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10555_Reg_Mag.indd 1
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INSIDEUSW@WORK
“
I’m so happy we have a union and a contract. Now we get to take
our breaks. If we’re thirsty we can drink water … and all of the
hours we work are in our paycheck. But the biggest difference is we
finally get respect as workers.
Oliverio Gomez
Car wash worker and new member of Local 675
”
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
08
Stan Johnson
Int’l. Secretary-Treasurer
Thomas M. Conway
Int’l. Vice President
(Administration)
Fred Redmond
(Human Affairs)
12
LOCKED OUT
INTERNATIONAL PAPER
After earning more than $300 million in profits
over three years, Cooper Tire locked out 1,051
USW members at its Findlay, Ohio, production
facility on Nov. 28.
USW members ratify a four-year master economic and security agreement with International
Paper. Other contract settlements are reached
with Domtar and Georgia Pacific box plants.
Ken Neumann
Nat’l. Dir. for Canada
Jon Geenen
Gary Beevers
Carol Landry
Vice President at Large
DIRECTORS
David R. McCall, District 1
Michael Bolton, District 2
Stephen Hunt, District 3
14
24
OIL BARGAINING
CORELLE PLANT EXPANDS
National contract talks with the oil industry involve 36 companies, including the nation’s largest refiners, and 130 USW locals that represent
approximately 30,000 workers.
F E AT U R E S
Speaking Out
CAPITOL LETTERS
News Bytes
Union Security Clause
International demand for USW-produced
Corelle dinnerware prompts World Kitchen
to spend $50 million on expanding a plant in
Corning, N.Y.
ON THE COVER
03
32
33
35
Darci Klotz, a USW member at Regal Ware in Wisconsin, puts the finishing
touches on American-made cookware. See story on page 04.
John Shinn, District 4
Daniel Roy, District 5
Wayne Fraser, District 6
Jim Robinson, District 7
Volume 07/No.1 Winter 2012
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 ommunications S taff :
Jim McKay, Editor
Wayne Ranick, Director of Communications
Gary Hubbard, Director of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.
Aaron Hudson and Kenny Carlisle, Designers
Deb Davidek, Chelsey Engel, Lynne Hancock,
Tony Montana, Barbara White Stack.
Contributors:
Jim Coleman and Connie Mabin, New Media Department
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 2012 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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Let’s Bang Pots
Want to start a national peaceful support mechanism for the Occupy movement? Banging on pots
with spoons each evening is a good way to start.
Governments in Argentina, Chile and elsewhere were brought down by ordinary citizens
banging pots with cooking spoons. On the streets
where they live organized groups go outside for 10
minutes to bang a pot at whatever time best suits
their purpose.
The racket will definitely get attention, and
soon the entire neighborhood could be banging
along with us. Maybe then we can together change
the way Washington works.
Estelle Leighton
Saxapahaw, N.C.
RG Steel Layoffs
Just before Christmas, RG Steel gave employees a present – laid off until further notice!
There’s no doubt that 2012 will bring big
changes in RG Steel’s operations at Sparrows
Point. There have been many calls to Baltimore
County Councilman John Olszewski from upset
employees who fear a permanent shutdown.
Let’s hope that RG Steel sticks to what they
said: “RG Steel symbolizes the dawning of a new
day in steel production and service. We are creating a pathway to a brighter future for our customers, employees and communities.”
Only time will tell if they are speaking the
truth.
LeRoy R. McClelland Sr., Retiree
Local 9477, Essex , Md.
Editor’s note: At press time, RG Steel issued
a recall notice to 500 laid-off USW members
at Sparrows Point and separately announced a
breakthrough in the company’s drive to secure additional financing to ramp up production overall.
As the writer notes, however, only time will tell.
Working as a Team
I thank God that 230 USW members stuck together and won a long, hard battle against Honeywell in Metropolis, Ill. The company thought it had
bested them by hiring scabs with no experience,
which they found out didn’t work.
Now, make sure that the company lives up to
the contract. Good luck to the workers who got
back to work doing so with pride and solidarity.
Richard Vogt, Retiree
Local 1115, Waukegan, Ill.
Who’s Entitlement?
I resent politicians’ constant referral to my
health insurance, Social Security, and Medicare
as “entitlements.” I have earned and paid out
of pocket for these things for 59 years – since I
started working at the age of 16. It also occurs to
me that I pay taxes which provide for the politicians’ pay, insurance, and retirement – to which
they contribute nothing.
Now who’s going to try to cut my benefits? The
same people who feel entitled to let us foot the bill
for their benefits in addition to our own.
Ellen LaFemina
Associate Member, Ashland, Mass.
Fighting Back
I am so happy to know that the unions are fighting back against corporate and Wall Street greed.
An uncle once told me that if it wasn’t for unions,
everybody would be working for $5 an hour.
Over the last 15 years, I have seen many good
jobs leave my area, and it scares and depresses me.
When I was small, my grandfather explained
the difference between Republicans and Democrats. He said the Republicans were for the
wealthy and the Democrats were for the working
class. The problem is I don’t think any politicians
are for the working class anymore. They are controlled by big corporations and Wall Street.
Pete Raschke
Associate Member, Ashland, Ohio
Nation is Crumbling
The last I heard, there are about five people
in desperate need of a job for every job opening,
meaning that a whole lot of Americans are left behind with no means of providing for their families.
The nation has been crumbling from the bottom
up and as long as we won’t acknowledge today’s
poverty, there is no chance of restoring the middle
class.
D.H. Fabian
Fort Atkinson, Wis.
Stay Strong
Just want to remind my union brothers and sisters to stay strong and fight for a better way of life
for all of our union brothers. It is hard in a Rightto-Work state, but there is power in numbers!
Dennis Coleman
Local 8888, Heathsville, Va.
Inspired to Fight Back
What has inspired me to stand up and fight
back is the debt I owe to those who have fought
before me to give my family and myself the
benefits we enjoy today and to help ensure that the
workers who come after me are not left behind.
We need to preserve what we have and build on
it, not go back. Solidarity now and forever!
Mike Polkki
Local 4974, Ishpeming, Mich.
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:
[email protected]
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
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W
atching Steelworker
Rodney Kutz at work, it’s
obvious that he is skilled
at his craft – casting
molten aluminum into cookware at the
Regal Ware plant in Kewaskum, Wis.
“There is a lot of pride in the cookware that we make here at Regal Ware,”
Kutz said as he prepared a mold for a
dutch oven that would be finished down
the line in merlot porcelain with a hard
non-stick interior.
USW-represented production workers at Regal Ware, a Wisconsin maker
of stainless steel and cast aluminum
cookware, are working hard to sustain a
100-year tradition of made-in-America
quality in a punishing global marketplace.
Regal Ware, its employees and their
communities have been pummeled by
the recession, outsourcing and cheap
imports from China. Yet they are betting the company can survive in its
second century by staying true to a
commitment to make good products
in the United States with a skilled and
experienced union work force.
“It’s a very competitive market, but
what differentiates us from imports is
our attention to detail and the quality of
our products,” said Tim Gintner, vice
president of Local 850. “We’re very
proud of it.”
Union for 70 years
The family-owned business, whose
workers have been union represented
for some 70 years, operates plants in
Kewaskum and nearby West Bend, the
larger of the two facilities. It marked
the 100th anniversary of its West Bend
division last September with a community celebration.
“We look forward to the next 100
years,’’ said Local 850 President Carol
Vetter, who credited the cooperative
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Photos by Jeff Barger
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y Jeff Barger
Chris Nellessen
Rodney Kutz
relationship between the union and the
company for its century of success.
President and CEO Jeffrey Reigle
describes employees as family and
brags about their attention to quality
and the pride they show in what they
do. He said the cooperative relationship
with the union dates to his grandfather,
company founder James O. Reigle.
More than 80 percent of the current
employees have been with the company
25 or 30 years and more, some representing second, third and even fourth
generations of their families in the work
force.
“They are craftsmen at their work,
and making stuff in the United States is
what drives our economy. We all know
that,’’ said Michael Bolton, director
of District 2, based in Menasha, Wis.
“I’m proud we have this company in
the district that knows the value and
importance of making products in the
United States.”
Companies, local unions merge
Regal Ware and the former West
Bend Co., once friendly competitors
located just ten miles apart, separately
manufactured cookware until Regal
Ware bought its rival’s assets in
2002.
When the two companies merged,
so did two proud union locals – 849
and 865. They both joined the USW
through the 2005 merger of PACE
and the United Steelworkers of
America.
Both locals started out in the
1940s as the UAW-CIO and went
through name changes and mergers
including the Allied Industrial Workers of America (AIW), the United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU)
and PACE before becoming USW.
At their peak in the mid-1970s,
membership was over 2,000 at
Patricia Roecker
Local 865 at West Bend while Local
849 at Regal Ware had 850 members.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle for
everything to merge together – two
different work forces that were competitive with each other, two different
locals who had their own ways of doing
things. But you know what? It’s turned
out pretty damn good,’’ said David
Feucht, a long-time union activist who
is a member of the Local 850 bargaining committee.
Ups and downs
The recession and imports have
taken a toll on jobs. Today, fewer than
300 members of the local produce stainless steel, multi-ply and cast aluminum
cookware for a variety of Regal Ware
brands and customers. They also make
large stainless steel and aluminum
coffee urns sold under the West Bend
name and water purifiers and filtration
systems.
Employment is down from 560
members at the time of the merger less
than a decade ago. But the local union
reported work had picked up somewhat
at year’s end, allowing most members
on layoff with recall rights to return.
“
It’s a very competitive
market, but what
differentiates us from
imports is our attention to
detail and the quality of
our products.
”
“We’ve had ups and downs. It’s not
as great as it used to be but, of course,
the economy hasn’t been great either,’’
said Feucht. “I always say, if things are
Dave Laufer
tough in the economy, who is going to
buy pots and pans when they have other
bills to take care of?”
It’s important, though, to maintain
manufacturing and skilled jobs here in
the United States. “We’re losing our
history of manufacturing,’’ said Feucht,
who has 47 years of service between the
two companies.
“I don’t know what else I would
have enjoyed doing,” he added. “I’ve
managed to have a good-paying job and
have been involved with the union for
about 35 years.”
New American Kitchen brand
Known for direct selling, the company recently re-entered the retail market with a new brand of stainless steel
cookware called American Kitchen by
Regal Ware that is available at certain
retail stores and online. (See page seven
on how to find Regal Ware.)
The American Kitchen line includes
cookware with a stainless steel encapsulated aluminum disk that is impact
bonded to the bottom – the only product
of its kind made in the United States –
as well as clad metal tri-ply cookware
and stainless bakeware.
Regal Ware’s direct sales brands
– Saladmaster, Kitchen Fair, Classica
Gold, Royal Queen and Lifetime –
are available only through authorized
distributors. The company also does
contract private label manufacturing.
In 2008 Regal Ware started shipping American-made cookware to
Taiwan and China and today over
half – 55 percent – of Regal Ware’s
sales are outside the United States.
Japan, Korea and Indonesia are good
markets for the company. Western
Europe is growing.
“There is a prestige in owning a
high quality set of American cookware,
particularly in Asia,” said Reigle, who
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has brought back to Wisconsin work
once done by contract manufacturers
in China.
Getting started
Regal Ware got its start in 1945.
James O. Reigle, Jeffrey Reigle’s
grandfather, sold cookware door to
door before he and two associates
purchased the Kewaskum Aluminum Co., originally incorporated in
1919. They opened as the Kewaskum
Utensil Co., which was renamed
Regal Ware in 1951.
