[Socialist Action May 1984 13 gaining round. It…]

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Socialist Action May 1984 13 gaining round. It would mean a loss in overtime pay, pensions, and other benefits based on hourly rates.

The local issues at stake in Toledo include attacks on bidding rights, lower temporary hire rates, and wage reductions for several jobs. The issues at Marcus Hook include seniority rights in layoff and recall, and a massive 60 per -cent wage cut in the barrel operation.

For the first time, a degree of unity has been forged between the union locals at the "Hook" and in Toledo. Toledo OCAW members continued to work under the old contract from Jan. 15 until the contract at the Hook was up March 1. In both locations the company's final offers were turned down by a substantial margin. Each local has vowed to remain out until all issues at each location are resolved.

Workers at Sun in Toledo were reluctant to strike after the 11-week national oil strike in 1980 brought them little benefit. More than a dozen workers left the union. But this year's negotiating committee led a "close-the-ranks" campaign. During negotiations it put out weekly newsletters and held weekly meetings to update everyone.

All this has meant that participation on the picketline and in committees has been much better than in the previous strike. On four occasions during negotiations, mass informational bannering was set up in front of the refinery offices during lunch. The largest of these turned out 130 workers.

About 800 people joined a spirited 12)

Reclaim our right to strike during the life of the contract as a restraint against capitalist abuses. Government-controlled arbitration is a trap based on the fiction that the government is impartial.

• Remove any undemocratic barriers limiting the full participation of workers inside their unions.

• No subsidies to corporations to enrich themselves at the expense of the workers. We demand that the financial books of the corporations be opened.

• Workers' control of industry to ensure production is geared to social needs. Capitalist control places the profits of the few before the needs of the majority.

• Reject the racist and divisive "Buy American" solutions. This solution translates into "layoff German and Japanese workers—not us"' The drive for profits is international. Our class solidarity must also be internationalized.

• Cost-of-living clauses to protect us against an inflationary trend that has reduced our real wages since 1965.

• Reduce the workweek with no decrease in pay! A reduction of just one hour with no loss in pay would put one and a half million people back to work. Oil workers gave up a 36-hour workweek in World War II with the assurance it would be returned. Today, oil workers average 43.5 hours per week.

Glen Boatman is a member of the Health and Safety Committee, OCAW Local 7-912. This article includes excerpts from a report first published in the April 26, 1984, issue of Labor Notes. Boatman is not a member of Socialist Action.

• Las Vegas (contined from page order limiting the number of pickets at each hotel and casino. This was accompanied by a toothless admonition to the cops and security guards not to "harass, threaten or annoy the picketers." But over 500 of the harassing, threatening and annoying arrests took place following Judge Thompson's intervention.

Takeback demands by the Nevada Resort Association (NRA) forced workers out on strike. The employers' demands included a cut in real wages (a two-year freeze on wages); an increase in the amount charged workers for medical insurance; elimination of several paid holidays; an increase in the period of probation from 20 to 90 days; and a job classification change that would compel employees to work any job and any shift.

Another NRA demand, reflecting one being pushed in recent years by the employing class, is to impose part-time employment. Aside from the consequent loss of income needed to pay bills, it has the added effect of cheating • Solidarity among all working people and our allies. We reject any divisions between employed and unemployed; between Black, Brown, minority and white workers; and between men and women workers. An injury to one is an injury to all.

• Abolish the military budget. The majority of our tax dollars go to finance the U.S. government's policy of militarism, repression, and terror against working people all over the world. These funds should be used to build roads, schools, and hospitals. A public works program could employ millions.

• The Democratic and Republican parties are not our parties. They serve the ruling rich. The road to independent political action by the working class means breaking from the two parties and building a labor party-this is the only winning strategy.

The bosses' offensive will generate more skirmishes as workers attempt to overcome the obstacles to an effective fightback. Participation in these battles by class struggle militants can help speed up the development of a militant class struggle left wing. Socialist Action members pledge to participate in these fights to our fullest capacity. Relying on the tremendous power of an organized and mobilized working class, our victories can take us beyond the archaic capitalist system into a future based on workers' power.

