-Caveat Lector-
> Marc Rich's Hidden History as a Union-Buster
> By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
>
> Longtime fugitive from justice Marc Rich has become the most
> notorious
> recipient of a presidential pardon since Richard Nixon. President
> Clinton
> issued a pardon for the commodities trader in the final hours of his
> tenure
> in office.
>
> What is now widely known about Rich has cast a dark cloud over what
> Clinton hoped would be a glorious exit from the presidency. Charged
> with
> income tax fraud and conspiracy, Rich fled to Switzerland, from which
> he
> could not be extradited. Living in the lap of luxury, he continued
> his
> wheeling and dealing in international commodities markets, including
> through trades with apartheid South Africa. He invested heavily in
> seeking
> a pardon, courting the Israeli government (dethroned Israel President
> Ehud
> Barak personally lobbied Clinton for Rich's pardon), hiring
> top-ranking
> officials from Democratic and Republican administrations to represent
> him,
> and relying on his ex-wife to lavish money on Democrats during the
> Clinton
> years.
>
> What is not widely known, at least outside of West Virginia and
> certain
> labor circles, is that Rich played a central role in one of the
> highest
> profile union-busting efforts the United States has seen in recent
> decades.
>
> In the early 1990s, Marc Rich was the power-behind-the-scenes at the
> Ravenswood Aluminum Corporation (RAC) facility in Ravenswood, West
> Virginia,
> site of one of the most embittered U.S. labor-management disputes of
> recent
> decades.
>
> The Ravenswood conflict has been chronicled by Tom Juravich and Kate
> Bronfenbrenner in their inspiring account, Ravenswood: The
> Steelworkers'
> Victory and the Revival of American Labor (Ithaca, New York:
> ILR/Cornell
> University Press, 1999).
>
> In 1990, in a premeditated effort to break the union, RAC locked out
> its
> 1,700 workers, members of the United Steelworkers of America, and
> hired
> permanent replacements.
>
> As the contract deadline neared, RAC installed surveillance cameras,
> new
> security systems and a chainlink fence around the perimeter of the
> facility.
> The night of the lockout, the company brought in a goon squad
> security force
> equipped with riot gear, clubs, tear gas and video cameras used to
> constantly monitor the workers' pickets. The goons introduced a
> climate of
> fear and made violence on the picket lines, and in the town, an
> ever-present
> fear.
>
> Caught unprepared, the Steelworkers' local was able to keep all but a
> handful of workers from crossing the picket line and union solidarity
> was
> strong and militant, but RAC was ready to wait the workers out.
>
> As the lockout progressed, the Steelworkers' international union
> became
> engaged, and eventually launched a corporate campaign to complement
> the
> local's efforts. That corporate campaign took them to Marc Rich.
>
> The Ravenswood plant, which had been owned by Kaiser Aluminum for
> four
> decades, passed into the ownership of RAC in 1988. The union
> discovered
> that, behind a convoluted corporate ownership smokescreen, stood one
> man
> with a controlling interest in RAC: Marc Rich.
>
> It is unlikely that Rich initially knew what RAC was up to when the
> lockout began -- RAC was just a piece in his global corporate puzzle.
> But
> about four months into the conflict, the union had made the Rich
> connection and was calling on him to end the lockout.
>
> "From that point on, Rich was culpable for what went on and the
> suffering
> the Ravenswood workers went through," says Bronfenbrenner.
>
> For 20 long months, the workers lived on minimal strike benefits, six
> months
> worth of unemployment benefits and donated food and supplies. Being
> out of
> work for so long, even from a lockout where union solidarity remains
> high,
> takes an emotional toll to match the financial one. It is no
> exaggeration
> when Bronfenbrenner speaks of the suffering of the workers and their
> families.
>
> As the Steelworkers tracked Rich to Switzerland and began applying
> pressure
> on his business operations in Europe, the corporate campaign moved to
> a new
> plane and the union discovered how extensive was Rich's reach.
>
> Soon they found themselves negotiating with Leonard Garment, White
> House
> Counsel under Richard Nixon, and William Bradford Reynolds, the
> number two
> at the Reagan Justice Department. Both Garment and Reynolds worked
> for Rich
> -- who would later show that he was right to trust in high-priced,
> politically connected legal help when Jack Quinn, former Clinton
> White House
> Counsel, would do the crucial work to win Rich his pardon.
>
> As the Steelworkers' campaign got closer to Rich's significant
> financial
> interests, union representatives received numerous death threats.
>
> When left-leaning Michael Manley was elected president of Jamaica in
> 1989,
> the Steelworkers were hopeful he would