West Bend, incorporated in 1911
as the West Bend Aluminum Co.,
started out in an old button factory
along the Milwaukee River, making
frying pans, sauce pans, pie plates
and water dippers. Over the years,
it changed hands several times, and
was once owned by the drug store
company Rexall and Kraft Inc.
During its heyday, West Bend
branched out into manufacturing a
wide range of small electrical appliances including such things as bread
makers, corn poppers, electric timers
and vegetable cutters.
Production of West Bend’s small
kitchen appliances were outsourced
to lower-wage countries including
China well before the asset sale to
Regal Ware in 2002. Losing the jobs
in electrical products was devastating
to the West Bend work force and the
memory of that downsizing remains.
“We lost a lot of jobs to overseas,
especially all of the electric lines, the
appliances. They are all gone,” said
production worker Anna Way, who
started at West Bend 41 years ago
at age 17 and now works for Regal
Ware. “Hopefully, we can get some
of that back. We need the jobs.”
Tom Gassner
Not long after the merger, Regal
Ware sold the West Bend brand name
for appliances to the Focus Products
Group, based in Illinois, but continues to make large coffee urns under
the West Bend name.
Many of the products that are no
longer in production can be found in
the West Bend Co./Regal Ware museum in West Bend that was opened
in 2008 by a local historical society
to honor the industry’s contribution
to the region.
Quality all the way
Today cookware is made using
lean manufacturing techniques. The
union and management have together
over the years optimized the flow of
work with an eye towards increasing
efficiency and eliminating waste.
Production is scheduled according to actual demand from customers
using a pull, or kanban, process that
tracks when inventory must be replenished. That allows the company
to control costs by avoiding overproduction.
Manufacturing is organized in
departments with workers making
a product from start to finish. That,
said John Butzlaff, who is on the
bargaining and safety committees,
makes individuals more responsible
for the quality of what they make.
“We are very quality conscious
all the way through,” Butzlaff said.
Safety committee members participate in regular plant walks aimed
at locating and addressing problems. “We look for things. We talk
to people on the floor and ask them
if they have issues and we red tag
anything brought up to us so it gets
fixed,’’ Butzlaff said. “We try and get
Sandy Mueller
Leo Emmer
Kathy Panzer
Photos by Jeff Barger
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the word out to our members if they
have problems to make sure they
bring them forth, don’t work with
something that’s not right.”
Standing behind quality
Darci Klotz
Union members randomly interviewed during a tour of both factories all expressed pride in their work
and pointed out the quality of what
they were making.
“This weighs about eight
pounds,’’ Darci Klotz said as she put
a large dutch oven through a series
of industrial sanders to brighten its
bottom. “It’s really heavy but it lasts
forever.”
Klotz blamed the economy and
shoppers who aren’t concerned about
where the products they buy are
made. “People don’t buy American
made,’’ she said. “They should look
at the tags, see if it’s made in the
USA, and buy those products.”
Kathie Mielkie replaces handles
and knobs and otherwise repairs
cookware products that consumers
have returned. Items with a lifetime
warranty are replaced if they can’t
be fixed.
“We all try to do our best and
put out a good product. If something
malfunctions through no fault of
the customer, then we repair it or do
right by it,’’ she said as she worked
on a well-used, scorched pot that
came in the daily returns. “We stand
behind what we produce.”
Leo Emmer was working on a
huge draw press that pounds metal
in the shape of cookware products.
With his arms attached to safety
cords that pull back and keep his
hands from being crushed, he took
the time to look at each piece for
imperfections.
“This is good stuff,’’ he said as
he showed off a cleanly pressed
piece. “If you’re not doing the job
right, you’re not doing any favors for
anybody.”
Tom Gassner was working in the
tool and die shop making an assembly fixture to hold pot covers in
place. The shop makes tools used in
the manufacturing process.
“We try to make quality – everything right,’’ he said.
We need the jobs here
Jacki Metz applies non-stick
coatings to pots and pans in Kewaskum and oversees a nearby operation
where castings are milled and holes
are drilled for handles.
“We make improvements. We
try to be efficient,” said Metz, who
describes herself as “very proud” of
the work she has been doing for 43
years. Yet she admits to taking worries about the job home with her at
the end of a shift.
“Sometimes I feel underappreciated for what we do here,’’ she said.
“I think we make the best cookware
in the world but we can’t sell enough
of it here. That’s awful. This is all
very high quality stuff.”
Myra Gunnare was working at
rapid pace on an assembly line building coffee urns. She spoke briefly as
she tested spout assemblies for leaks
and bolted them in place.
“It looks a lot harder than it really is. It’s a nice job,’’ said Gunnare,
never stopping her hands. “We need
to keep jobs in the United States.
We need them here, not in China or
anyplace else.”
How to Buy Regal Ware
Theresa Genger
Myra Gunnare
The new American Kitchen by Regal Ware brand is
available at select retail stores in many states and online
through Internet retailers and the company’s own website. Go to Regal Ware’s website, www.regalware.com.,
for a list of retail stores and online retailers.
The company’s direct sales brands – Saladmaster,
Kitchen Fair, Classica Gold, Royal Queen and Lifetime
– are available only through authorized independent
distributors. E-mail Regal Ware at [email protected]
to obtain contact information for the nearest distributor.
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IP negaotiation
Photos by Pat Garin
U
SW members ratified a four-year master economic and security agreement
with International Paper (IP) that covers 5,700 workers at corrugated box
and container plants around the United States.
The ratification, announced on Dec. 19,
followed two weeks of voting at local unions
representing workers at 43 IP converter plants in
23 states.
“These negotiations are strategically important for our union and our members in the
converting sector of the paper industry,” said
International President Leo W. Gerard. “A large
percentage of our paper membership works
in the converting sector and IP is the largest
company, so our success here sets a standard
for bargaining and relationships throughout the
industry.”
The goal going into the negotiations was to
reach an agreement that raises the standard of
living and enhances security for USW members
at represented plants. Success came in nearly
every major economic category.
The newly ratified labor agreement includes
wage increases in each year and maintains and
builds upon health care offerings. It also contains improvements in the 401(k), life insurance,
short-term disability and survivor benefits as
well as job security, safety and other enhancements.
Solid wage increases
“This agreement provides for solid wage
increases for the workers in this industry who
are affected the most by our current economic
environment and contains a health care plan
8
uniquely adapted to converter members,” said
Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson, who chairs
the USW IP Union Council.
“These achievements are a testament to the
solidarity of our IP converter locals,” he said.
“Their active participation and voice made all of
the difference in these negotiations.”
Success was not easy
The bargaining success was not easy. The
industry has been under immense pressure for
the last few decades and, as a result, over 80 box
shops have been permanently shuttered since
1980.
The economic decline that began in 2008
has hurt consumer spending and when consumers spend less, fewer boxes are needed.
The outsourcing of manufacturing to Asia
has also hurt the domestic corrugated
industry and continues to hold down
growth.
In the years since the 2005 merger
with PACE, the USW has changed
bargaining in the paper sector.
Historically paper locals bargained
agreements site by site while management was clearly implementing a national corporate wide
strategy. Today, more and more
locals are consolidating their
power and bargaining key economic issues at a national table
leading to better agreements
and more stablility.
Local union leaders were
involved in every step of the
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“
“
These negotiations are
strategically important for
our union and our members
in the converting sector of
the paper industry.
Our strong local
union leadership and
membership solidarity
made the entire process
successful.
Leo W. Gerard
Jon Geenen
”
process including developing the agenda, mobilizing members for a better deal and direct
engagement in the bargaining.
Process successful
“Our strong local union leadership and
membership solidarity made the entire process
successful, and allowed everyone to have a
role in reaching an agreement with IP that benefits all parties and ensures a vibrant industry
going forward,” said International Vice President Jon Geenen, who leads the USW’s paper
industry bargaining.
The process allowed for the involvement
of local union leaders from Weyerhaeuser’s
containerboard packaging and recycling business, which was sold to IP in 2008 after the
USW bargained the first master agreement
for converters.
IP has also announced a merger with
Temple-Inland Inc., which was under
review by the U.S. Department of
Justice at press time. If completed,
that merger would bring 30 more
union shops into the system.
In an introduction to the contract summary, the bargaining
committee gave credit for the
negotiating success to local
union members and leaders
who built essential solidarity through the USW IP
Union Council.
The committee also
cited USW International
leaders and staff who used
”
institutional resources to improve the company’s success through legislative and policy
efforts on the black liquor tax credit, boiler
MACT rules, recycling, trade and a host of
other issues facing the industry. All of those
efforts raised the union’s level of credibility at
the bargaining table and led to a much improved offer.
The second generation master agreement
does not replace local bargaining but establishes certain economic and security items that will
be incorporated into each local union’s next
renewal agreement.
Paper mills settled earlier
The converter agreement was the second
settlement of the year with IP. Last May, USW
members at 15 local unions ratified a four-year
contract covering 6,000 workers at the company’s paper mills.
The paper mill agreement also set a bargaining standard for the industry. It was
approved by a 73 percent voting margin following a recommendation for approval by an
80-member bargaining committee.
As the first second generation master
economic agreement in the industry, it built on
a previous contract that gave USW members
benchmark language to protect them in the
event of a sale.
The agreement included wage increases in
each year of the agreement, improvements to
pensions and 401(k) retirement savings plans,
health care cost stabilization and employment
security.
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U
Photos by Earl Dotter
W
ages, benefits and job
security were improved
in a four-year master
agreement covering USW
members at 13 Georgia Pacific (GP)
box plants in 11 states.
The improvements negotiated in the
master agreement, which was ratified
late last year, will be incorporated into
each local union’s next renewal agreement.
The gains, including a $1,000 cash
payment in the first year of the agreement and 2 percent wage increases in
each of the final three years, were made
possible by the solidarity of the local
leaders and members, said International
Vice President Jon Geenen, who leads
the USW’s paper industry bargaining.
10
SW members at Domtar, the
paper company, opened the
year with a new four-year
master agreement that covers
more than 3,000 workers at nine locations in seven states.
The ratification was announced
Dec. 1 after local union members voted
to approve the agreement in November
balloting. The settlement followed a
week of negotiations in Nashville over
key economic and security issues and a
year of strategic planning and meetings.
International President Leo W. Gerard said the negotiations were important for the union and the paper sector.
Domtar is the largest uncoated free sheet
paper producer in North America and
“Like GP depends on their productivity, our strength depends upon our
members’ solidarity,” Geenen said. “As
a result, we have improved their long
and short-term financial security and
made many other gains in this agreement.”
Focus on coordination
In 2007, USW locals began to
refocus on coordination and council
building, which ultimately led to better
agreements. The first framework for
GP box shops in 2008 led to the return
of 80/20 percent cost sharing in health
care, and an 8 percent improvement in
wages and pension increases.
While successful, the process lacked
direct membership involvement beyond
setting the basic bargaining agenda. In
this round, local unions were brought
into the process. For the first time in the
company’s history, local leaders directly
dealt with the most influential people in
the corporation to reach an agreement.
“This process allowed everyone to
have a role in establishing the economic
pattern for bargaining,” Geenen said.
The master agreement deals with
specific economic issues and certain
security items like successorship and
safety. It does not change the normal
expiration of any local union agreement.
Local expiration dates vary through
Dec. 31, 2014.
The 13 box plants covered in this
master agreement include Owosso and
Milan, Mich.; Mt. Wolf and Bradford,
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“
This agreement demonstrates that it’s possible for labor
and management to work together to retain viable familysupporting, green jobs in North America with good wages,
benefits and working conditions.
Leo W. Gerard
the second largest globally. It produces
papers and pulp and operates a network
of distribution facilities.
