Building trades workers organize for fight

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SAN FRANCISCO—More than 300 rank and file construction workers held a spirited demonstration here on March 30, effectively picketing both gates at the Veterans Hospital. The mass picket was organized at a meeting held three days earlier at the Laborers Hall. The picket was in opposition to nonunion electricians working on the job-an attempt to break the construction unions through the utilization of the notorious "twogates system."

The preparatory meeting, organized and initiated by rank and file building trades workers and endorsed by the San Francisco Building Trades Council, was addressed by leading labor officials in California. The speakers included John Henning, executive secretary California State Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO; Jim Herman, president International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union; Stan Smith, secretary-treasurer San Francisco Building Trades Council; Walter Johnson, president San Francisco Department Store Employees; and Paul Dempster, vice president San Francisco Central Labor Council. Dempster read a prepared speech for Central Labor Council President Jack Crowley who was unable to be present. The majority of the officials of the construction unions were absent.

The meeting was chaired by Donna Levitt, a member of Carpenters Local 413. Bill Daly, Painters Local 4 recording secretary-business agent, who is one of the main supporters of the rank and file initiative, introduced her as "the first woman chairing a meeting of this kind.. and it's about time!" In her brief introduction Levitt explained, "We're here for one purpose-to draw the line against the two-gate system."

The "two-gates" refers to a legal trick originally introduced under Taft-Hartley, a union-busting law passed by Congress in 1947. It is designed to overcome the solidarity between building trades unions through prohibition of "secondary boycotts." The trick is to establish one "gate" for entrance to the construction site for nonunion workers and another "gate" for unionized workers. The ...Тexaco (continued from page The hiring of temporary summer help for only $5 per hour.

The filling of temporary vacancies for an unlimited time without regard to seniority.

The elimination of the union dues check-off system.

An "absolute" no-strike clause to include an expressed "no sympathy strike" provision.

The elimination of benefits payable to workers engaging in strikes.

Vacation takeaways.

Texaco also proposed a "wage realignment schedule" but, unlike the above proposals, they refused to define this phrase for the OCAW negotiating team. The parties met again on Dec. 27. The company withdrew its proposal to end the union dues check-off and replaced it with one which denied all union security. Texaco, however, would not budge on any other proposal.

The various Texaco rank-and-file negotiating committees from around the country realized that the offensive against them was being coordinated at top corporate levels. A special meeting of the union's Texaco Coordinating "gates" are a legal fiction. Construction sites are often not enclosed and "gates" are speciously designated by posting a sign.

In the Veterans Hospital case, union electricians who want to picket against nonunion electricians taking their jobs can only picket at the posted entrance used by the nonunion workers. It is illegal to picket the entrance designated for the unionized crafts. This disarms the unions of their most potent weapon for compelling builders to maintain an all-union work force on construction jobs.

Normally, the electricians union would simply place one or two pickets on the job and all trades would refuse to work until the nonunion electricians were removed. Now the electricians union can only picket the "gate" used by the scabs. The other unions, since they are not technically confronted by pickets, cannot stop work in solidarity with the electricians under penalties provided in Building Francisco.

Council was called for Jan. 4 in Denver in order to develop a united fight back program.

In OCAW the rank-and-file controlled National Oil Bargaining Policy Committee (NOBPC) has the authority to call a strike at any or all locations on national issues developed by that committee. Additionally, local union members can authorize their local rank-and-file negotiating committee to call a strike on local issues, as determined by the membership.

From Jan. 5 through Jan. 8 OCAW's Long Beach committee met almost continually with Texaco, but to no avail. The union proposed a 72-hour contract extension to continue negotiations but Texaco would not accept this proposal. Texaco insisted on limiting the arbitration procedure to discharges and suspensions. They also demanded an immediate end to the dues check-off system. Obviously, they were bent on wholesale contract violations.

Nevertheless, in an honest effort the workers' negotiating committee warned the employees of the hazards of working in such an environment and continued to try to negotiate. They met several times with Texaco between Jan. 8 and Feb. 23. During this time the workers' committee twice modified their proposals and, finally, by Feb. 23 all local proposals had been withdrawn.

The International proposals were very modest. They called for a two-year agreement with annual increases of 20 and 35 cents per hour. This is less than two percent the first year and less than Taft-Hartley against violation of the prohibition against secondary boycotts. These penalties include imprisonment of union officials as well as legal sanction of court suits against the unions concerned.

When the Taft-Hartley prohibition of "secondary boycotts" was first introduced, its primary effect was to legally restrain the picketing of a firm utilizing products produced by nonunion workers-hence the term "secondary boycott." It wasn't until the 1960s that a serious campaign was mounted nationally to break the construction unions themselves. That is when the "two-gate" legal gimmick was instituted. Since that time, the solidarity defenses of the construction unions have been broken through in a growing number of cities considered strongholds for these unions.

