"No union can stand alone"

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OIL Carl Finamore is a steward at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, Calif He is a member of Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union Local 1-5.

Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) negotiating committees from Texaco and Chevron have been forced to bargain well past the Jan. 8 expiration date of their contracts. Texaco wants an "unrestricted right" to contract out jobs to non-union labor at lower wages. Chevron is holding out for similar concessions from maintenance workers at its Richmond, Calif., refinery and is hoping to implement cross crafting there.

Texaco and Chevron are expected to press the advantage gained by the corporations in the earlier Shell and Union-76 Oil settlements. Shell won the ability to hire non-union workers in several maintenance classifications. The Union-76 Oil contract permits the company to replace most maintenance jobs with non-union labor. The oil companies' strategy to replace OCAW members with underpaid workers is designed to drive down wages and benefits in the future.

Concerned unionists criticize the OCAW International leadership for not declaring a national strike against the oil companies' drive for takeaways. They point out that as more locals settle, the bargaining power of the remaining units is decreased. Without a national bargaining strategy, individual locals are left alone to resist the companies.

International officials have skirted the question of contracting out union jobs by not declaring it part of the national industry-wide negotiations. For example, while the national Shell, Texaco, and Chevron negotiations bogged down on the contracting out issue, Union-76 Oil workers in California were on strike over this precise question. Ultimately denied complete support by the International, the two relatively small California locals were unable to withstand the full force of the oil industry, and settled after 12 days.

Oil workers fight back.

Nonetheless, Local 1-326 in Rodeo, Calif., mounted an impressive campaign to gain support for their strike. Acts of solidarity spread quickly after the murder of picket Greg Goobic by a scab truck driver. Dozens of unions, including the state and local AFL-CIO central labor councils, Teamsters, and Longshore union locals offered help.

Speaking engagements were organized to explain the strike and to solicit funds and picket volunteers. Other OCAW refinery and chemical plants in the area agreed to organize their membership for picket duty. A memorial march for brother Goobic on Jan. 25 drew 500 unionists and attracted widespread media attention.

Most strikers believe that because of growing support from the labor movement, Union Oil had to retreat from many of their original takeaways. The company backed off from its major demands for a two-tier wage structure— which would have paid new employees as low as 40 percent less. Despite the active labor solidarity, however, a spokesman for the OCAW International told reluctant local negotiators to settle because they "would be on strike forever" if they didn't accept the contracting out demand.

Cross crafting

Chevron has sensed the weakness of the International leadership, and has added a demand for cross crafting to that for contracting out. In at least one settlement-at the large ARCO refinery in Houston-major concessions to cross crafting already have been made. For (continued on page

AEROSPACE

Striking United Aerospace workers in Long Beach, Ca. voted overwhelmingly Feb. 9 to end their 115-day walkout against the McDonnell Douglas Corporation. In a hand vote, they ratified a new contract proposal worked out in negotiations with company officials during the last day of the strike.

In recommending a yes vote on the new offer, Local 148 President Bob Berghoff called it "a necessary step to save the union at a time when it was in danger of being unable to guarantee our members jobs."

The union was able to defeat a number of company takeback demands. The victories include the retention of rules of seniority and craft jurisdictions. Other non-economic issues will be settled according to the language of the old contract if no settlement can be reached in 30 days. All strikers will be allowed to return to work in place of strikebreakers, and many workers who were laid off previously will be recalled.

However, the union was not able to beat back the company's demands for a two-tier wage scale. New hires (not including workers recalled from lay off) will start at a lower hourly wage. Another major concession wrung from the union was the dropping of a cost-of-living clause— except for higher paying jobs.

At the time of the vote, more than 2,000 of the 4,600 union members were still out on strike. Only 800 union members had crossed the picket line up until Jan. 31 , when the UAW International leadership forced the local to vote a second time on the exact proposal which the local had rejected 15 weeks earlier. Although the Jan. 31 offer was again defeated (by 72% percent) hundreds began to return to work in the belief that (continued on page 9, in “Mexico '82 presidential candidate: Mexico '82 presidential candidate”)

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