The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.6           February 12, 1996 
 
 
Oil Workers Rally, Demand Pay Raise In Contract  

This column is devoted to reporting the resistance by working people to the employers' assault on their living standards, working conditions, and unions.

We invite you to contribute short items to this column as a way for other fighting workers around the world to read about and learn from these important struggles. Jot down a few lines about what is happening in your union, at your workplace, or other workplaces in your area, including interesting political discussions.

HOUSTON, Texas - Collective bargaining agreements between nearly 40,000 union refinery workers and the major oil companies expire on January 31.

These workers are employed at some 300 refineries and other facilities around the country and are members of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW).

As of this writing no agreement has been reached.

On January 25, 400 union members and supporters demonstrated at the main gate of the Richmond Chevron refinery, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Workers are particularly angered by the companies' offer of a lump sum in lieu of a pay increase. Many of the 200 Chevron refinery operators who attended carried signs with such slogans as "Dump the Lump." They were joined by contingents of workers from other unions representing craft workers in the plant, a group of 27 Chevron workers from Chevron's El Segundo refinery and Unocal's Wilmington refinery in the Los Angeles area, and other OCAW-organized refineries in the Bay Area.

No national contract exists in the oil industry per se. Instead, the OCAW conducts "pattern bargaining." Once an agreement is reached with a selected major oil company this serves as the pattern for bargaining with all other employers in the industry. A weak alternative to a national contract, pattern bargaining is nevertheless one of the union gains the oil giants would like to take away.

The pattern setter this year, as in past years, is the negotiation with Amoco. The company's original offer of a $500 signing bonus and a 1 percent pay increase per year was rejected by the OCAW. The union's negotiation position calls for a $1.25 per hour pay increase each year (as opposed to one-time bonuses or incentive pay), an increase in pension benefits, and "job security" language. Amoco subsequently increased its offer to 1.5 percent per year. This, too, was rejected.

OCAW president Robert Wages announced December 4 the adoption of a selective strike strategy. If a contract agreement is not reached with the oil companies, the union will call out on strike only selected locations from seven "targeted" companies: Amoco, Shell, Chevron, Mobil, Texaco, Unocal, and ARCO. In the past, all workers covered by expiring contracts went on strike when no agreement was reached.

Negotiations are also ongoing on local issues, such as seniority, work rules, and work schedules, on a location-by- location basis. Many union locals have already reached tentative local agreements with the oil bosses. But in a number of instances, such as Mobil in Beaumont, Texas, and Crown in Pasadena, outside Houston, the companies have demanded deep cuts, particularly aimed at rolling back seniority rights. Workers at the Crown refinery here responded on January 10 by marching 200 strong to the refinery administration building. They waved signs and chanted, "We're not going to take it," at a rally held in the building lobby. Company officials called in local police but there were no arrests.

Strike preparations are evident, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, in addition to the demonstration at Chevron, small plant-gate rallies have been held at most refineries. Workers at Chevron set up an information center staffed by rank-and-file members and are planning leafleting in surrounding areas. The OCAW has called for a demonstration on February 1 when the president of Chevron speaks in downtown San Francisco.

New Zealand unionists picket Sheraton
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - "Five-star hotel pays two- finger wages" read one of the placards, as workers here mounted a noisy picket line outside the Sheraton Hotel January 27, to force the hotel management to negotiate a new contract. The previous contract expired in December. Since then the company has offered a two-year contract, with only a 2.5 percent wage rise for the first year.

Shouts of "Two-point-five - TOO LOW! Two years - TOO LONG!" and a lot of noise from banging saucepan lids rang out all morning. Workers were particularly incensed at the company's insistence on a two-year contract. They don't believe the company's predictions of continuing low inflation, and want the chance to negotiate again at the end of a year, when the present government may have been thrown out.

Evana Belich, an advocate for the Service Workers Union, which organizes around 140 of the 300 wage workers, told this reporter the action reflected a recent strengthening of union organization at the hotel. Prior to the passing of the antiunion Employment Contracts Act in 1991, the Sheraton had been a relatively well-unionized hotel, with workers holding a sit-in in the 1980s.

Like many workplaces, it had suffered a decline in union membership in the face of a concerted antiunion drive in the 1990s. The company had set up a parallel structure of "staff representatives," who enjoyed paid meetings and other privileges, in an effort to undermine the union delegate structure.

"Today on the picket line, many of those `staff reps' are joining with us," Belich said. She pointed out that a petition in support of the union's claims had been signed by 240 out of 300 staff, union members and nonmembers alike.

Several participants reported instances of company victimization of workers who support the union actions. Among those receiving threats and warnings are a few who are working under "individual contracts," but who have joined the actions in defiance of the Employment Contracts Act provisions forbidding such solidarity. "We're affected by the outcome of the Collective Contract too, indirectly," one of them told me.

The strike was due to end on January 29. "But we will be meeting again then, and looking at more actions if the company doesn't move," one worker said in an interview.

Jerry Freiwirth, member of OCAW Local 4-367 at Shell Oil in Pasadena, Texas; Cathy Gutekanst and Susan Zárate, members of OCAW Local 1-5 in Richmond, California; and James Robb, member of the Meat Workers Union in Auckland, New Zealand, contributed to this column.

 
 
 
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