NOTES FROM THE ROAD

I’m just back from an extended and actually pretty exciting work trip through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. 

I started in St. Mary’s, Ohio last Friday for a one day mobilization training with two of our local unions.  They’re owned by a monster private equity firm and are pitted in some tough contract negotiations with a contract expiring at the end of the month.  Then Saturday I stuck around in Eastern Ohio to visit Local 624 which is about six weeks into a strike against Husky Oil.  

Local 624’s strike is interesting and it’s difficult.  Virtually all of the major economic issues are settled–wages, pensions, healthcare–and the company has met the terms of the national pattern agreement (although their recent contract proposals seem to be back tracking on that).  The workers are striking to hang on to the right to adjust their schedules to spend more time with their families.  Mike Elk over at In These Times wrote a great piece summing up a lot of the issues of the strike. 

To most people shift swaps doesn’t seem like a giant issue but when you’re working 12 hr shifts with lots of overtime swapping shifts quickly becomes one of the only ways our members can maintain a decent work/life balance. 

On Saturday, Local 624 organized a rally in support of their strike.  It was the first major event of the strike and it was a pretty good success.  Top leadership from the Steelworkers turned out along with a lot of USW activists from District 1 (the state of Ohio).  In total there were about 300 people at the rally and it seemed like the membership felt pretty good about the event. 

For me, the highlight of the rally was when our Vice President for Oil Bargaining, Gary Beevers spoke about reaching out to top company officials and was quoted in the newspaper calling the company’s bargaining reps idiots.  

“I met with that company when they first came here — they’ve not changed. I reached out to that company after they forced you out,” said Gary Beevers, United Steelworkers International vice president in charge of the National Oil Bargaining Program, said. “You know what they told me? Their executives think it should be handled at the bargaining table in Lima, Ohio. I said, ‘Well, I don’t disagree with you but it ain’t gonna be handled at the bargaining table in Lima, Ohio, if you keep sending idiots to the table.‘”

After Saturday’s rally I headed over to Youngstown for the Ohio FrACTION Camp. I gave a complete rundown on that in another post.

Sunday and Monday I drove up to Sun Prairie, WI–just north of Madison–to teach another one-day mobilization training.  This group works for the same employer as the two Ohio locals I was working with on Thursday. 

After the training, on Tuesday I headed over to Milwaukee to spend some time with strikers at Palermo’s Pizza.  I’m going to be writing about this in other entries because it’s the most exciting and inspiring collective bargaining fight I’ve seen in a long time, but here’s a quick rundown of the situation.  A group of low-wage, mostly immigrant workers had been organizing with the help of a workers’ center at a local pizza manufacturer, Palermo’s Pizza, for a long time.  In June they went on strike demanding that the company recognize them as a union and the contacted the Steelworkers to ask to affiliate with us.  The company responded by calling ICE, questioning the strikers immigration status, firing strikers, and hiring replacement workers.  Now, with the help of the Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO the workers are fighting for their jobs and for a union at their workplace. 

It’s an incredibly difficult situation but I’m inspired at how strong these workers are, how sophisticated the workers’ center is and how the organized labor movement has really stepped up to the challenge of supporting this struggle.