“This agreement demonstrates that
it’s possible for labor and management
to work together to retain viable familysupporting, green jobs in North America
with good wages, benefits and working
conditions,” Gerard said.
The pact is the second master agreement for Domtar’s USW-represented
employees. The first, negotiated in early
2008, changed the previous practice of
bargaining site by site.
“For this second-generation master,
the company recognized the value of
working with the union and its locals
to craft a package that addressed issues
facing both parties, like health care,
pension and protection for workers in a
declining industry,” said International
Vice President Jon Geenen, who leads
bargaining in the paper sector.
There were gains in every economic
area of the agreement and opportunities for more during local bargaining.
Those gains included a 2 percent wage
increase in each year and transition to a
new health care plan described as one of
the best in the industry.
The agreement also provides for
wage retention in the event of a machine
or department shutdown and worker
protections in the event of a sale, merger
or other corporate transaction.
A 35-person bargaining committee
”
represented USW members at the nine
locations: Port Huron, Mich.; Nekoosa
and Rothschild, Wis.; Hawesville and
Owensboro, Ky.; Plymouth, N.C.;
Kingsport, Tenn.; Johnsonburg, Pa.; and
Ashdown, Ark.
Leeann Foster, assistant to International President Gerard and chair of the
Domtar Union Council, said a main benefit of all the locals bargaining together
at the same time is that everyone gets a
voice in shaping the package.
“What made the difference in these
negotiations was the activism and participation of our local unions,” Foster
said. “They were engaged, active and
vocal about their priorities and their
solidarity paid off.”
“
Like GP depends on their
productivity, our strength
depends upon our members’
solidarity.
Jon Geenen
Pa.; Cleveland, Tenn.; Mt. Olive, Ill.;
Albany, Ga.; Huntsville, Ala.; Oshkosh,
Wis.; Martinsville, Va.; Akron, Ohio;
West Monroe, La.; and Dubuque, Iowa.
Last August, USW members ratified
a master economic agreement that covers 13 of the company’s paper mills in
Brunswick, Ga.; Naheola and Brewton,
Ala.; Big Island, Va.; Halsey, Ore.;
Green Bay, Wis.; Palatka, Fla.; Monticello, Miss.; Cedar Springs, Ga.; Port
Hudson, La.; Plattsburg, N.Y.; Crossett,
Ark.; and Wauna, Ore.
The agreement also established
terms for wage increases, health care
benefits and employee pension benefits
over four years. Other issues are bargained in local agreements.
”
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
11
1/30/12 4:21 PM
A
fter raking in more than $300
million in profits over the last
three years, Cooper Tire and
Rubber Co. locked out 1,051
members of Local 207L at its Findlay,
Ohio production facility on Nov. 28,
2011, despite the union’s good faith offer
to work during negotiations toward a
new contract.
Although progress in negotiations had
been severely hindered by Cooper Tire’s
unreasonable demands and behavior
at the bargaining table, workers at the
nearly 100-year-old tire-making facility
were hopeful that the sides would settle
on a new labor agreement.
The company’s demands included
a radical overhaul in the calculation of
incentive pay that management could
not explain. Not knowing if their wages
were increasing or decreasing or by what
amounts, Local 207L members predictably rejected the proposal by a two-toone margin.
“Cooper showed its true intentions
when the company refused our offer to
continue working, locked us out and took
our community hostage in its drive to
starve us into accepting an unfair contract,” said Local 207L President Rodney
Nelson.
Centered on the company’s insistence
that workers ratify its proposed agreement before necessary studies on the
incentive pay proposal were finalized, the
USW filed unfair labor practice charges
against Cooper Tire with the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in December.
12
The charges include refusing to bargain by imposing an artificial deadline
on negotiations too short to permit the
negotiation of a contract coupled with
an announcement that the last/best/final
offer would be withdrawn at the deadline
and a lockout announced.
Other charges are refusing to provide
necessary information, conditioning talks
on the union moving from its negotiating position, falsely declaring impasse,
disparaging the international union in
meetings with bargaining unit members
and unilaterally changing conditions of
employment.
Additionally, the unfair practices
are the lockout itself and its continuation in support of a company
bargaining position tainted by illegal
labor practices.
An NLRB ruling in favor of the
USW could trigger back pay liability
for Cooper Tire dating to the beginning
of the lockout for all of the locked-out
employees.
“Longstanding relationships in the
community with customers, suppliers
and shareholders should not be taken for
granted,” Nelson said. “Cooper is risking
more than money by prolonging this
unfair and illegal lockout in Findlay.”
On Dec. 17, 2011, hundreds of people
poured into a public square in Findlay
and rallied to support the members of Local 207L.
“Management needs to
end this unfair lockout, join
us at the table and bargain
in good faith,” said
Secretary-Treasurer
Workers and their supporters
rally in Findlay, Ohio.
Photos by Steve Dietz
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
1/30/12 4:21 PM
Stan Johnson, who heads the USW’s tire
industry bargaining.
Also at the rally, Ohio AFL-CIO
President Tim Burga expressed solidarity on behalf of hundreds of thousands
of fellow union workers in the Buckeye
State.
“Cooper’s outrageous, unnecessary
and unprovoked attack on the loyal,
productive and highly-skilled workers
in Findlay within days of the Thanksgiving holiday speaks for itself,” Burga
said. “The Ohio AFL-CIO shares in
your disgust and will continue to stand
and fight with the USW in Findlay until
justice is restored.”
Thankful for support
Speaking on behalf of the local union
officers and negotiating committee, Nelson said the members of Local 207L are
thankful for the generosity of the Findlay
community.
“We are the community,” he said.
“Cooper hasn’t been fair with us at the
bargaining table. While the company
tries to mislead, confuse and divide
people, we stand simply for truth, unity
and fairness.”
Nelson said that the current management has lost touch with the principles
that built Cooper Tire and shows lack of
respect for the history of the company in
Findlay.
Descendants of Cooper founders
Claude Hart and John Schaefer, in fact,
expressed support for the locked-out
Local 207L members in a letter to The
Courier, Findlay’s daily newspaper,
which they shared with the USW.
“Locking out employees who helped
the company during hard times and
hiring scab workers to replace them subverts the purpose of collective bargaining, is contrary to good faith practices
and is un-American at the core,” they
wrote.
After the New Year, a delegation of
locked-out Local 207L members traveled
to Serbia to meet leaders of Nezavisnost, the Serbian union which represents
workers at a plant in Kruševac that was
purchased by Cooper Tire in late 2011.
International President Leo W.
Gerard said that international solidarity is especially important in the case of
disputes with multinational employers.
Sharing information can be helpful for
workers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Global union solidarity
“The only answer to global corporate
greed is global union solidarity,” Gerard
said. “Our fight is anywhere and everywhere the company does business
until our members are back to
work with a fair contract.”
Before and after the meetings
in Serbia, Nezavisnost President
Milorad Panović called upon the
company to end the lockout in
Findlay and pledged support
for the locked-out USW members.
Similarly, Unite the Union, which
represents workers at Cooper Tire’s
Melksham, UK plant, has expressed
its support and distributed information about the lockout in Findlay to its
members.
The USW coordinated an international day of action to back the locked-out
workers on Saturday, Jan. 14. Members of the USW, AFL-CIO and other
supporters visited over 125 stores that
sell Cooper tires throughout the United
States and Canada.
The goals were to educate consumers
about the Findlay lockout and to recruit
store managers to sign a letter asking
Cooper Tire CEO Roy Armes and North
American President Chris Ostrander to
end the lockout and negotiate with the
USW in good faith for a fair contract.
Nelson said the company is trying
to spin its decision to lock out Local
207L as if the union members walked off
their jobs voluntarily. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
“Cooper is forcing us to fight for
our jobs and our families,” he said. “We
never even took a strike authorization vote, and
everyone should
know that if it was
up to us workers,
we’d be making
tires.”
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
13
1/30/12 4:21 PM
“
Success comes
only from struggle.
Prepare yourselves,
your families and
your local
membership
because we can
no longer allow
the industry to tell
us safety is their
business, not ours.
International Vice President Gary Beevers
14
”
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
U
SW locals in the oil industry
were making preparations in
January for a possible strike over
refinery safety as negotiators
neared a Feb. 1 national contract expiration
deadline.
“We’re prepared to do whatever it takes
to get meaningful health and safety language changes that are enforceable,’’ said
International Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the USW’s National Oil
Bargaining (NOB) program. “We need this
language to protect the workers.”
Bargaining for a national pattern agreement began Jan. 16 and was underway in
earnest as this issue of USW@Work went
to press. The NOB agreement, which
encompasses wages, benefits and contract
language covering health and safety, expires
at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 1, as do most local
union oil contracts.
The discussions involve some 36
companies, including the nation’s largest
refiners and 130 USW locals that represent approximately 30,000 workers in the
industry.
The USW’s push for improved safety
language has been building for years and
drew support from oil locals around the
country whose members routinely work in
dangerous circumstances.
Those dangers became all too apparent
in 2005 when a fire and explosion killed 15
workers, all contractors, at BP’s refinery in
Texas City, Texas. A vapor cloud accidentally released from an isomerization unit
was ignited by a pickup truck left running
on the refinery grounds.
During the last round of negotiations
in 2009, the union and industry could not
come to terms on the USW’s request for
enforceable contract provisions to improve
safety conditions. The USW withdrew its
proposals rather than strike during a recession and focused on an economic package.
The next year, on April 2, 2010, the need
for reform became more apparent when
seven employees of the Tesoro refinery in
Anacortes, Wash., were killed in an explosion and fire that could have been prevented
had adequate maintenance been performed.
Then, a few weeks later on April 20,
2010, 11 workers were killed and 16 others
were injured in an explosion and fire on the
Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig in
the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion sunk the
Deepwater Horizon, which was drilling for
BP, and started a massive underwater oil
spill, one of the nation’s largest environmental disasters.
Preparations move forward
Preparations for this year’s bargaining
moved forward last September when some
300 delegates attended the USW’s NOB
conference and approved a policy statement with the union’s contract proposals,
which included extensive health and safety
language.
“We made a promise we would never
rest until we received enforceable safety
standards,” Beevers told the delegates.
“This industry doesn’t respect you, me or
the president’s office. This industry only
respects money.
“Success comes only from struggle.
Prepare yourselves, your families and your
local membership because we can no longer
allow the industry to tell us safety is their
business, not ours.”
Oil locals presented the policy to rankand-file members over a 45-day period
following the NOB conference. By mid-November, at least 75 percent of voting oil locals and units had ratified the policy, which
authorized Beevers to call for national or
selective strikes if required.
Beevers presented the union’s NOB
policy to the industry on Dec. 9. The industry presented its proposals to the union one
month later and they were rejected.
Workers and USW officials also briefed
members of Congress and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board on bargaining and what
must be done to safeguard workers and
communities from preventable catastrophic
events.
Earlier, USW oil council members attended corporate shareholder meetings to
present resolutions on refinery safety. The
1/30/12 4:21 PM
Once a proposal is agreed to at the
national bargaining table, it goes to the
rank-and-file NOB policy committee for
review. If the committee finds it satisfactory, the industry is notified that a tentative agreement has been reached.
The tentative is given to a local
bargaining table and returned to Vice
President Gary Beevers, who again reviews the document. With his approval, it
becomes the minimum pattern.
No local union can negotiate terms
below the pattern, but a local can bargain
for more than the pattern. If the pattern
is not met, the local union contract is
rejected.
It is possible for a local union contract
to meet the pattern yet not be settled because of outstanding local issues. Local
negotiations are conducted concurrently
with national bargaining.
union also attempted to work with the
industry’s American Petroleum Institute
on improving safety standards and transparency in reporting accidents and other
safety incidents. The union backed out of
those discussions after its solutions were
not taken seriously.
