) and two of its unions, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) ended last Friday with the USPS rejecting any further extensions to bargaining.

According to the NALC web site, “The USPS declined to extend collective-bargaining negotiations with the NALC, triggering an impasse that will automatically send the matter to mediation.” If mediation proves unsuccessful the next step is arbitration under a supposedly “neutral” arbitrator. Postal employees are legally prohibited from striking.

Both unions’ contracts expired last November without a new agreement after several months of negotiations failed to arrive at a replacement. Since then the parties have extended negotiations three times.

Three postal unions’ contracts have now expired without new agreements to replace them. The National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) reached an impasse in its negotiations in November of 2010 and, after the failure of mediation efforts, is currently in arbitration.

Unions isolate Cooper Tire workers in Ohio

January 24, 2012

The struggle by Cooper Tire workers in Findlay, Ohio is being deliberately isolated by the United Steelworkers union, which is blocking joint action with workers also facing concessions at the company’s Arkansas plant.

The local union in Texarkana, Arkansas—USW Local 752L—reached a deal for a new four-year agreement shortly before the contract expired January 20. Workers there will meet and vote on the agreement Thursday. The union has refused to reveal the terms of deal, which covers 1,500 workers.

The sellout in Arkansas comes as the struggle by 1,050 Cooper Tire workers in Ohio enters its ninth week. The workers were locked out on November 28 and scabs brought in to replace them after they rejected the implementation of a new “flexible” pay system that would lead to wage cuts of up to 40 percent.

Industry insiders have pointed to the significance of the USW action. “Cooper Tire & Rubber’s fears of concurrent production stoppages at two of its major US plants have been allayed with the reaching of a tentative agreement for workers at its Texarkana facility,” stated Tyre Industry Publications Ltd, a European tire industry publication.

The unions and the lockouts at Cooper Tire and Caterpillar

January 23, 2012

As the lockouts of workers at Cooper Tire in Findlay, Ohio and Caterpillar’s Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, Ontario enter their ninth and fourth weeks, respectively, the unions involved are working deliberately to isolate the struggles and ensure defeat.

In the US, the United Steel Workers (USW) reached a tentative four-year agreement covering the 1,500 workers at the Cooper Tire plant in Texarkana, Arkansas over the weekend. The move, hailed by the company, is aimed at preventing any unified struggle of the workers at Cooper’s two main US plants.

Confident in its ability to crush the Findlay workers with the help of the USW, Cooper announced that it is beginning to ship out equipment from the Ohio plant, an initial step toward shutting it down altogether.

The 1,050 Findlay workers were locked out November 28 after they rejected massive concessions. They have been strung out by the union without strike pay, subsisting on meager food card rations.

California food workers union reaches agreement with Food 4 Less

January 23, 2012

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) has reached an agreement with the Food 4 Less supermarket chain in Southern California. The deal increases wages for some while increasing the amount grocery workers are required to contribute to their own health care, effectively cutting wages.

Workers at Food 4 Less voted on January 10 to ratify the new contract. The chain, owned by parent company Kroger, has 11 stores in the San Diego area, with about 1,000 local workers.. Full details of the contract have not been made available, and the union did not release the vote tally. It is likely workers were asked by the union to vote on a contract without having complete information about it.

The new contract was ostensibly necessary to close the hourly wage gap between Food 4 Less workers and those at Ralphs. However, the contract includes up to a week worker contributions for health care. This increase mirrors that of the recent UCFW contract with Southern California supermarket chains Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons, which requires workers to pay a week for individual insurance, and a week for families. This amounts to a 5 percent pay reduction for a minimum wage worker. Previously, newer workers paid up to a week for health insurance, while other workers had no paycheck deductions.

Texarkana Cooper Tire local to vote on settlement while Findlay workers remain locked out

January 20, 2012

United Steelworkers (USW) Local 752L issued a joint statement with Cooper Tire & Rubber announcing a tentative contract agreement shortly after midnight Thursday when the contract for 1,500 workers at the Texarkana, Arkansas plant expired. No details were released.

The existing contract was extended until the holding of a ratification vote. Both the union and the company withheld information on the proposed deal until after the vote, which, according to the Local 752L web site, will be held Thursday, January 26.

With this action, the USW leadership has deliberately isolated 1,050 locked-out workers at the Cooper Tire home plant in Findlay, Ohio. They are in the ninth week of a lockout imposed by the company when the workers rejected sweeping new concessions demands, including changes that would slash wages. The USW, however, has rejected any action to halt the company’s use of strikebreakers or mobilize the broad support that exists in the working class for the locked out workers.

New York City transit contract expires without a strike

January 16, 2012

TWU rally

Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, representing about 35,000 New York City bus and subway workers, refused to call a job action after the union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) failed to reach an agreement by the time the existing contract expired at midnight Sunday.

While the talks are taking place behind closed doors, the transit agency, after the deadline had passed, issued a statement affirming that the MTA and the union “remain far apart”.

Formal negotiations began only about a week ago, when the transit authority demanded either a wage freeze or productivity increases that would pay for any pay hike. The MTA is also seeking a whole gamut of other major concessions designed to dramatically reduce labor costs and the living standards of transit workers.

These concessions include the elimination of the guaranteed 40-hour week by introducing part-time workers and a dramatic increase in what workers pay for their health benefits, resulting in a huge pay cut. In addition, the MTA is demanding changes as to how overtime is calculated to reduce overtime pay, reduction of night differential pay, more disciplinary rules for the use of sick time, the broad-banding of job titles in order to increase productivity, a dramatic reduction in pay for newly hired transit cleaners and a reduction in vacation time for new hires.

New York transit agency demands draconian worker givebacks

January 13, 2012

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) formally presented its concessions demands this week, only days before the contract deadline for some 35,000 bus and subway workers in New York City.

The transit agency is insisting on a three-year wage freeze along with a host of other major concessions. The givebacks include the elimination of the guaranteed 40-hour work week, with the introduction of part-time bus operators. A proposal to approximately double the amount workers pay for their health care coverage would be the equivalent of a huge pay cut.

Other MTA demands include reduced vacation days for new-hires, a cut in night differential pay, the broadbanding of job titles in order to increase productivity, a dramatic cut in pay for newly hired transit cleaners, changes in overtime rules that would cut overtime pay, and new disciplinary rules to discourage the use of sick time.