FOUNDRY WORKERS STRIKE TO SAVE THEIR HEALTHCARE
Photos and text by David Bacon
BERKELEY, CA 3/22/10 -- A strike of over 450 workers in one
of the largest foundries on the west coast brought production to a
halt Sunday night, at Pacific Steel Castings. The work stoppage,
which began at midnight, has continued with round the clock picketing
at the factory gates in west Berkeley.
Local 164B of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and
Allied Workers International Union (GMP) has been negotiating a new
labor agreement at Pacific Steel for several months. The old
agreement expired on Sunday night.
The strike was caused by demands from the company's owners
for concessions and takeaway proposals in contract negotiations.
Those include:
- requiring workers to pay at least 20% of the cost of their
medical insurance, amounting to about $300 per month per employee.
- a wage freeze for the first two years of the agreement, and
tiny raises after that.
- eliminating the ability of workers to use their seniority
to bid for overtime, allowing criteria including speedup,
discrimination and favoritism.
"All eight other foundries in the Bay Area have agreed to a
fair contract," said Ignacio De La Fuente, GMP international
vice-president. "Workers at Pacific Steel haven't had a raise in the
last two years, in order to help the company pay for increases in
health plan costs. Pacific Steel is now alone among the rest in
trying to make its workers give back $300 a month."
The $300/month would mean an approximately 10% cut in wages
for most workers at the foundry.
Joel Soto, a member of the union's negotiating committee, has
worked eight years at Pacific Steel, and has a wife, 2-year-old child
and another on the way. Soto said, "We've been trying to save money
for a house. If we have to give up $300 a month, we'll have to
continue renting. My wife and I both support our parents, and that
$300 cut is what we're able to give them now that they're old. And
with my wife pregnant, we can't do without that medical care."
Benito Navarro has ten years at the foundry, and a wife and
son. "That $300 is what I pay for my car to get to work. I'm the
only one in my family working, so if we don't have that money, I'll
have to give up the car. But I'd rather eat than drive."
On both Monday and Tuesday dozens of Berkeley police, with
helmets and face shields, shoved and hit strikers as they attempted
to help the company bring trucks full of castings out of its struck
facility. On Tuesday, one striker, Norma Garcia, who is seven months
pregnant, was struck in the abdomen and taken to a hospital.
"It is inexcusable that Berkeley is spending precious
municipal resources on providing protection for this business, and
opening the city to liability through these unprovoked actions by
police against strikers," said De La Fuente.
"That violence isn't necessary," added Soto. "We're just
struggling for our rights. I wouldn't be so surprised to see this in
other cities, but Berkeley?" Another worker showed the swelling on
his arm he said was caused by a blow from a police baton.
Workers feel additionally betrayed by the company because
they and their union testified before the Berkeley City Council three
years ago. They urged the city to draft environmental regulations
that would allow the foundry to continue operating while installing
needed pollution control equipment.
Pacific Steel Casting Co. is a privately held corporation,
the third-largest steel foundry in the United States. Its large
corporate customers include vehicle manufacturers, like Petebilt
Corp., and big oil companies, including BARCO. The company has been
very productive in recent years, despite the recession. It chose not
to comment.
For more articles and images, see http://dbacon.igc.org
See also Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and
Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press, 2008)
Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2002
See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US
Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575
See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border
(University of California, 2004)
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9989.html
--
__________________________________
David Bacon, Photographs and Stories
http://dbacon.igc.org
__________________________________
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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