Stan Smith told the meeting at the Laborers Hall: "You can picket gate A but not gate B. But you can picket all the Socialist Action/May May Cong "two-gates" Hospital in San three percent the second. OCAW has no Cost of Living Ailowance (COLA). For its part, Texaco stuck hard to every item listed above. It also added two more takeaways, one of which would establish a regular 42-hour workweek and thereby eliminate 35 jobs. Texaco also finally saw fit to explain "wage realignment" at this point.

Despite the fact that the OCAW had recently fought and won the battle with Union Oil over the institution of a union busting two-tier structure, Texaco's "wage realignment" meant a multi-tier wage structure for workers performing the same jobs, reduction in pay for some job classifications of over $6 per hour, and pay freezes for the rest.

•Bitterly denouncing Texaco for engaging in bad-faith bargaining, the committee proceeded to give 24-hours' strike notice. Their members, as well as the 34 members of the Los Angeles Sulfur Recovery Plant group and the 258 members of the Anacortes group, are now battling one of the world's richest giants.

More takeaways On March 21 Texaco finally met with the union's committee for the first time since the strike began. Texaco arrogantly put four more takeaways on the table. These included the elimination of job classifications and the replacement of those workers with nonunion, lower-paid contractors, the lay-off of another unspecified 80 employees, and reduction of sick benefits.

More and more rank-and-filers, congates at the White House! The Ku Klux Klan can picket the black comm inil y but we can't picket gate B! The uni )ns can't do it anymore," he concluded, it's back to the rank and file."

John Henning said, "Joe O'Sullivan la recently deceased carpenters' union official with a long and militant reputation] would have let you call San Francisco anything, but not a two-gate city." Despite his support for Walter Mondale's candidacy, he referred to the Union Labor Party which elected a Mayor of San Francisco in the early part of the century. "In those days," Henning said, "you didn't have to go hat-in-hand to the politicians." He then went on to explain that, "as long as the two-party system exists, labor is a prisoner."

Walter Johnson proposed a mass labor rally in San Francisco's Union Square in response to the attacks on working people and in particular to the "two-gate system." Johnson concluded his remarks with the warning that it might be necessary, to get the message across to the employers, "to stop all work in the city of San Francisco."

The rank and filers who spoke tended to stress the importance of taking leaflets to the jobs announcing the picket line slated for the early morning of March 30th at the Veterans Hospital. One of these speakers appealed for funds to finance the activities of the committee. Chairwoman Donna Levitt announced that the collection amounted to $1189.

Three days later 300 rank and file construction workers effectively picketed both gates. While some union members entered the site through newly established third and fourth gates a mile away, many others respected the picket line. The rank and file showed they were prepared to fight. But a victory over the two-gates threat to the existence of the construction unions will depend on whether the unions will bring their full force into the battle despite the undemocratic Taft-Hartley restrictions placed on the right to assembly.

fronted with vicious corporate assaults, are realizing that labor-management cooperation is a dead-end road that leads to profits for the few and lower living standards for the many. We must ally ourselves with other victims of the corporations' anti-worker policies: the workers of all industries, the unemployed, the aged, the poor, the homeless, Blacks and women. We must rekindle that spark of militancy that gave birth to the CIO.

We in Southern California are trying to take initial steps toward creating an areawide, broad-based strike support committee. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach area the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union has; as always, been a stalwart in providing whatever jobs and pickets it can to strikers. More such support is needed from others. Additionally, we need to mobilize all allies in deploying militant tactics that will win strikes, that will turn the tide on unemployment, and that will secure just treatment for the disadvantaged and a better life for all of us.

Donations to aid the Texaco strikers may be sent to: Texaco Unit Strike Fund, 2100 W. Willow St., Long Beach, CA 90810, or Texaco Unit Strike Fund, c/o OCAW Local 1-591, PO Box 483, Anacortes, WA 98221.

Volunteers for the picket lines in the Long Beach area should first call the Texaco Strike Desk at 213-424-2879.

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women delegates. Convinced of the need for an independent women's movement, these women went on to organize the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, launching, with the full support of Black abolitionists, the women's suffrage Mass action tactics The history of the women's suffrage movement illustrates the dependence of the women's movement on the state of the working class struggle. In the United States, the women's rights movement went through a period of intense conment only lasted four years: Barry resigned when she married and she was not replaced. The Knights of Labor itself, despite its rapid growth, was torn by internal conflicts and fell apart in the 1890s.

The labor movement itself, however was gaining strength. The depression that began in 1893 was the worst the country had yet seen. It lasted four years and stimulated massive labor unrest, which expressed itself in the 1892 Carnegie Homestead steel strike, the 1894 Pullman strike and boycott, and the coal

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STUP 2 GATE Union BUSTING

TOP 2GATE Ino USTING