The Militant - February 27, 2012 -- On the Picket Line

Vol. 76/No. 8 February 27, 2012

On the Picket Line

Oil workers demand Tesoro
withdraw medical, pension cuts

AVON, Calif.—Some 200 members of United Steelworkers Local 5 held a picket and rally Feb. 6 at the Tesoro Corp. refinery here demanding the company back off from medical and pension cuts, which have stalled contract negotiations. Job combinations are another sticking point.

The action was part of coordinated events because Tesoro bosses at their six refineries organized by the Steelworkers have not come to agreement with the union on “local” questions. Under “pattern bargaining,” wages and other “national” questions are negotiated industry-wide, but each union local has a separate contract and bargains on local issues.

Many picket signs stressed safety and contained the names of seven workers killed in an explosion at Tesoro’s Anacortes, Wash., plant in 2010. Refinery worker Suzette Tippitt told the Militant that four workers were killed here in 1999 when they were ordered to perform an operation they had objected to as unsafe. A federal investigation said “management failures” by prior owner Tosco, were the primary cause of the disaster. “We mourn for the dead, but fight for the living,” said Jeff Clark, secretary-treasurer of Local 5.

—Andrea Morell

Philadelphia nurse aides protest
job cuts at university hospital

PHILADELPHIA—Two hundred certified nurse aides and their supporters rallied outside Hahnemann University Hospital here Feb. 7, protesting what workers say is the planned elimination of 127 jobs.

The CNAs, members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District 1199C, work for Tenet Healthcare Corporation, which contracts nurse aides, transportation, dietary and other jobs for the hospital.

The hospital administration told the press it plans to eliminate CNA positions over the next six months to a year and assign their tasks to registered nurses. The AFSCME contract expires July 1. Speaking at the rally, union President Henry Nichols called the moves against the CNAs “union busting.” Workers are maintaining informational pickets at hospital entrances.

—Osborne Hart

NY Flushing hospital nurses
approve new contract

FLUSHING, Queens, N.Y.—Nurses at Flushing Hospital here voted Feb. 9 to approve a new contract. The hospital administration had demanded deep cuts in pensions and a steep increase in monthly health care premiums.

The 420 members of the New York State Nurses Association at the hospital had threatened to go on strike and held a spirited picket line Jan. 5 and a town meeting Feb. 2.

“The demands of the hospital are demeaning and insulting and it hurts,” Theresa Damico told the Militant at the town meeting. “If they get away with it here, they’re going to do this to other hospitals.”

The new contract includes a raise of 2 percent in the second and third years of the contract. Nurses will now pay up to $100 a month for their health plan, half what the hospital administration was demanding.

At the voting site in the hospital boardroom, nurses had mixed views on the contract. “Our pensions and benefits remain intact,” said Tracey Kavanagh, who works in the operating room.

“I don’t think we won,” said Phyllis Jackson-O’Connor, a nursing case manager who voted against the proposed contract. “We should have gotten a raise the first year.”

—Candace Wagner

Verizon workers protest
strike-related firings

NEW YORK—Some 200 Verizon workers and their supporters rallied here Feb. 4 to protest lack of progress in contract talks and to demand reinstatement of 40 workers fired after a two-week strike in August. The rally was held outside a Verizon dispatch center where one of the fired unionists worked.

Some 45,000 members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from New England to Virginia went back to work under the terms of the previous contract after the company agreed to further negotiations.

“Negotiations are at a standstill,” Anel Vazquez told the Militant.

“We should’ve stayed out on strike until we had a contract,” said Brian Walsh. “Some people say, ‘that’s just the way it is, live with it,’ I’m sorry, but that’s not the way it should be. Working people need to band together.”

—Seth Galinsky
and Dan Fein

Quebec day care workers hold
one-day strike for contract

MONTREAL—Thousands of workers in public day care centers, Centres de la petite enfance, marched to the offices of Quebec Families Minister Yolande James Feb. 10 as part of a one-day strike to win a contract.

Buses from throughout Quebec brought workers from the day care centers, the big majority of them women. The action was organized by the Confederation of National Trade Unions. Some 8,500 workers in 360 centers have been without a contract for two years. Workers from more than 100 centers held a one-day strike Feb. 6; the Feb. 10 strike involved all 360.

The union is seeking an 11.25 percent wage increase over three years while the government is proposing 7 to 10 percent over five years. The average wage for the workers is $19 per hour and the maximum after 10 years is $21.65.

Day care worker Karine Doucet, who came on one of five buses from Saguenay, Quebec, said her husband is one of the workers locked-out by Rio Tinto Alcan since Jan. 1.

—Beverly Bernardo
and Katy LeRougetel