“We have spent the last three years
imploring this industry to address the
issues we have raised in our proposal …
but it has been to no avail,’’ Jim Lefton,
assistant to International Vice President
Beevers, told a Nov. 29 Congressional
hearing.
USW Health, Safety and Environment specialist Kim Nibarger said the
industry is not putting enough emphasis
on process safety – the engineering and
management controls that should prevent
explosions, fires, toxic releases and other
catastrophic events. Equipment reliability, preventative maintenance and inspection and testing fall under process safety.
“The oil companies are playing Russian roulette with their equipment. They
are doing quick, stopgap fixes like placing clamps on pipes instead of replacing
pipes,” Nibarger testified.
“They’re extending the time between
unit shutdowns when all the equipment
is checked. When there is a shutdown,
they’re not always repairing or replacing
equipment. When they do repair equipment, they’re not bringing it up to current
RAGAGEP (Recognized and Generally
Accepted Good Engineering Practice)
standards.”
had been tallied in the three years since
the last contract.
Hard hat stickers were distributed and
“Still Out of Control,” a USW-produced
video on the oil industry’s persistent
safety problems, was shown at membership meetings.
Local 675 members at the BP refinery
in Carson, Calif., occupied a management cafeteria and held a Jan. 12 rally at
the nearby ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, Calif., to defend oil worker jobs.
Local 13-1 in Texas City began a
strike preparation food drive to collect
donations of non-perishable food and
drink for picketers. Unused items will be
donated to the Galveston County Food
Bank.
A National Day of Action for Safe
Refineries and Good Jobs was held on
Jan. 21 in communities across the nation
to show management that oil workers
were united in the goal to win enforceable safety provisions in their contracts.
Handbills on refinery safety were passed
out at local
gas stations.
Mobilization for fair contract
In the months leading up to the start
of formal discussions, local unions
were trained on strike preparation and
on forming Communication and Action
Teams to keep the membership informed
and involved.
Local unions put together strike plans,
conducted informational and practice
pickets, posted information on union
bulletin boards and passed out handbills
on contract issues as part of a “Stand Up,
Fight Back” campaign for new contracts.
Oil locals were also asked to keep
track of fires, leaks, explosions and near
misses at their facilities. A list of refinery
events was posted on the USW’s website,
www.usw.org/our_union/oil. By January,
at least 145 refinery fires and 18 deaths
Delegates to the
NOB conference
International President
Leo W. Gerard
Dave Simmons
Photos by Darrell Byers
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
15
1/30/12 4:21 PM
“
Don’t think this
is an exaggeration
but people could
freeze to death in
their homes
due to a corporate
decision.
”
I
nternational President Leo W. Gerard
has asked the Pennsylvania Attorney
General and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate the
threatened closures of three Philadelphiaarea refineries that employ 1,300 USW
members.
Last Sept. 6, Sunoco announced it
would permanently shut down its Marcus
Hook and South Philadelphia refineries by
July if it cannot find buyers. Sunoco then
idled Marcus Hook in December, citing
poor market conditions.
That same month, ConocoPhillips
idled its refinery in Trainer, Pa., and said
it would permanently close the facility in
March if no buyer surfaces.
The three closures together would
take 690,000 barrels of oil per day out of
refinery production and idle 2,700 direct
employees including USW members and
contractors. An estimated 25,000 indirect
jobs are also tied to the refineries.
Tighter supplies feared
In addition to the job loss, the USW is
concerned that the loss of refining capacity
could lead to tighter supplies and increased
16
prices, particularly for home heating oil
and transportation fuel.
“Don’t think this is an exaggeration but
people could freeze to death in their homes
due to a corporate decision,” Jim Savage,
president of Local 10-1 at Sunoco in Philadelphia, told reporters.
The three refineries produce about half
of the gasoline and related distillate products produced in the Northeast. Analysts
are projecting shortages and price spikes
in gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel and jet
fuel.
In his letter to Pennsylvania Attorney
General Linda Kelly, Gerard asked for
an antitrust audit of the three refineries to
verify claims that they are unprofitable.
He also asked Kelly to investigate if conditions placed on the sales of the refineries could constitute an illegal restraint of
trade.
“Your Antitrust Section is charged with
protecting consumers and businesses by
detecting anti-competitive practices and
taking legal action to stop them,” Gerard
wrote to Kelly. “We believe the projected
near simultaneous closure of the three
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
1/30/12 4:21 PM
strategic oil refineries may be driven by
such practices.”
Buyers sought
In his letter to FAA Acting Administrator Michael Huerta, Gerard noted that the
three refineries process the majority of jet
fuel used at airports on the East Coast and
asked for an investigation into the impact
of the threatened closures on supply and
quality.
“I also ask that the FAA take whatever
steps are available to ensure that these
refineries remain open and the supply
of high-quality jet fuel in the Northeast
remains secure,” Gerard wrote.
The USW is working to help find
buyers who will keep the refineries open.
As part of that effort, International Vice
President Gary Beevers has twice written
to Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Corbett
asking him to meet to discuss the efforts.
Local 10-234 at ConocoPhillips is
circulating a petition among voters in
Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
that seeks to save the refineries. It is available online at www.tinyurl.com/usw10.
Refinery workers and their supporters march to
protest the threatened closures of refineries in the
Philadelphia area. A march and rally were organized by USW Locals 10-901, 10-234 and 10-1.
USW photos
T
he oil company BP has
agreed to pay a record $50
million fine to Texas for
unlawful releases of air
pollution during and after the 2005
explosion at its Texas City refinery
that killed 15 workers.
The settlement of the fine, the
largest for Texas Clean Air Act violations at a single facility, resolves
state claims against the oil giant over
emissions at the USW-represented
refinery.
A fire and explosion at the
refinery on March 23, 2005, killed
15 workers and injured more than
170 others. Federal regulators later
blamed the catastrophe on cost cuts
initiated by BP.
In addition to the settlement with
Texas, BP has agreed to pay more
than $140 million in penalties to the
federal government for violations of
workplace safety and environmental
laws at the refinery and up to $2 billion to settle civil claims.
BP did not acknowledge liability
as part of the clean air settlement and
said it settled to avoid the uncertainty
of future litigation. The company has
put the refinery up for sale.
Its largest fines include $50.6 million paid in 2010 to the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) to make safety upgrades;
$50 million in 2007 to resolve a
criminal investigation by the U.S.
Justice Department into the explosion
and $15 million for violations of the
federal Clean Air Act from two fires
and a leak in 2004 and 2005. BP also
pleaded guilty in 2008 to a felony
violation of the federal Clean Air Act
and served three years of probation.
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
17
1/30/12 4:22 PM
S
ince the last round of master agreement negotiations with U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal
in mid-2008, when employers were reporting record-profits, the steel industry in North
America and around the world has seen both incredible highs and terrible lows.
As this issue of USW@Work went to the printer,
members at Timken and Republic were bargaining
while contracts with U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal are
set to expire on Sept. 1, 2012 – with negotiations just a
few short months away.
It is expected that the companies will continue to
push very hard for changes to health insurance, but
USW negotiating teams are also getting a head start on
education and research going into bargaining. Funding
for retiree benefits will be another issue certain to generate discussion during negotiations as the companies
will work hard to minimize costs.
Industry slowly recovering
International Vice President Tom Conway
The global financial crisis created a panic in
October 2008 – first in construction and then in the
automobile industry – making USW members in steel
among the first to be impacted by declining market
conditions. Four years later, the industry is slowly
recovering and, as delegates to the USW’s 2011 Basic
Steel Industry Conference can attest, it is unpredictable.
In 2008, Severstal North America purchased the
former Bethlehem Steel facility in Sparrows Point,
Md.; the former W.C.I. mill in Warren, Ohio; and
the former Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel plants in Ohio,
Pennsylvania and West Virginia; and was expected
to become a viable, stable third leg for the integrated
North American steel industry.
That never occurred because of catastrophic market conditions combined with Severstal’s failure to
implement its business plan. In the spring of 2011, a
newly-formed company, RG Steel, bought many of the
Severstal North America plants Market conditions and
limited financing options became the first challenges
for RG Steel and Steelworkers to overcome together.
New financing announced
Photo by Steve Dietz
18
After months of uncertainty, massive layoffs and
frustration, RG Steel announced a new financing arrangement in January 2012 that significantly improves
the company’s liquidity position and access to capital
resources. The company says that the new structure
will enable it to continue to execute its operating strategy and to better take advantage when market conditions improve.
Republic, ATI/Ludlum and other USW employers
have announced plans to invest in steel plants in 2012.
Upgrading existing facilities or adding new equipment
and capacity holds the potential to add jobs and build
job security.
The industry continues to be susceptible to illegal
and unfair foreign trade, fluctuations in the cost of
raw materials and energy and other financial pressures
unique to steel making.
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
1/30/12 4:22 PM
W
hirlpool’s decision to
close its Fort Smith, Ark.,
refrigerator plant and
move much of its production to Mexico is a disappointment to
members of Local 370, who worked
diligently over the years to keep the
plant competitive and profitable.
“This is yet another example of what
is happening to American manufacturing industries all across this nation,”
said International President Leo W.
Gerard. “It’s a continuing attack on our
manufacturing sector and the livelihoods of hard-working Americans.”
As USW@Work went to press, the
USW was simultaneously pressing to
discuss the closure announcement and
opportunities to save the plant with
the company, and engaging in effects
bargaining for active workers and those
who are laid off and eligible for recall.
In late December, as the shutdown
neared, the USW filed a charge with
the National Labor Relations Board
alleging Whirlpool violated the National
Labor Relations Act by unilaterally
imposing a waiver of employees’ recall
rights as a condition to get severance
benefits.
Closure, profits announced
Whirlpool announced last Oct.
27 that it would close the Fort Smith
refrigerator plant this year and eliminate some 1,000 jobs as part of a larger
world-wide retrenchment.
Productive union workers are paying the price for a profitable company
seeking higher returns. In the same
announcement, Whirlpool reported third
quarter net earnings of $177 million,
more than double the $79 million in net
earnings reported a year earlier.
The world’s largest appliance maker
plans to send production of side-by-side
refrigerators, Fort Smith’s main product,
to Ramos Arizpe, Mexico. A trash compactor line will go to an Ottawa, Ohio,
plant and built-in refrigerator production will move to Amana, Iowa.
Whirlpool cited sluggish demand
for appliances in its
shutdown announcement and took pains
to publicly claim the
fault wasn’t with its
workers or Fort Smith.
“I blame free world trade,’’ Rick
Nemeth, president of Local 370, told the
media.
USW members over the years participated in labor-management cooperation
programs at Whirlpool and in the last
decade engaged heavily in lean manufacturing efforts in an attempt to keep
the facility operating.
Despite those efforts, Whirlpool
steadily moved jobs to Mexico, beginning with lower-end products and later
higher-end appliances.
Last year, as rumors of a closure
surfaced, District 13 Director Mickey
Breaux offered assistance to Whirlpool
to address problems and preserve jobs,
but the company declined.
A Local 370 delegation met with
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe to see what
help the state could provide to keep
Whirlpool in Fort Smith or to market
the plant if it is closed. Meetings were
also held with Fort Smith Mayor Sandy
Sanders and City Administrator Ray
Gossitt.
Whirlpool also last year closed a
refrigerator plant in Evansville, Ind.,
that made freezer-topped refrigerators
and moved the production to Mexico.
Approximately 1,000 workers lost their
jobs.
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
19
Photo courtesy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
1/30/12 4:22 PM
I
n a victory for the USW and
domestic steel producers, the U.S.
