The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.23           June 15, 1998 
 
 
Pennsylvania: Striking Miners Win Solidarity  
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.

*****

HAZLETON, Pennsylvania -Striking members of the United Mine Workers (UMWA) celebrated a victory here recently when officials of the Reading and Blue Mountain Railroad announced they would no longer transport coal from the struck Jeddo mine. "Train engineers said they wouldn't cross our picket line until the strike is settled," striker Robert Lynch told the Hazleton Standard-Speaker. When the company tried to truck the coal out, Lynch said, "we asked the drivers to honor our picket line. They did."

Nearly 60 members of UMWA Locals 803 and 1531 struck the strip mine owned by James Pagnotti on March 26, four years after their last contract expired. Up until 1994, the miners worked under a master anthracite contract covering workers at the region's unionized mines. In 1994 the mine owners refused to agree to a contract covering all the mines, but the three other major anthracite mines in the area settled with separate contracts.

Jeddo Coal Company held out, forcing miners to work without a contract until late last year when it imposed its "last, best offer." This included drastic reductions in health-care benefits, and the right to contract out nearly every job at the mine. Economically, the miners say, they fell about $1.25 per hour behind miners at the area's other three unionized anthracite mines. Now that the four-year agreements are up again, they are about to lose yet another $1.25. Two of the contracts - at Blaschak Coal Company and at Reading Anthracite -just expired. Miners at the third, Lehigh Coal and Navigation, have already reached an agreement.

But economics are not the primary reason why miners here took action and are preparing for what they believe will be a long strike. The contract mine that owner Pagnotti imposed on workers here in December was tantamount to "leaving our civil liberties on this side of the railroad tracks when we go in there to work," striker Lynch told the Militant. Lynch, a welder, is a 25-year veteran of the Jeddo mine. What was the standard owner's "right to manage" in the last contract, he explained, became the "right to hire, fire, make schedule and personnel changes, and impose `reasonable rules' in the contract forced on us. They don't recognize seniority or past practices going back to 1903.

"When we first heard this `last, best offer' would be forced on us, we laughed," Lynch explains. "We said we'll just appeal it to the National Labor Relations Board. We went through two appeals before the NLRB in Philadelphia, and both ruled against us. Then we went to a higher level, and we lost there too. We went to Washington, D.C., and they said it was fine too. With one stroke the company neutralizes every gain we have fought and died for, and the NLRB says it's okay."

On March 15, before the strike began, more than 400 UMWA members and other unionists and supporters rallied here in support of the Jeddo miners. Some 30 area union officials and strikers gathered in Scranton May 22 at the statue of former UMWA president John Mitchell to bring attention to the strike. In addition, Lynch says, they organize to picket the Jeddo Coal's headquarters once a week in Wilkes-Barre and they picket the mine owners at their homes.

"We're telling workers around here you don't have to take this crap," Lynch says. "Just like those McDonald's workers did out in Ohio."

Montreal bank workers rally against cuts
MONTREAL - Some 300 employees of the Laurentian Bank and their supporters rallied here May 24 outside of a branch of the bank that is scheduled to be closed along with 23 others on June 22. The demonstration was called to protest the closing of the branches, which will eliminate up to 300 jobs and cuts in service to clients of the bank.

The workers at the Quebec-based Laurentian Bank are members of the Office and Professional Employees International Union. It is the only bank in Canada where employees are unionized. In January 1997 the bank had 161 branches with 1175 unionized employees. If the proposed cuts are implemented there will be only 93 branches left and 510 fewer union members.

Demonstrators came not only from Montreal but from other cities in Quebec. Union member Jeannine Lacasse, who is a financial counselor from the city of Granby southeast of Montreal, explained, "We already accepted a reduction in hours and in pay to prevent layoffs."

British Columbia Hospital workers strike
Vancouver, Canada-Some 20,000 hospital workers throughout British Columbia walked off the job for four hours May 26. Officials of the Hospital Employees Union (HEU) called the strike to pressure the provincial government and the health-care bosses for a new agreement with its 45,000 members whose contract expired March 31.

