BY KRISTIN MERIAM
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Members of 11 unions at Ingalls
Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, voted June 3 and 4
to accept a contract proposal and return to work June 7 after
three weeks on strike.
Journeymen will receive an immediate wage increase of $1 per hour, a 60-cent raise after 14 months, and a 70-cent raise 15 months later, a total of $2.30 over the 45-month pact.
Workers in lower labor grades will receive a percentage of that pay hike. Those with perfect attendance for 40 scheduled work days will receive a 37-cent-per-hour bonus. An additional vacation day was also included in the contract in lieu of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday some workers sought.
Employees' health insurance payments will increase by $5 per month three times over the life of the contract. Ingalls originally demanded three $10 increases.
The contract was approved by about a two-thirds majority, according to strikers Teresa Nelson and Paul Ray. The Pascagoula Metal Trades Council, which includes nine of the striking unions representing 6,500 strikers, did not publicly release its vote totals. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 733, which represents 1,200 Ingalls employees, approved the contract by a vote of 286-175. International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 1133 also approved the contract.
Many strikers who spoke to the Militant thought they could have done better if they'd stayed out longer and were disappointed with the outcome of the vote. But, they agreed, the workers are going back to work stronger than they were before.
"We didn't get everything we wanted but majority rules so we'll just have to work with it," Ray, a Machinist, told the Militant in a phone interview June 6. "We showed the company we're tired of being pushed around."
"We made a stand. We let the company know they couldn't run us over," said Nelson. "A lot of young people had never been on a strike. They got a chance to experience it. We showed them what it was all about. Some older workers thought the young people would take whatever was offered, but they came out too. I'm very proud of that." Nelson, a member of Pipefitters Local 436, is a veteran of the Ingalls strike of 1974.
She concluded, "We've got 45 months to get ourselves in a situation where we can stay out longer and make a bold statement, like Newport News, and stay out for the duration."
Kristin Meriam is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 12014 in Birmingham.