International Trade Commission
(ITC) agreed to continue for five
years import duties on cut-to-length
steel plate imported from Korea, India
and Indonesia.
At the same time on Dec. 5, the
six-member commission revoked tariffs
on cut-to-length steel plate from Italy
and Japan, ruling that action would not
likely lead to continued injury to U.S.
producers.
Each of the five steel-producing
countries argued for ending the tariffs.
International President Leo W. Gerard
said the vote on Korea, India and Indonesia will help the domestic industry
recover from a weak market.
“Five American steel producers
operating plate mills in seven states and
employing about 4,000 Steelworkers
were threatened if the duty orders were
not kept in place,” Gerard said.
The cut-to-length steel plate
industry employs about 4,000 production workers and tens of thousands of
additional jobs are tied to the supply of
raw materials, maintenance and transportation.
Weak market threatened
The industry asked the commission
to continue the dumping orders, arguing
that return of unfairly traded imports
to a market where demand is weak will
lead to production cuts, job loss and
pricing pressure that will curtail reinvestment in the U.S. industry.
“The continued enforcement of our
trade laws is crucial to keeping good
jobs in the United States,’’ said International Vice President Tom Conway,
who bargains with the steel industry.
“The USW will continue to be aggressive in tracking and pursuing complaints where necessary.”
The vote by six commissioners on
continuing tariffs from Korea, India and
Indonesia was unanimous in concluding
that revoking antidumping and countervailing duties would harm the U.S.
industry. The votes on revoking tariffs
from Italy and Japan were divided.
Prior to the ITC vote on Dec. 5, the
U.S. Department of Commerce determined that if the orders were revoked,
plate from the five countries would
again enter the United States at subsidized or dumped prices.
The United States is required to
complete sunset reviews of import
duties every five years under the
Uruguay Round Agreements Act, an
act of Congress that implemented in
U.S. law trade provisions agreed to at
the Uruguay Round of Negotiations on
the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT). The act requires the
Department of Commerce to revoke
an antidumping or countervailing duty
order unless it and the ITC conclude
that revocation would likely lead to a
resumption of dumping or subsidies.
Steel plate production.
Photo courtesy of Pete Trinidad
20
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
1/30/12 4:22 PM
USW delegation shows support
A delegation of 17 Steelworkers
who make plate at mills in Pennsylvania and Indiana attended an ITC
hearing last October in Washington,
D.C., to support the continuation of
tariffs.
Gerard commended them for
their participation and praised
the testimony of Local 6787 Vice
President Pete Trinidad. The local
represents workers at ArcelorMittal plate mills in Burns Harbor and
Gary, Ind.
Trinidad told the commission
that the last decade has been a roller
coaster ride for USW members
in the industry. “They have faced
bankruptcies, plant closures, layoffs,
forced retirements, lost wages and
reductions in pension and health care
benefits,” he said.
USW members made many
sacrifices to ensure there would be a
“
The Steelworkers
have done everything
possible to put the
industry in a position
to succeed...
”
healthy steel industry with jobs, benefits and dignity for union retirees,
Trinidad told the ITC.
“We agreed to the consolidation
of the steel companies, major work
force reductions and changes in
workplace rules to increase productivity and lower costs,” he said. “The
Steelworkers have done everything
possible to put the industry in a position to succeed and to make sure the
companies did their part as well.”
The U.S. industry originally filed
antidumping and countervailing duty
petitions against the five countries
and France in February 1999 after
imports exceeded one million tons in
1998. Duties were imposed in 2000
against all six countries. In 2005, the
ITC voted to continue them against
five countries and cancel them
against France.
Domestic plate operations benefited from the tariffs. But demand
evaporated in 2008 leading ArcelorMittal to close the Gary mill and
file a WARN notice announcing its
intentions to lay off nearly 2,500 at
Burns Harbor.
The USW worked with ArcelorMittal to implement a layoff minimization plan, leading the company to
rescind the WARN notice for Burns
Harbor, Trinidad said. Even so, 500
people were laid off and 900 workers went on 32-hour weeks.
“It was tough for our people to
take those layoffs and salary cuts
after all the sacrifices they had
already made,” Trinidad said in his
testimony. “Every day I saw the
huge financial and human toll on our
workers and their families.”
Market worries persist
Orders picked up in 2010 and the
layoff minimization plan ended in
May that year, but USW members
agreed to the
R
esponding to USW concerns, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
is revising rules to allow alternative
biomass fuels to be used as fuel in
industrial, commercial and institutional boilers.
The EPA notified the USW that its decision
to re-propose significant parts of its Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials Rule (NHSM) will
include redefining a variety of biofuel materials
as fuel rather than waste.
Waste materials are more stringently regulated under the Clean Air Act than those designated as fuel under the NHSM rule as originally
proposed by the EPA last March.
The pending revision will save thousands of
jobs and protect the environment by preventing millions of tons of carbon-neutral biomass
materials from being diverted to landfills or
vented to the atmosphere rather than be used as
alternatives to fossil fuels.
In addition, the EPA has re-proposed three
rules covering air rules for larger-scale industrial boilers (Boiler MACT), smaller-scale
industrial boilers and incinerators designed to
burn waste materials. The re-proposals take into
account a wide variety of concerns raised by
the USW and by others in the industry.
Preserves jobs
Pete Trinidad
halving of their incentive payments.
In May 2011, the company reopened
its 110-inch plate mill in Burns Harbor and hired some 60 people.
Trinidad said a second crew was
hired for the 110-inch mill, but at the
time of his testimony demand had
not developed as hoped and prices
and orders appeared to be dropping.
“We are all worried that the
market will slip backward toward
2009 levels, and the way the customers seem to be ordering right now,
I’d say they are concerned, too,’’ he
said.
“Every ton of dumped plate that
is allowed to enter our market is
a ton of plate that steelworkers at
Burns Harbor won’t get to make,”
he said. “It will also likely mean
that every ton we do make will sell
for less. The 110-inch mill will face
closure again. We’ll see layoffs and
reduced hours and pay.”
“The USW would like to commend the
EPA for all the hard work it has done to be
responsive to our union’s concerns about this
rule. We are confident that EPA’s proposed
changes will help preserve family-wage jobs
and encourage investment in technologies to
make America more energy independent,”
International President Leo W. Gerard said.
The NHSM rule was promulgated as part of
a suite of EPA rules dealing with air emissions
from industrial, commercial and institutional
boilers and from waste incinerators. Application of the three air rules was suspended last
April so EPA could ensure that companies and
institutions operating boilers subject to the
rules would be able to comply without serious
problems.
While EPA suspended the air rules, it did
not suspend the NHSM rule. “That’s why we
are pleased with EPA’s current decision to
re-propose sections of the NHSM rule,” said
International Vice President Jon Geenen, who
leads the USW’s paper sector. “Rule suspensions do occur, but it is not often that EPA
re-proposes any part of a rule that has already
been finalized.”
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
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1/30/12 4:22 PM
M
ark Borosky learned that
the camper trailer factory
where he worked for 34
years was closing as his
wife Dottie was being wheeled into an
operating room for spinal surgery.
“I was numb,” Borosky, 53, recalled
of that day in January 2011. “My wife
just went in for surgery and I didn’t have
a job. I wasn’t even thinking at that moment that I didn’t have health insurance
either.”
It took a few days for Borosky to find
out that FTCA Inc., which manufactured
the iconic Coleman pop-up camper in
Somerset, Pa., had failed to pay health
care premiums, sticking him with more
than $63,000 in surgery bills.
In fact, FTCA, which was owned
by Blackstreet Capital, a private equity
firm with hundreds of millions of dollars
under management, claimed there was
no money left to pay any of the 150 or
so employees any of the benefits owed to
them under their USW contract.
“I’ve heard of plants shutting down,
but I never realized some could just skip
town without any legal consequences,’’
said Eugene Nicklow, former president
of Local 2632.
Union wins settlement
FTCA abruptly closed the factory
without issuing a 60-day plant closing notice required by the Worker
Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. It canceled health
insurance and refused to pay severance,
accrued vacation time or make good on
outstanding 401(k) retirement contributions.
Eventually, Borosky and other represented employees at the factory were
made whole financially thanks to the
USW and its legal department’s dogged
pursuit of FTCA, Blackstreet and other
affiliated companies, through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
“If it wasn’t for the union and the
NLRB, I don’t know where we would
be,” said Borosky, whose settlement
included medical bills, vacation pay and
other items.
The settlement agreement announced
by the NLRB required keeping the total
amount recovered confidential. But the
agency did say that Blackstreet and
FTCA LLC, the direct parent company
of FTCA Inc., reimbursed employees for
back pay and medical expenses incurred
22
Coleman campers under
construction before plant closed.
Photos by Andrew Yourish
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
1/30/12 4:22 PM
as a result of losing insurance coverage.
In return, the USW withdrew the labor
board charges.
About 100 of 150 employees
received something in the settlement.
A few, including Borosky, had very
large health care bills that were paid.
Everyone received payment for the
three months of health care insurance
that they were owed plus any back due
wages.
Got all we could get
“We got all of the money we could
get out of them,’’ Nicklow said. “If it
wasn’t for us being in an organized
shop and having the union back us, they
could have walked away without paying any medical bills, without making
good on any vacation pay.”
It turns out that employees weren’t
the only ones hurt in the closure. Vendors, many of whom were local parts
suppliers, were left high and dry.
“They stuck vendors, dealers and
customers with unpaid bills,” Nicklow
said.
Shortly after the closure, FTCA’s
property and equipment were sold at an
auction, ostensibly leaving no money
available to pay the many parties that
FTCA owed.
Last February, about two weeks
after the shutdown. USW Associate
General Counsel David Jury filed a
charge with the NLRB alleging that
the company illegally made unilateral
changes to the negotiated benefits,
refused to bargain with the union over
the effects of the closure and failed to
furnish relevant information concerning
the shutdown.
After some investigation, evidence
pointed to the role that Blackstreet, the
private equity firm, played in the dayto-day operations of the Somerset plant,
including the decision to shut it down.
Blackstreet acquired the company,
formerly Fleetwood Folding Trailers,
in 2008 and renamed it FTCA. Fleetwood had purchased the plant in 1989
from the original owner, The Coleman
Company, and for many years produced
Coleman brand trailers under license.
The union organized at the facility in
1967.
There appeared to be a spider’s web
of interrelated companies involved in
ownership of the trailer manufacturer
under Blackstreet’s control. FTCA Inc.,
the employer at the plant, owned the
equipment and another entity owned the
real estate. FTCA LLC owned the operating and real estate companies. And, at
the top, Blackstreet owned a controlling
stake in the intermediate companies.
“It was a big shell game,’’ Nicklow
said.
The union amended its charge to
include Blackstreet and related corporate entities, alleging that they acted
as a single employer with interrelated
operations, common management and
ownership and centralized control of
labor relations.
Although FTCA was said to be
broke, Blackstreet certainly wasn’t.
On its website, the private equity firm
claims it has $200 million in investment
money under management. It also says
Blackstreet has invested in 19 companies with over 8,000 employees and
combined sales exceeding $11 billion.
There are very few NLRB cases involving single employer claims against
private equity firms, which typically acquire a controlling or substantial position in an operating company and eventually look to maximize that investment
through a sale or other methods.
“What we did, with David Jury’s
help, was to present testimony to the
NLRB that we believed showed that
day-to-day operations were run by
Blackstreet,” Nicklow said.
To the USW members working at
the plant, it appeared that someone outside of Somerset was pulling the strings
The parties settled the case following an exhaustive NLRB investigation.
