U.S. Steel employees represented by United Steelworkers (USW) voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike authorization, Sept. 7. USW has been negotiating a master agreement with U.S. Steel that covers more than 16,000 workers around the country. The vote would grant the negotiating committee the power to call a strike against the company.

U.S. Steel is proposing a number of concessions, including cuts to workers’ take-home pay and jobsite safety standards. These cuts come after a projected yearly profit of $2 billion and more than $50 million in management bonuses since 2015. The contract, which expired on Sept. 1, has been extended and can be terminated with 48-hour notice.

The union is simultaneously negotiating a contract with ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel producer, based in Luxembourg. Proposed concessions from ArcelorMittal include cuts to wages and “safety nets” designed to help workers in the event of layoffs and plant closures. The master agreement represents approximately 8000 employees.

A strike against U.S. Steel would be the biggest steel strike since 1986. The steel strike of ‘86 lasted for six months.

#UnitedStates #Steelworkers #UnitedSteelworkersOfAmerica #Strikes

Hoover, AL – In solidarity with the over 15,000 Goodyear Tire and Rubber workers who have been on strike since Oct. 5, demonstrations were held on Dec. 2 at Goodyear retail stores across the country. In Birmingham, over 100 workers and their supporters rallied at the retail store, while in Hoover, Alabama, a similar rally was held to protest the company’s unfair contract proposals, as well as to warn consumers of the risk involved in buying tires manufactured by strikebreakers.

Leaflets distributed to potential customers explain the findings of a recent study that linked defective tires to labor strife. For instance, the 2000 Firestone/Ford recall of defective tires, which killed over 270 people, was the result of the company’s use of unskilled scabs at a striking plant in Decatur, Alabama.

At the Hoover rally, unions from all over the country and from different manufacturing sectors were present, all demanding that Goodyear uphold its promises. “This is a combination of lots of unions – communications, steel – all pulling together to support each other for a great cause,” said Vickie Grace, member of the Communications Workers of America Local 3902 in Birmingham. “Goodyear is not living up to its promises. We want a change, and we want it now. These are hardworking employees and they don't deserve it.”

The Goodyear company is attempting to go back on its health care contract for retirees. Despite concessions the United Steelworkers union accepted in 2003 and record profits for the company and its CEO in 2005, Goodyear announced plans in 2006 to close plants and gut retiree benefits.

“Corporate America has chosen Goodyear to set a precedent for how companies will handle retiree benefits in the future,” explained Tommy Mayfield of Mobile, member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. “It’s not right for them to take retiree health benefits away that have been paid for over the years. The working class is tired of being treated like dogs.”

The U.S. Army, facing a shortage of tires for Humvees used in Iraq, threatened to intervene and break the strike at the Kansas plant.

[Editors note: On Dec. 29, it was announced that a tentative agreement between striking members of the United Steel Workers and Goodyear was ratified, bringing the courageous three-month strike to an end. On the upside, rubber workers were able to get Goodyear to up their offer for funding retiree health care. On the downside, a major plant in Tyler, Texas can be closed in 2008.]

#HooverAL #News #UnitedSteelWorkersOfAmerica #SouthernLaborMovement #Goodyear

Gadsden, AL – Despite the heavy rains and the passing weeks, workers at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant here are holding the picket line, demanding job security and better health and insurance benefits. All 1250 workers at the Gadsden plant have been on strike since Oct. 5, leaving the plant idle and plant supervisors scrambling to make tires on their own. The United Steelworkers of America, who organized the strike, represents eleven other plants in America and two in Canada, a total of 15,000 workers, all of whom are participating in the strike.

Goodyear shut down a plant in Huntsville, Alabama in 2003 and recently revealed plans to shut down two more and move production overseas. Workers are fighting to keep the plant open, and to hold on to their health and insurance benefits, which are continually under attack, despite the fact that the company’s profit has increased in the past two years. Retirees draw less than $700 a month, yet pay $600 a month for insurance. “It’s not right, nothing’s right about it,” said Rickey Ramey, a tire builder with the plant for over 31 years, shaking his head, showing his hands crippled from years of hard work. “We accepted concessions, bailed the plant out in ’97, made them millions of dollars with our hands and our backs. Now they want to take it all away.”

The Goodyear plant in Gadsden has been operating since the 1930s and has a history of struggle; workers struck several times in the 1970s, for over four months in 1976 and again in 1997. The majority of citizens in Gadsden have either worked for or have family who has worked for Goodyear, and support the workers’ struggle. “The community is behind us 110 percent,” said Dennis Battles, president of the United Steelworkers Local 12. “Every time you look up, they are bringing food to the picket line, donating money. It really gets to you sometimes, makes you want to sit down and bawl.”

