Darrell Becker: 'No union can win the fight alone'

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The following is an interview with builders Local 61 (IUMSWA), which represents striking workers at the Dravo Corp. in Pittsburgh, Pa. Becker was also one of the signers of the call for the anti-concession meeting held in Gary, Ind., on Aug. 10.

The interview was conducted in Pittsburgh by Shirley Pasholk on Aug. 17.

Socialist Action: Could you describe the struggle that you are currently involved in?

Darrell Becker: It started back in September of 1982. The corporation that I work for, the Dravo Corp., which is involved in barge and towboat building on the upper Ohio river, threw us a concessionary package in the middle of our contract. The understanding was that if we took a 55-cent-an-hour cut, we would get enough work to last us two to two-and-a-half years.

That split the union right down the middle. The existing president and many of the people in office pushed for the concessions, and the workers voted about three to two to accept it. But after we'd accepted the concessions, we found out that there was no work.

The workers were mad and they decided they wanted a change. We tried to get two or three different people to run against the existing president. Nobody would, so I was forced to run by the rank-and-file members of the Once I announced I was a candidate for president, the company laid off my entire department. Since I was shop steward, that was the only way they could eliminate me, knowing full well that the bylaws of our constitution said you have to be actively employed to run for office.

We went to the national convention in October and tried to get the national union to see that the company was trying to manipulate a union election because of the concessions issue. They didn't want to hear it. They said the law had been in existence for a long timethere was no need to change it now.

We came back from the convention and the six or seven officers who were eliminated through different activities all ran on a sticker campaign, which is illegal. I beat the existing president three to one, although it didn't matter. It started a lengthy process of appeals between the anti-concessions people and the national union, and eventually led to another election that was held in July of 1983.

When the new election was held in July of '83, I won by acclamation. The week after I became president we opened negotiations with Dravo Corp. Ultimately, that led to a demand for a 38-percent wage and benefits cut on the part of the company. Naturally we refused, and that started a lengthy strike, lasting from September of 1983 until April of 1984, when the company announced a temporary shutdown.

We had a clause in our contract PROFUS HUCK which said that people would not be eligible for severance pay if they were laid off longer than six months. The company waited six months and one week and then announced the temporary shutdown. The national union cut off strike benefits. They said you can't strike a plant that's not operating.

So, in the process of all these struggles—to force the national union to help the locals struggle against the multinational conglomerate-much of the time was spent fighting the national union instead of fighting the true enemy-the company.

At Dravo Corp., we are still on strike. But two years later, there are very few people still struggling.

S.A.: You said that the company's concessionary agreement split the local down the middle. How do the workers feel now about concessions?

Becker: When the vote came up for a strike in September of 1983, it was almost unanimous against the concessions.

The workers knew then that concessions were not the answer. The company had recently put a $300,000 spa on the top floor at corporate headquarters. They were making long range incentive plans for the corporate directors. They took the profits they made from the shipyard and used them to invest in several other industries.

In the Pittsburgh area, we see a move away from the heavy industries and into high-tech, service, nonunion, minimumwage jobs. Dravo Corp. is just following the same policy that U.S. Steel, J and L, and others in the area are following.

It's an obvious attempt to blackmail the workers for concessions, pit worker against worker, and ultimately take advantage of the atmosphere to break the unions.

S.A.: What do you see being done to stop this chain of concessions?

Becker: More and more unions are being forced into searching for mutual allies outside the spectrum of the International union. We witnessed one example of this at the planning meeting we just had in Gary, Ind.

Workers in all walks of life-meatJohn Tirpak (continued from page company has failed to pay its taxes and consequently city services and city employees-including the police and fire departments-have been severely hurt.

So everybody's fight, just the INED-INVINCIBLE packers, shipbuilders, steelworkers-are beginning to see that concessions are not the answer. And it's about time people started allying themselves with others who feel the same way to develop some strength and power. The only way to combat concessions is to go to the heart of the issue and confront the company and the lending institutions.

The international unions' response is no response. It's conscious. They will allow the workers to fight their fight alone. There is no union that can beat a multinational conglomerate on its own. When you go on strike the company has the ability to move the work from state to state. The workers don't have that ability.

Many corporations are now trying to prove to people that you're better off to keep your mouth shut and accept the concessions. There is no response from the national unions to this either. So, you're seeing unions destroyed, with non-union plants opening up, and workers who are now getting $6.50 to $7 an hour.

S.A.: Why have the unions lost their muscle?

Becker: We are isolated and divided. If all the workers got together, we could beat a Dravo Corp. or a U.S. Steel.

The union labor force is down below 17 percent of the country and we are losing three percent a year. Why? Nobody wants to belong to a union because they see no benefit to it.

The unions have lost their focus. National unions are running the unions much like a corporation or bankstrictly by money.

When workers need the union most, when they're out of work, that's when the union has no response to them at all. We have to change this type of thinking.

Here at our local we have a wives' action committee and our own food bank. The people in our union see the union as an institution that's going to help them, and that's what a union is supposed to be.

Our national union's answer to a dwindling membership, which dropped steelworkers' . The communities are being starved in their own way.

S.A.: What's the mood of the Wheeling-Pitt steelworkers?

Tirpak: I think that the majority of the rank and file of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel will not return for less than they walked out for. The average wage and benefit package altogether was somewhere in the area of $21.40, and I Socialist Action/May May Gong from 26,000 in 1980 to below 17,000 today, was to increase the per-capita tax in each of the locals. That's taxation without representation. They've forgotten how to organize.

They're rather self-serving individuals who are more concerned about selfpreservation and wielding the power that will keep them in office than they are about helping the workers. I don't think they care what the wage structure is for the workers as long as the dues keep coming in. So that's got to change.

And how we change that is by eliminating these people. If they don't want to leave, they don't want to fight for the workers, we've got to push them out, from the bottom up. And I think you're seeing a lot of that now.

S.A.: Do you see hopeful signs of this rebirth of the union movement?

Becker: Every day. Unions have been beat up bad over concessions. There've been many unions that have lost and are now defunct. But most of the ones that are left have seen their membership dwindle so low that they actually have no choice but to fight.

What we're seeing that's an odd phenomenon is that now some of the staff men and lower level International people who were originally rather quiet on the issue of concessions are now beginning to bark as loud as some of the workers.

So, yes, I see a lot of positive signs. It's not going to happen over night, but we have to have the strength to carry through, and I think we will.

S.A.: You mentioned the meeting last week in Gary to plan an anti-concessions conference. What do you think is going to come of these plans?

Becker: That's going to be a true test. We have our regional planning session on Aug. 31, which will be a springboard for a much larger convention to be held in November.

I will be disappointed if we don't see 10 times the amount of people at that convention than we saw at the planning session. It's like reorganizing the unions all over again.

believe that the rank and file will hold out for the $21.40.

I would say that the people of Wheeling-Pittsburgh-the rank-and-file, the people on the picket lines, and the leadership of the locals—all realize the consequences of not faring well in this matter.

We consider it a last ditch effort to preserve the middle class in the Mon and Ohio Valleys, two areas where it's fast becoming the land of the rich and the poor, and no in-between. Also, we are fighting. to preserve standards throughout the industry and other industries that will surely fall like dominoes if we buckle.

S.A.: I've heard a lot of talk that you're not just fighting for yourselves and your own lives, but you're also fighting to save the union.

Tirpak: That's correct. The Wheeling-Pittsburgh situation is the of basic steel.

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"It's like reorganizing the unions again."