Well-connected firm
Blackstreet is well-connected with
members from Washington’s power
elite and both political parties. Its board
of advisors includes James A. Baker
IV, whose father was a former Treasury
Secretary and White House Chief of
Staff. Another well-connected Republican member of the board is Kenneth
Duberstein, President Reagan’s chief of
staff in 1988 and 1989.
Thomas (Mack) McLarty III, President Clinton’s chief of staff from 1993
through 1994, is also on the board, as
is Thomas Hale Boggs
Jr., chairman of Patton
Boggs, a prominent
Washington law and
lobbying firm.
“It was just a bunch of rich and
powerful people taking advantage of
the working man,” Nicklow said.
The loss of promised health insurance was particularly harmful and
unsettling for many employees. One
former employee stopped going to the
doctor for his heart problems because
the insurance lapsed. He died shortly
afterwards.
The jilted workers didn’t even
have the opportunity to continue group
health benefits at their expense under
COBRA because the plan had been
canceled.
Fighting for health insurance
Over the years, Nicklow said USW
members gave up raises in contract
negotiations to retain a good health
insurance program for an aging work
force that had shrunk over time. At
its peak, somewhere around 1995, the
plant employed 775 people.
Layoffs had wiped out younger
members from the bargaining unit,
leaving older workers who had the most
experience and seniority and the most
need for health insurance.
Jeffrey Kimmel, who was building
prototypes for the next season’s trailers
when the plant closed, praised the USW
for its help and called on politicians to
change the bankruptcy and other laws
to protect other workers from what happened at FTCA.
“Thank God we’re union,’’ he said.
“
Sign photo by Summerset Daily American
I’ve heard of plants
shutting down, but I
never realized some
could just skip town
without any legal
consequences.
Eugene Nicklow
”
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
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1/30/12 4:22 PM
C
orelle, the durable glass dinnerware made in America by
Steelworkers, is so popular in
China, India and South Korea
that the sole manufacturing plant where
it is produced could not meet demand
there and in the United States without
significant expansion.
So World Kitchen, the company that
owns the Corelle brand, spent $50 million to add a massive glass-melting tank
at its plant in Corning, N.Y., increasing
production capacity by 50 percent.
The experienced USW-represented
work force is among the reasons why
the company decided to invest in capacity and jobs at home while others have
turned to manufacturing in lower-wage
Asian locales near expanding markets.
“It’s a pretty complicated process.
It takes a skilled work force and they’ve
got it here,’’ said Greg Walker, president
of Local 1034 in Corning. “It’s a true
testament to the employees, the facility
and the community. It should make us
feel very good.”
The big investment boosted total
employment by more than 50 people
to 510 with more jobs possible. It also
solidifies Corelle’s presence in Corning,
the only location in the world where it
is made.
Complicated project
The melting tank, the plant’s third,
took more than 14 months to build. The
construction project was complicated by
the new tank’s placement between two
existing tanks while they remained in
full operation.
Local 1034 production workers kept
the process going uninterrupted while
hundreds of construction workers installed the tank, which measures nearly
12 feet tall and 21 feet wide. There were
no lost time injuries and the project was
completed last year ahead of schedule.
“It was pretty incredible, just the
process of putting it in,” Walker said of
the tank installation. “The whole factory
should be pretty proud of themselves.”
Located at One Steuben Street in
Corning, the plant has been in continuous production since Corelle was
introduced in 1970 by Corning Glass
Works. It operates 24 hours a day, 365
days a week.
World Kitchen calls the plant a oneof-a-kind production facility. The late
Corning Glass researcher Jim Giffen,
who invented centrifugal casting, engineered the machines and processes used
in making the first Corelle.
Molten glass heated to 2,640 degrees
Fahrenheit emerges from the melting
tanks in a continuous ribbon, or sandwich, of three layers made from two
Photos courtesy of World Kitchen
24
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1/30/12 4:22 PM
types of glass. The tri-layer glass composite is trademarked under the name
Vitrelle.
We melt it, form it, paint it
Union members handle the product
from beginning to end. Designs and
colors are applied in a final decorating
process that uses unique enamels that
become a permanent part of the glass.
“We do it all,” Walker said. “We
melt it. We form it. We paint it. We pack
it. We ship it.”
The new tank, like the other two
in the plant, operates as a furnace and
can produce up to 45 million pieces
of Corelle a year when running at full
capacity.
“With our increased capacity, we’re
poised not only for continued doubledigit global growth, but also to increase
our introductions of new and innovative products to drive expansion of the
brands in North America and worldwide,” World Kitchen President and
CEO Joseph Mallof said at a ribbon
cutting ceremony last October.
Corelle can be found in more than
a third of all homes in North America
and is available in more than 30 countries worldwide. Some 40 percent of the
plant’s production is sold internationally.
Business in the key international
markets of China, India and South
Korea grew by more than 30 percent in
2010, Mallof said in his remarks.
Popular in South Korea
Corelle is especially popular in
South Korea, where three out of four
households (78 percent) already own
some of the dinnerware and nearly
everyone (98 percent) is familiar with
the brand.
Frugal Korean households buy
Corelle because the dishes rarely break,
are light, stackable and oven, microwave and dishwasher safe. Designs that
appeal to Asian customers are applied
to the New York-made dinnerware at a
decorating plant in Malaysia.
According to Mark Campbell, the
plant’s director, more than 3.2 billion
pieces of Corelle dinnerware have been
produced at the plant since the product’s
introduction in 1970.
Walker, the local union president,
said the employees have a good relationship with the company and do what they
must to keep the plant, which was built
in 1938, operating in the winter when
it’s cold and in the summer when it’s
hot.
“We just make it work. We do what
we have to do to get the job done,” he
said. “I think we both realize separately
we’ll fail but together we just might be
able to survive.”
New glass-melting tank
Photo by Jason Cox/The Leader Corning, N.Y.
Corelle products on display in Asia.
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
25
1/30/12 4:22 PM
W
hen the Occupy Wall Street movement came
to Pittsburgh, International President Leo W.
Gerard carried the union’s flag into the crowd
of marchers to show support.
“We’ve got to stand together, never give up, never give
back,” Gerard told the protestors as they gathered in the
city’s Market Square following a peaceful October march
through downtown. “Stand up, fight back!”
The USW supported the Occupy Wall Street movement
from the beginning for its peaceful protest of the economic
and social injustice created by corporate greed and the barons of finance.
Whatever you may think of its tactics, the movement’s
participants made progress in changing the nation’s political
debate by highlighting America’s income inequality and the
pressing need for good-paying jobs.
Their frequent chant, “We are the 99 percent” struck a
chord among middle-class Americans. It referred to a study
by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz showing
America’s richest one percent control 40 percent of U.S.
wealth.
“
We’ve got to stand
together, never give up,
never give back.
Stand up, fight back!
Leo W. Gerard
”
International President Leo W. Gerard
addresses Occupy Wall Street rally in
Pittsburgh.
Photos by Martha Rial
26
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
1/30/12 4:22 PM
”
Photo courtesy of Karen Gorrell
Although economists declared the Great Recession
over in 2009, that proclamation has not matched the reality
many Americans continue to face in 2012. Millions remain
out of work or unable to find full-time jobs. The home foreclosure crisis drags on and home prices remain wobbly.
Last September, when the Occupy movement was finding its legs, Gerard said the union was standing in solidarity with the protestors who “are speaking out for many in
our world.
“We are fed up with the corporate greed, corruption and
arrogance that inflicted pain on far too many for far too
long,’’ he said.
“Our union has been standing up and fighting these captains of finance who promote Wall Street over Main Street.
We know firsthand the devastation caused by a global
economy where workers, their families, the environment
and our futures are sacrificed so that a privileged few can
make more money on everyone’s labor but their own.”
Reminder of colossal crisis
As winter came and Occupy encampments were shut
down or threatened with shutdown in cities across the
country, the USW again made public its support.
Speaking specifically about an attempt to evict Pittsburgh demonstrators from an inner-city park, International
Vice President Fred Redmond called the encampment a
“center for free expression” and a reminder of the “colossal
crisis still facing our country and the global economy.
“While Wall Street rings in the New Year with record
profits, too many families on Main Street live in fear of
job losses, home foreclosures and cuts to health care and
essential social services,” he said.
“We should not deny First Amendment rights to those
that represent that 99 percent, especially when those who
created this economic crisis were never held accountable,”
Redmond added.
A
group of Century Aluminum retirees in Ravenswood, W.Va., have set up a campsite outside the
idled plant to protest the company’s elimination of
their health care benefits.
With intentions to “Occupy Century Aluminum,” the
retirees and supporters pitched tents at the plant’s entrance on
Dec. 18 and remained there through the Christmas holidays
into January.
The camp is modeled after the Occupy Wall Street movement that has focused national attention on corporate greed.
The Century Aluminum retirees, however, are considerably
older – some aged 75 and 80 – than most Occupy Wall Street
protestors and have the specific goal of winning back their
benefits.
“We know exactly what we want,’’ said protestor Karen
Gorrell, whose husband worked at the plant. “We are the 99
percent and we can tell our story.”
The protest coincided with rumors in the community that
Century is interested in reopening the plant and restarting aluminum pot lines that were idled in 2009 during the recession.
Benefits began in 1959
Retirees from the plant began receiving medical insurance benefits in 1959 from Kaiser Aluminum. Those benefits
continued through different owners until Century terminated
them in 2010.
Century announced its plan to terminate the benefits in
October 2009. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, benefits were totally
eliminated for Medicare-eligible retirees and premiums were
raised significantly for pre-Medicare retirees. Remaining
benefits were eliminated last year. About 500 families were
affected.
The USW and retirees are pursuing a class action suit
seeking restoration of the benefits. In the meantime, retirees
have taken their concerns to the public. The move to occupy
the plant is the latest in a string of protests that included
traveling to California to confront Century’s executives at its
annual shareholders meeting.
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
27
1/30/12 4:22 PM
Editor’s Note: The following is a report by Nick Gaitaud, a member of Local 7150 in Albany, Ore., and the
USW’s representative on the AFL-CIO’s Young Workers Advisory Council.
T
he Young Workers Advisory
Council is led by AFL-CIO
Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler
and consists of young members from 18 national and international
unions including the USW.
The council’s agenda is to connect
working people under the age of 35 to
the labor movement and to educate,
engage and mentor them to become the
labor leaders of the future.
As part of that mission, the advisory
council helped to plan the second annual
AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit, which was held in Minnesota last
Sept. 29 to Oct. 2.
More than 800 young workers,
organizers and students from around the
world, including 50 steelworkers from
the United States and Canada, converged
on Minneapolis for the summit.
The agenda was packed. We started
off with a community service project –
packing school supplies with Tubman,
a Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization that helps struggling women,
children and families.
The USW delegates then led an
action to demand a fair contract for Verizon workers with a local chapter of the
United Food and Commercial Workers.
Young workers marched from the
Minneapolis Hilton where the conference was held to a downtown Verizon
store to pass out leaflets. Our chants
urging Verizon to keep their promises to
workers caught the attention of employees, customers and businesses throughout the mall.
We also drew the attention of the
Minneapolis police, who offered suggestions, took a leaflet to read, and with
a handshake allowed us to continue our
protest. USW members led the group in
chants as we returned to the conference.
Afterwards, the room was buzzing with energy and excitement. Many
younger members had never taken part
in an action of that size. Many had
never felt the power that occurs when
hundreds of union activists join forces.
There could not have been a better way
to kick start a wonderful enlightening
four days.
USW members volunteered to staff
the Sergeant-at-Arms Committee and
check delegate credentials. The conference kicked off with the introduction
of Kurston Cook, the AFL-CIO’s new
young workers program coordinator.
