Vol. 81/No. 9 March 6, 2017
Momentive workers: ‘We’re stronger for fight we waged’
Strikers maintained picket lines 24 hours a day for the entirety of the strike at eight gates of the chemical plant here. Supporters organized a nonstop supply of firewood for burn barrels to keep strikers warm and made food donations continuously throughout the strike.
“Support got stronger towards the end from community and labor organizations,” said Dominick Patrignani, president of IUE-CWA Local 81359, which represents most of those on strike. “We were getting new support from unions in Massachusetts and New Jersey.”
The bosses’ hatred for the visible, sometimes intense and often jovial picket lines was reflected in their efforts to shut them down. Momentive demanded judges impose restrictions on the number of strikers and what they could say and do on the lines — but they failed.
The contract voted up by the unionists included many of the cuts in benefits originally proposed, including ending retiree health and welfare benefits, denying weeks of already earned vacation for many workers, and, according to workers interviewed, increases in what workers pay for their own medical care costs. The new contract, which runs through June 2019, allows more flexibility for the company in using nonunion labor and increased automation. Patrignani said that a proposed cut in 401(k) retirement account contributions the company demanded was removed from the contract. The agreement includes a 2 percent raise in 2017 and 2 percent in 2018.
Twenty-six workers were fired by Momentive during the strike. The terminated worker provision was “the most upsetting part of the deal,” said Patrignani.
“Of the 26, 11 of us were fired for mostly trumped-up charges while on the picket line,” Mike Horton, a shop steward and operator with seven years in the plant, told the Militant. Horton is one of those fired. “Fifteen were fired from one of the buildings where the company accused us of sabotage. They can’t prove any of it but they said if we didn’t approve the contract none of us would ever return. They also threatened to lay off 150 workers if we didn’t sign.”
The agreement says the terminations of those accused of sabotage will be reviewed by a “neutral investigator” appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and that the other 11 will be subject to “expedited arbitration, should the Union demand.”
“They tried to outwait us on the economic side,” said William Johnson, another striker. “We received letters just before the vote saying that the company had challenged our right to receive unemployment. It was just a scare tactic, but it had an impact on the vote.”
“They used the government to push the contract,” added Horton. Gov. Cuomo intervened directly in the final stages of the negotiations.
“We actually found out about the agreement between the CWA and Momentive through the media,” Johnson said. News of the settlement appeared in the New York Daily News and other papers Feb. 9. “The workers Win One at Momentive,” the Daily News editorialized, depicting Cuomo and other Democratic Party politicians as the heroes of the day and painting the tentative contract as a done-deal victory. Strikers attended information meetings on the agreement a couple days later and voted Feb. 13-14.
“We were under a lot of pressure to vote for the contract under those conditions because it would have appeared unreasonable for us to vote down a contract that supposedly resolved our main grievances. We were concerned we would lose public support because of this,” Johnson said. “All they did was push the numbers around, it wasn’t a better contract than what we had previously voted down.” About a dozen strikers the Militant spoke with around the burn barrels shared this view.
“We still have our union together,” said Johnson, noting that the company acted as if they wanted to break the union. Johnson said he thought the union was stronger today because of the fight they waged.
“We hadn’t had a strike here since 1969,” he said. “There is a learning curve. We had to learn to contain our emotions on the picket line.”
“It is important that we finally stood up,” Horton said, noting that union workers had taken significant cuts in wages and benefits in two prior contracts dating back to 2010. “While we were out we were very solid, we stuck together. We’re learning and the new contract is up
in two years.”
Related articles:
Anti-labor outfit targets union at Momentive
Illinois rail car repair workers strike over health costs
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