BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia - "We must let them know that they
can't walk all over us any old way. What we do here will make a
difference to the other companies." This is how Glenda
Saunders, a pipefitter at the Newport News shipyard for 19
years and a member of United Steelworkers of America (USWA)
Local 8888, summed up her view of the strike battle here.
After two and a half months on the picket lines, the big majority of the 9,200 hourly workers represented by USWA Local 8888 are holding the line in their fight with the company for respect and dignity on the job and for a decent contract with increased wages and pension benefits.
As we go to press, union members are building an expanded picket line at the plant between the 35th and 50th street entrances on June 24. The following day some 30 busloads of strikers will board buses to attend the Newport News Shipbuilding annual shareholders meeting in Richmond, Virginia.
In addition to picketing the many gates of entry to the shipyard, union members held a floating picket line June 9 with more than a dozen boats full of striking steelworkers.
Meanwhile, the company is doing all it can to keep the pressure on. In mid-June, shipyard bosses announced they were considering instituting a separate higher pay scale for skilled workers. In the previous union contract the yard paid all production workers on the same wage scale with a top pre-strike wage of $14.53 per hour.
Local 8888 members are not receiving strike pay. Instead, USWA officials set up an office where workers submit their bills to be paid. Strikers can also receive cash stipends of $50, if they specifically request it.
Steelworker officials announced in early June that for the rest of the month there will be substantially less assistance. According to the new rules, the union will pay only emergency bills for members, such as mortgages on the verge of foreclosure, utilities on the verge of being cut off, and rent if the member is about to be evicted.
An article in the June 17 Newport News Daily Press cited USWA spokesman Tony Montana as saying that when the strike began, "the Steelworkers claimed 8,000 members, or more than 85 percent of eligible workers. Since then 786 members have resigned from the union." Virginia is a so-called right-to-work state, so workers are not obligated to join the Steelworkers even though the union has won the right to represent all of them.
Despite increased financial pressures, many of those on the picket lines are determined to stick with this fight. "I made my sacrifices," said Barry Creedle, a striking pipefitter. "I'm staying out here for the union."
Brian Williams is a USWA member Local 2609 at Sparrows Point, Maryland.