Our fight for the immediate defense of the interests of the working class is inextricably tied to the struggle for a socialist society. The crisis of humanity can only be resolved by constructing a leadership committed to this task. two tier wage system, the elimination of job classifications, the reduction of sick and vacation benefits, threatened layoffs, and other takeaway demands.

The Labor Alliance Against Concessions has brought together leaders and members of various unions to help plan workers out of health and other benefits which are conditional on working a sufficient number of hours per week. Worse yet, it puts a powerful weapon in the hands of the boss, permitting the penalization of militants by denying "troublemakers" full weeks of work.

Striking workers showed ample determination to fight to defend their living standards and their unions. They showed a readiness to challenge the undemocratic restrictions on picketing. But the outcome depended on the extent to which the national AFL-CIO would go to mobilize material aid for the hotel, restaurant and casino unions.

Strike leaders have called for an international boycott by organized labor against three major hotel chains involved: Hilton Hotels, Holiday Inns, and Ramada Inns. AFL-CIO active support for this boycott, in addition to contributions in money and mobilizations for weekly mass picketing from workers in the surrounding area-including nearby strong labor cities-would have made a labor victory extremely likely.

The settlement, as a matter of fact, occurs at a time when members of the Operating Engineers Local 501 walked off their jobs in support of the striking unions. These workers, who maintain the heating, air conditioning and other machinery, refused to cross picket lines after their 30-day no-strike clause expired. Several thousand desk clerks, switchboard operators and valets, members of Teamsters Local 995, who were similarly prohibited from walking out in support of the strikers for 30 days, stayed on the job. The action of the engineers, clearly contributed to a partial retreat by the employers. It underscored the crucial importance of solidarity.

A striking stage hand commented: "The NRA thought they could destroy our unions like they did PATCO, but the cooks, maids, stage hands, etc., showed a greater resolve than they expected." He went on to explain, "You have to take into account that there is an awful lot of unemployment-and still we held pretty tight." He explained, further, that the strikers were ordered

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JUNE 5,116, 17 • YPSILANTH MICHAGHN For further information, contact Labor Notes at (313) 883-5580.

Labor Notes, P.O. Box 20001, Detroit, MI 48220 back to work before a vote to ratify the tentative settlement. "They did this, he said, (referring to the union's negotiators) "because they feared a rejection of the agreement and knew that once back to work nobody could get them out again." The Hilton settlement provided for a pay increase of $1.46 per hour over the life of a four-year contract with an additional ten cents a year for each of three years. But 37 cents of the $1.46 will go toward the employees' welfare fund which, it is claimed, is in difficulties. The takebacks conceded by the union negotiators have not yet been reported.

Despite the apparent settlement, vigorous picketing continues. On May 4, the police arrested 25 more strikers outside the Frontier Hotel for violating a court order limiting the number of pickets. This is the key to understanding the partial success of the strikers in beating back the union-busting attempt. No strike today can be effective if the undemocratic restrictions on picketing are not taken head-on. The hotel and restaurant workers added greatly to the force of their strike by exercising their basic rights, and challenging the injunctions against mass picketing.

It is no accident that during the mass confrontations in Las Vegas there was only the scantiest coverage in the news media. There was virtually no mention of the major challenge, marked by the mass arrests, going on to judicial restrictions on picketing. Neither is it accidental that there was no attempt by the labor bureaucracy to protest this near blackout. It conforms to their bankrupt collaborationist strategy, causing them to stand aside when their affiliated unions are picked off one by one.

But awareness of the need for an effective labor fight-back to the ruling class offensive is growing out of experiences such as this strike. A new leadership will inevitably come out of the struggle ahead; one that will come to understand that a generalized struggle of all components of the working class is necessary to beat back the current attack, and go on to gain new ground. •