The summit featured many workshops, more actions and caucus meetings
for affiliate unions. There were several
unions in attendance but our union stood
out because the USW’s young members
were joined by top leaders including
International Vice Presidents Fred
Redmond and Carol Landry.
International President Leo W.
Gerard had a scheduling conflict and
sent a message to us via video. He
even surprised us by calling into one
of the Steelworkers’ morning meetings to take our questions and hear our
ideas.
This commitment from our union
was not only noticed by others, but it
showed us younger members that our
leadership is truly dedicated to the mission of developing the next generation
of leaders. It is why I am so proud to be
part of the best union in the world, the
leader in the union movement, my extended family, the United Steelworkers.
USW delegates lead an action demanding a fair contract for Verizon workers.
Photo courtesy of the AFL-CIO
28
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We were blessed with a strong, powerfully
engaging, amazing lineup of leaders including
U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO’s
Shuler and Lisa Jordan, the USW’s director of
education.
The summit also featured member-led,
participant-driven workshops called “The
Unconference.” There were a total of 33 sessions with a third of them presented by USW
members. Go USW!
We wrapped up the weekend with an evening social and fundraiser where Local 6500
member and rapper Mike “O.B.” O’Brien
headlined the show.
After the summit, one thing was clear: our
young members left Next Up feeling energized, excited, and ready to take on the world.
T
he United Steelworkers is now offering free websites to qualifying
locals in the United States and Canada. The sites are available to
locals signed up to SteelWeb, an internal union website that is used
to maintain membership information, order office supplies, research
arbitration cases and more.
More information about signing up to SteelWeb or modifying an existing
SteelWeb account to apply for a local union website can be found online at
www.usw.org/localweb.
Local union leaders with questions about this new service can contact the
USW New Media Department at 412-562-2450.
Locals that submit a completed and approved application can choose
from a variety of pre-designed USW
templates, enjoy free hosting, ready-made
content, have access to on-the-phone training and learn how to keep the site updated
with little effort.
LaborWeb for USW is very simple and
with a little training, any local can get
an up-to-date, well-branded website up
and running to help keep our members
informed.
Be patient when applying
To maintain integrity, all applications must be signed by local officers
with the local union seal affixed, and
then verified by the International
Union before being reviewed for approval.
You cannot begin building a
website until this process is completed. Please be sure to review
all application instructions and
complete the necessary paperwork
to help speed up the process. If
you are a webmaster who is not
a local union officer, you should
work with your local’s leadership
during this process.
We strongly suggest locals
assign a webmaster or webmasters who join the United
Steelworkers Press Association
(USPA), which is also free
and offers invaluable training
and other resources for local
union communicators. More
information about USPA can
be found online at:
www.usw.org/resources/uspa.
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
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B
uilt in the Depression, the
first San Francisco-Oakland
Bay Bridge put many American steel and iron workers to
work at a time when the U.S. economy
desperately needed the jobs.
Yet today, when America is again
desperate for work, a $6.3 billion replacement bridge now under construction has created jobs for thousands
of workers in China, where decking,
massive suspension cables and a tower
standing 500 feet above the bay were
fabricated.
To stop American workers from
getting a raw deal like that again,
the USW is supporting legislation to
ensure that all future bridges and similar transportation and infrastructure
projects financed by U.S. taxpayers
will be made in America, not China or
anywhere else.
The Invest in American Jobs Act
was introduced in the U.S. House of
Representatives by Congressman Nick
Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat who
is the ranking member of the House
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
A steel structure is readied for the
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge at
Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries
Co. in Shanghai, China.
(Imaginechina via AP images)
Outsourcing goes too far
Construction work on the East
Span of the San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridge.
(AP Photo by Ben Margot)
30
“It is bad enough to see America sit
on the sidelines as China, India, and our
other international competitors leave us
in the dust as they plow full speed ahead
with massive infrastructure investments
in their own countries,” Rahall said.
“But actively outsourcing manufacturing jobs that American companies
and skilled American workers can and
should be doing just goes too far.”
The union is also supporting a
companion Senate bill introduced at
year’s end by Democratic U.S. Senators
Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sherrod
Brown of Ohio and Debbie Stabenow of
Michigan.
“All of us here share the same goal
– to grow manufacturing in America,’’
International Secretary-Treasurer Stan
Johnson said in support of the bill.
“Right now creating good jobs
matters more than ever before, as the
American people continue to face high
unemployment levels with millions of
Americans out of work or underemployed.”
Johnson joined Casey at a bridge
construction site in Pittsburgh to announce the Senate version of the legislation. He also joined ranking Democrats
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
1/30/12 4:22 PM
and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz
Shuler at an introduction ceremony for
the House version in Washington, D.C.
“We are still in a jobs crisis and we
need to use our taxpayer dollars wisely
to create as many jobs in America as
possible, including good manufacturing
jobs,” Johnson said. “That’s a goal the
American public strongly supports because people know manufacturing is the
best engine for economic growth.”
“
Right now creating
good jobs matters more
than ever before, as
the American people
continue to face high
unemployment levels
with millions of
Americans out of work
or underemployed.
Stan Johnson
”
The Invest in American Jobs Act
strengthens Buy America preferences for
investments in highway, bridge, public
transit, rail and aviation infrastructure
and equipment to ensure that steel, iron
and manufactured goods used in these
projects are produced in the United
States.
The legislation would also apply
Buy America to other transportation
and infrastructure investments including
rail infrastructure grants, loans and loan
guarantees as well as Clean Water State
Revolving Fund grants.
Congress needs to make sure that
American companies and workers benefit from the money spent, Rahall said.
“At a time when more than 25 million Americans are unable to find jobs,
are only working part-time, or have altogether given up hope of finding a job,
it is appalling, offensive, and downright
wrong to send our taxpayer dollars to
China when they should be invested in
U.S. companies here at home rebuilding
America,” Rahall said. “This legislation
will put a stop to this practice, help turn
our economy around, and start to rebuild
a major sector of our economy.”
A
campaign to organize car wash
workers in Southern California
has led to three USW contracts
– the first in the nation for the industry – and a $1 million settlement to
workers at eight other car washes who
were underpaid, denied breaks and
other benefits.
Employees of the Vermont Car
Wash, the Navas Carwash and the
Bonus Car Wash, all located in metropolitan Los Angeles, are the newest members of Local 675, based in
Carson, Calif.
“We are proud to welcome car
wash workers into the United Steelworkers and applaud them for this
victory in their struggle for fair wages,
safe working conditions and respect,”
said David Campbell, the local’s financial secretary.
The contracts are the first to come
from the efforts of CLEAN, the Community Labor Environmental Action
Network, which was founded in 2008
to eliminate workplace abuses in the
unregulated car wash industry in Los
Angeles.
Vermont employees ratified an
agreement in January. The owner of
Navas, the successor company to BJ
Car Wash, in January signed a union
contract that was agreed to by the previous owner and ratified last November. The Bonus agreement was ratified
last October.
“I’m so happy we have a union and
a contract,’’ said Oliverio Gomez, who
has worked at Bonus for nine years.
“Now we get to take our breaks. If
we’re thirsty we can drink water and
they respect the schedule, and all of
the hours we work are in our paycheck. But the biggest difference is we
finally get respect as workers.”
Also in January, the California
Attorney General’s office announced
a $1 million settlement to a civil suit
it had filed against eight other car
washes.
About $800,000 of the settlement
will be split among past and present
workers. The car washes must also
pay $50,000 in back payroll taxes and
$100,000 in civil penalties plus other
costs.
State investigators interviewed
more than 80 workers and found the
car washes routinely denied them
minimum wage and overtime, failed to
pay wages owed to those who quit or
were terminated, denied rest and meal
breaks and created false records of
time worked.
Car wash workers at the
2011USW Convention in
Las Vegas.
Photo by Ike Gittlen
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
31
1/30/12 4:22 PM
State of the Union
For union members, the main point of
President Obama’s State of the Union address
was something so basic, so obvious, that it was
almost odd to hear it explained at length with
analogies.
Obama began and ended his speech with
the point that Americans are all in this together,
and the nation is better when Americans all
work together. Every unionist knows more is
gained through teamwork. Every unionist has
experienced the security of having a brother or
sister at his back.
By choosing Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels
to reply to the State of the Union, Republicans
emphasized their completely opposite, youare-on-your-own, selfish vision of America.
Daniels was budget director when former
President Bush gave the top 1 percent the
massive tax cut that enabled them to escape
paying their fair share to support America. And
he pushed to kill teamwork in Indiana, backing
Right-to-Work (for less) legislation to wound
private sector unions.
On the January night of the president’s
address, the two political parties outlined their
election year positions. Obama called for
Americans to participate in citizenship as they
would in teamwork, all for one and one for all.
Daniels called for a completely unregulated
economy, including Wall Street, and for more
tax cuts for the rich.
Defining issue of the times
The president said the defining issue of the
times is sustaining the basic American promise
“that if you worked hard, you could do well
enough to raise a family, own a home, send
your kids to college, and put a little away for
retirement.”
This, he said, can only be accomplished
if citizens work together and equitably share
responsibility. He used as an analogy the accomplishments of the nation’s soldiers:
“When you’re marching into battle, you
look out for the person next to you, or the
mission fails. When you’re in the thick of the
fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one
nation, leaving no one behind.”
The value of leaving no one behind raises a
question for the nation. Obama posed it: “We
can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while
more Americans barely get by. Or we can
build a nation where everyone gets a fair shot,
everyone does their fair share and everyone
plays by the same rules.”
32
To move toward a country where everyone
does their fair share, Obama called for the end
of what was supposed to be a temporary tax
break for the rich. If the 1 percent don’t equitably participate in civic life, in paying for the
nation’s essentials, then, Obama said, everyone
else – the elderly on fixed incomes, struggling
young people, the poor living hand-to-mouth
– must take up the slack to prevent increasing
deficits. That is not equitable.
He asked the nation’s corporations to serve
as part of the American team as well, echoing but altering the words of the late John F.
Kennedy: “Ask yourselves what you can do
to bring jobs back to your country, and your
country will do everything we can to help you
succeed.”
Tax breaks for jobs in America
The president asked Congress to end tax
breaks given to corporations that send jobs
overseas and to create new tax breaks for
corporations that bring jobs back to America or
create jobs here.
In addition, to help corporations and small
businesses succeed in America, Obama announced establishment of a Trade Enforcement Unit to investigate unfair trade practices,
noting that when the playing field is level,
American workers are the most productive in
the world and can beat any competitors.
He cited as an example the trade case the
United Steelworkers filed to protect members
from unfairly traded tires from China. After the
USW won the case, Obama imposed tariffs on
tires imported from China. “Over a thousand
Americans are working today because we
stopped a surge in Chinese tires. But we need
to do more... It’s not right when foreign manufacturers have a leg up on ours only because
they’re heavily subsidized,” the president said.
By contrast, Gov. Daniels held up Apple as
a corporate example. “The great Steve Jobs –
what a fitting name he had – created more of
them than all those stimulus dollars.”
But Apple created 700,000 jobs in China,
and only 43,000 in the United States.
Obama returned to the unity image familiar
to unionists as he ended his speech:
“Each time I look at that flag, I’m reminded
that our destiny is stitched together like those
fifty stars and those thirteen stripes. No one
built this country on their own. This nation is
great because we built it together. This nation
is great because we worked as a team. This
nation is great because we get each other’s
backs.”
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
1/30/12 4:22 PM
International President Gerard
Joins White House Jobs Forum
I
nternational President Leo W. Gerard participated in a Jan. 11 Insourcing American Jobs
Forum held at the White House and hosted
by President Obama. The forum brought business, labor and other leaders together to discuss
ways to encourage investment and job creation
in the United States.