The provincial government is demanding all unionized public workers, including hospital workers, accept a three- year deal with a wage freeze in the first two years followed by a 2 percent raise in the third year. Since April 1995 HEU members have received only a 1 percent wage increase. Some 160,000 public workers in British Columbia are renegotiating their contracts this year. The government claims it can't afford wage increases for these workers.

The hospital bosses are also demanding cuts to vacation time, reduced dental coverage, lower payment for on-the-job injuries, and a cut of up to 30 percent in payments to workers on long-term disability for more than two years.

At Vancouver General Hospital, the province's largest, 800 workers went on strike. Christa Stenback, who works with senior citizens said, "It's a shame we have to do this, but in order to get our message out we have to be strong."

A porter who declined to give her name said, "Money is not important. I just don't want to give up anything." But Shada Bains, a cleaner, said, "Money is important. I live paycheck to paycheck. Job security is also important and I don't want to give up vacation time. We need to be united and fight for our rights."

Negotiations resumed the day following the walkout.

Rockwell workers strike in Iowa, California
CORALVILLE, Iowa-More than 1,200 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) walked off the job May 28 at the Rockwell International Corp. facilities in Coralville, Iowa, and Newport Beach, California. This is the first strike at the Coralville plant. The electrical workers rejected a contract that was approved by workers at two other Rockwell plants, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Dallas, Texas.

Rockwell is a major war industry supplier. At some 100 plants around the world, workers produce semiconductors, industrial automation equipment, and aircraft guidance and communications systems.

The 650 workers at the Coralville plant, known as Rockwell Collins, produce communications and guidance systems for commercial and military uses. They rejected the company proposal May 23 that offered a pay increase of only five cents per hour, and at the same time increased amounts workers must pay for visits to the doctor. The company sought a five-year contract, up from the current three-year term. In addition, eye-care coverage promised to the workers was postponed until 2001.

Workers on the picket line explained that the plant was opened 12 years ago. Work from the Rockwell plant in nearby Cedar Rapids was moved to the new facility, but top pay at Coralville is only $9.37 per hour, $4 less than wages paid at the Cedar Rapids plant. In the last seven years workers have seen raises totaling only 67 cents. Rockwell touts the Coralville plant as its showplace facility. "I'd like to see upper management live on the wages we're living on," said Local 1634 member Jane Rodgers.

Some 75 percent of the workforce are women, and many are single parents. "I'm a single mother and this is my only source of income and I'll stand here on the picket line till doomsday," said Deb Hofer, an assembly operator with eight years at Rockwell Collins.

Following the expiration of their last agreement May 1, Local 1634 members rejected two contract proposals. Kris Villhauer, who has worked in the plant 10 years said, "I think the company was blown away that we voted down the contract."

When the walkout began at midnight some 150 workers turned out for picketing at the plant. The company is trying to maintain production using foremen and engineers.

On May 29 Rockwell received an injunction from the Johnson County District Court restricting IBEW pickets to no more than four workers per gate "to maintain safety of all personnel at Rockwell gates."

The unionists take a different view. "It is typical Rockwell Collins," said striker Dave Green. "That way they can limit the number of people in picket lines to make it look like there is no support for the strike."

The unionists are organizing to line the public road leading into the plant with strikers and supporters early June 1 to protest as bosses and nonunion technicians enter the factory. Striker Kim Benscoter in Coralville summed up the mood of the unionists: "There are a lot of rebels here, which the company bred into us."

In Newport Beach 600 members of IBEW Local 2295 went on strike demanding higher wages and an end to long workdays.

The workers voted 246-240 to reject the proposed five- year contract. The strikers said the key issue was the forced 12-hour days that cause accidents, are exhausting, and create child-care problems. The contract also contained provisions for annual wage increases of 3-5 percent, which workers thought were too low.

Nancy Cole, member of International Association of Machinists Local 1776 and Joe Kleidon in Philadelphia; Grant Hargrave, member of IAM Local 1758 in Montreal; Mike Barker, member of the HEU in Vancouver; Mark Friedman, member of the IAM in Los Angeles; and Ray Parsons, member of United Steelworkers of America Local 310 in Des Moines, contributed to this column.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home