Battles is waiting for the call to restart negotiations. Until then, the workers plan on striking for as long as it takes, fully aware that without them, the Goodyear plant cannot operate. “Already, Goodyear’s credit report has been demoted from A to B; they’re paying $1.2 million of interest a day. I can see the bosses laughing, thinking, ‘Oh these peons are going to make us some money!’ But if the plant goes bankrupt, the CEO makes zero!” explained Ramey.

Rickey Williams, a maintenance mechanic, agrees that the benefit cuts are unacceptable, that compromise is no longer an option. “The CEO makes $7,700,000 and just got a $3 million bonus,” said Williams, soaked from picketing for hours in the rain. “We don’t want more concessions – the more we give them the more they want. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; they’re trying to get rid of the middle class. The past two years Goodyear has turned a profit, but they still want more. We have really got to stop that somewhere.”

#GadsdenAL #GadsenAL #SouthernLaborMovement #Goodyear #UnitedSteelworkersOfAmerica

Miami, FL – Bush and the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement suffered a setback in Miami, Nov. 16 – 21. The Bush administration’s trade representative Robert Zoellick closed the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (FTAA) meeting a day early with only a partial outline, not an agreement.

The handful of billionaires and scores of multi-millionaires promoting the FTAA saw their deal drift away on the tear gas-filled streets. The FTAA outline does not bind all the countries of the hemisphere to the same rules and regulations, but allows countries to make bi-lateral agreements and then try to negotiate and recruit other countries to those. This will certainly slow down U.S. corporations plans for exploitation of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Marching and Protesting

While trade ministers were sequestered in fancy meeting rooms, workers and young people out on the streets of Miami protested. Over 20,000 people, the vast majority trade unionists, marched through the streets of downtown Miami to protest the FTAA, Nov. 20. The United Steel Workers of America, with a lot to lose under the FTAA, mobilized thousands. They see the FTAA as a plan for ruination.

Workers, both union and non-union, see their factories closed by U.S. corporations that move to countries where governments use U.S. tax dollars to repress unions. Interviewed on the Metrorail, Jose, a non-union phoneline worker, told Fight Back!, “Free trade means jobs here are privatized or deregulation cuts the bottom out of the wages. Our wages are going down. Then, in countries like Colombia, where I am from, the U.S. companies can run wild and do whatever they want. Calling all the shots.”

A Sunny Seattle

The police in Miami came prepared for war on the streets. The highly militarized police used armored personnel carriers, water cannon, helicopters, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, electric tazer guns, three-foot long clubs, shields and more. It made protesters wonder, “What do the cops have for backup?”

Street corners looked like occupied territories, with police closing streets and businesses. Public transportation was closed down hours before the big march and police prevented 87 buses of retired and union workers from arriving near the protest on the waterfront. Retired people, union workers and college students were pepper sprayed and shot with rubber bullets.

The police were brutal. Anna Maria Blackshire, a street medic for the protests, said, “As protesters were moving away from the police, I saw cops hitting people with big batons over the head. One guy I helped treat was in the front as the cops were pushing people back and the cops hit him hard. He was bleeding from the back of his head. He was stunned and needed stitches. Still, people listened to the medics and made it through. People pulled together to take care of each other and help each other.”

In an ugly sign of the times, the police were given $8 million from the $87 billion Bush requested for the occupation of Iraq. After Iraq and Afghanistan, the streets of Miami looked like the third front in Bush’s ‘war on terror.’ The Florida politicians, including Governor Jeb Bush, wanted to be certain this would be no sunny version of the ‘Battle of Seattle.’

Preparedness and Solidarity

For days leading up to the Nov. 20 protest march, many unions and campaigns supporting workers were in action and holding meetings around Miami. Luis Adolfo Cardona, the Colombian trade unionist who survived a Coca-Cola death squad, spoke in front of a 2000-plus meeting of the United Steelworkers. Hundreds of young radicals held forums and discussions in an old warehouse building on the edge of downtown, where the police harassed them. The Immokalee Workers, who harvest tomatoes under abusive conditions and call for a boycott of Taco Bell, marched for over 23 miles to draw attention to their fight-back.

By the day of the main march, many groups and unions had become aware of each others’ campaigns and solidarity was built strong. In at least one instance, where the police snatched a young protester out of the march, steel workers waded in and snatched the young man back. On another occasion an ex-cop and retired steelworker marched up and down in front of the police as they repeatedly shot rubber bullets at him. He was in Miami to protest the FTAA and no one was going to stop him! Given the police response to the protest, it comes as no surprise that many of the union workers in attendance left Miami wondering “Dude, where’s my country?”

#MiamiFL #News #WorkersAndGlobalization #FreeTradeOfTheAmericasAgreement #UnitedSteelWorkersOfAmerica #FTAAProtest