USW Marks 70th Anniversary
T
he USW is making preparations to mark this year’s 70th anniversary of the founding convention of the United Steelworkers of America.
The Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) formally transformed into the United
Steelworkers of America at the convention, which
was held in May 1942 in the Public Music Hall of
the Cleveland Auditorium.
The union’s name was formally introduced in
a Constitution Committee report issued to the delegates on May 19, 1942. The new union’s officers,
including President Philip Murray, were elected on
May 22, the last day of the convention.
The anniversary plans include an International
Executive Board meeting to be held in Cleveland,
sessions on union history and a convening of young
Philip Murray
union leaders.
USW Fighting Anti-Worker Legislation
T
he USW is working with other union members in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and
elsewhere to fight back against anti-worker legislation being pushed by Republican
governors and legislatures.
In Indiana, for example, USW members are critically engaged in the fight against Right-to-Work
(for less) legislation. On Jan. 4, the day the legislative session began in Indianapolis, some 700
USW members traveled by bus and car to join 2,000 other activists at the Statehouse.
USW members and members of other unions continued to jam the hallways outside the House
and Senate for weeks afterwards. Support actions included making calls, sending e-mails, writing
letters to the editor and building community support.
At press time, a Right-to-Work bill
had passed the Republican-controlled
USW protestors at the
House and the protests shifted to the
Statehouse in Indianapolis.
state Senate, which is also Republican
controlled.
“Legislators need to focus on
removing real barriers to economic
recovery and job creation instead of
partisan attacks designed to weaken
the influence and growth of unions,”
said District 7 Director Jim Robinson.
“Our members and their families are
educated and mobilized around this
critical fight.”
Health, Safety & Environment Conference
T
he 2012 USW Health, Safety & Environment Conference will be held in Pittsburgh at the
Westin Convention Center from March 5 to March 9. The conference will open with a uniononly session on Monday. Joint labor-management sessions will be held Tuesday through
Friday. In addition to three plenary sessions, attendees can choose from among 80 workshops that
will be available over seven sessions. More information and registration details are available online
at www.usw.org/hseconference.
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
33
1/30/12 4:22 PM
USW Supports College Athletes
F
Richard Trumka, Oralia Caso de Gómez and Leo W. Gerard
Bill Burke/Page One Photo
Mexican Miners
Leader Honored
T
he AFL-CIO awarded its 2011 George
Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights
Award to exiled Mexican mine workers union leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.
The annual award, named for the first
two presidents of the AFL-CIO, recognizes
outstanding examples of the international
struggle for human rights through trade
unions.
Gómez Urrutia, head of the Mine, Metal
and Steel Workers Union, also known as Los
Mineros, fled Mexico for Canada in 2006 after the Mexican government filed politicallymotivated charges against him. He continues
to lead his union from exile.
The Los Mineros leader could not secure
a travel visa so the award was presented to
his wife, Oralia Caso de Gómez, by AFLCIO President Richard Trumka and International President Leo W. Gerard.
“This is important recognition by the
AFL-CIO for the inspiring struggle of
Napoleón Gómez Urrutia to bring economic
justice to Mexican working families with his
heroic leadership,” Gerard said.
or 11 years, the USW has helped the nonprofit National College Players
Association (NCPA) in its fight to secure basic protections for college
athletes nationwide.
That support continued on Dec. 5 when more than 700 USW members attended a seventh-annual fundraiser, An Evening with the Steelers, sponsored by
the union in Pittsburgh to benefit the NCPA.
Steeler players past and present signed autographs and posed for photos during the event. Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson welcomed guests and thanked
sponsors.
International Vice President Fred Redmond gave a fiery speech in support of
college athletes’ rights and NCPA President Ramogi Huma, the organization’s
founder, thanked the USW for its support.
The NCPA has exposed the NCAA and its schools for a number of injustices
including forcing college athletes to pay for sports-related medical expenses, revoking scholarships of players who are permanently injured and unsafe workout
conditions.
“Current and future college athletes owe the Steelworkers much gratitude for
helping to finally give them a voice and the means to change NCAA rules so that
they may have basic protections,” Huma said.
“It was our goal from day one that the NCPA become the national voice for
the hundreds of thousands of college athletes across the U.S. who need a seat at
the table when the deals are cut,” said Political Director Tim Waters, who helped
the NCPA organize. “I can safely say today that we have now reached this goal,
and the NCPA is boldly demanding respect for athletes from all those who profit
off of their hard work.”
U.S. and Canadian Union Members Join Forces
A
merican and Canadian union members who work for forest industry giant Resolute Forest Products, formerly AbitibiBowater,
have joined forces to speak with one voice to the company.
Delegates from the USW and the Communications, Energy and
Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) met in Montreal in December and
pledged to coordinate activities and work together toward 2014 pattern
and master agreement negotiations with the company in both countries.
At the two-day joint meeting, delegates shared information on cost
reduction and job cut demands. In a statement adopted on Dec. 18, both
unions demanded respect and fairness from Resolute.
“We reject absolutely any form of contrived intimidation between
workers and mills,” the statement said. “We insist that the company respect our bargaining caucuses, our pattern agreements and end any form
of job blackmail between the local unions.”
The meeting drew delegates from 10 Canadian Resolute mills in
Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Four U.S. mills in Georgia, South
Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama were represented.
34
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
Photos by James Hamrick
Steelworkers:
The Last of the Breed
W
hen Dennis Crider,
a member of Local
1010 in East Chicago,
retired as a mill mechanic, he
decided to write a book about
his experiences. The result is
Steelworkers: The Last of the
Breed.
“I am not going to get rich off of this book,” he
said. “I just wanted to write a book about working
people and not some overpaid politician or movie
star.”
Crider, of Valparaiso, Ind., said his book is “97
percent all true.” Copies can be purchased online at
publishamerica.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com, he said.
1/30/12 4:22 PM
Rapid Response Holds
Regional Conferences
T
his year, for the first time, the USW’s
Rapid Response program is holding
regional conferences in Atlanta, Los
Angeles, Philadelphia and Detroit.
The conferences will focus heavily on
skill-building workshops, networking and
strengthening the USW’s ability to impact
the legislative process and promote the
needs of members.
The Atlanta conference will be held at
the Hyatt Regency Atlanta beginning Feb.
21; Los Angeles at the Westin Bonaventure,
March 13; Philadelphia at the Sheraton
Philadelphia Downtown Hotel, April 2; and
Detroit at the Detroit Marriott at Renaissance Center, May 9.
Go to www. usw.org for more
information.
English Named to ERISA Council
R
etired Secretary-Treasurer James D. English
has been appointed to the U.S. Department of
Labor’s 2012 Advisory Council on Employee
Welfare and Pension Plans, also known as the ERISA
Advisory Council.
Named to the post by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis
at year’s end, English is one of five new appointees to
the 15-member council. Each member serves a staggered three-year term.
The council was established with the 1974 passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
(ERISA) to advise the Secretary on policy, enforcement
Jim English
and regulatory matters.
As secretary-treasurer, English oversaw the union’s investments and financial operations among other duties, and served as a trustee for single and multiemployer pension plans.
“There is nobody more qualified than Jim when it comes to addressing how
best to secure health and retirement benefits for American workers,” International President Leo W. Gerard said. “His appointment is great news for our
members and millions of American workers.”
NOTICE TO ALL EMPLOYEES COVERED BY A UNION SECURITY CLAUSE
All USW represented employees covered by a union security clause have the right, under NLRB v. General Motors, 373 U.S. 734
(1963), to be and remain a nonmember subject only to the duty to pay the equivalent of union initiation fees and periodic dues. Further,
only such non-member employees have the right, under Communications Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 (1988), to limit payment of
union-security dues and initiation fees to certain moneys spent on activities germane to a union’s role as collective bargaining representative. This latter statutory right is embodied in the USW’s Nonmember Objection Procedure.
The Procedure is available to any USW represented employee
who is subject to a union security clause but who is a non-member
and who objects to his or her union security fees being expended on
nonrepresentational activities. Paragraph 1 of the Procedure states:
“1. Any individual, who is not a member of the United Steelworkers and who is required as a condition of employment to
pay dues to the United Steelworkers pursuant to a union security
arrangement but objects to supporting ... political or ideological expenditures by the United Steelworkers which are not necessarily or
reasonably incurred for the purpose of performing the duties of an
exclusive collective bargaining representative shall have the right
upon perfecting a notice of objection to obtain an advance reduction of a portion of such individual’s dues obligation commensurate
with expenditures unrelated to collective bargaining as required by
law.”
An eligible employee who objects to the USW expending monies for nonrepresentational activities such as charitable or political
activities may choose to perfect a notice of objection under Paragraph 2 of the Procedure, which states:
“2. To perfect a notice of objection, the individual must send
an individually signed notice to the International Secretary-Treasurer during the first thirty days following either the individual’s
initial date of hire into the USW represented unit or an anniversary
date of such hiring: provided, however, that if the individual lacked
knowledge of this Procedure, the individual shall have a 30 day
period commencing on the date the individual became aware of the
Procedure to perfect a notice of objection; and, provided, further,
that a member who resigns membership shall have the opportunity
to object within the 30 day period following resignation.1
Objectors are not USW members and have no right to vote in
1
union elections or to be a candidate, no right to participate in union
meetings or activities, and no right to vote on contract ratification.
Upon perfecting properly a notice of objection, the objector is
entitled to an advance reduction of a portion of his or her union
security obligation commensurate with expenditures unrelated to
collective bargaining, as required by law. International SecretaryTreasurer Stanley W. Johnson has determined, based upon expenditures for the calendar year 2010, that the reduction percentage
under the Procedure is 8.75% (18.32% if organizing expenditures
were to be included).
There are court decisions holding that organizing activities are
non-representational activities. The USW does not agree with those
rulings. However, without intending to waive its position that its
organizing expenditures are not subject to objection and without
intending to waive its right to assert its position if there is a challenge to the reduction percentage, the USW has deemed it expedient to apply the 18.32% figure to most current and future objectors.
Therefore, an objector will be charged 81.68% of the regular dues
amount. Each objector will be given a detailed breakdown between
representational and non-representational activities with a report by
an independent auditor.
The Procedure contains an appeals system under which challenges to the reduction percentage determination must be filed
within 30 days of the Notice of Determination and are to be decided by an impartial arbitrator appointed by the American Arbitration
Association. Disputed amounts are escrowed pending appeal.
While a notice must be individually signed and timely mailed,
there is no form for a notice. Processing is faster, however, when
the notice contains the objector’s name, address, local union number and employer.
Any right of a resignee to pay a reduced amount under this Procedure may or may not be superceded by the resignee’s check-off authorization.
U S W @ Wo r k • W i n t e r 2 0 1 2
35
1/30/12 4:22 PM
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 _________
Baltimore, Md.
Carson, Calif.
Fayetteville, N.C.
Canton, Ohio
Ankeny, Iowa
Spokane, Wash.
Roanoke, Va.
New Brunswick, N.J.
On January 14, the USW coordinated an International Day of Action to protest Cooper Tire’s unfair
and illegal lockout in Findlay, Ohio. Members of the USW, AFL-CIO and other supporters visited
approximately 125 stores that sell Cooper tires throughout the United States.
See story on page 12.
Albany, Ore.
Tucson, Ariz.
Akron, Ohio
Portage, Mich.
Henderson, Nev.
Granite City, Ill.
Frankfort, Ky.
Fresno, Calif.
1/30/12 4:22 PM

pdf - United Steelworkers

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