Steelworkers delegates say 'Hell no' to concessions

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LAS VEGAS, Nev.—During the past eight years, membership in the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) has declined from 1.4 million to 885,000. The loss of jobs in basic steel has been even more dramatic.

Earlier this year, steelworkers at LTV, Bethlehem, Inland, and National ratified new contract agreements with serious wage and benefit concessions. On Aug. 1, the nation's largest steel producer, US×, locked its gates in an attempt to force its workers to accept even larger concessions.

This was the backdrop as 2764 delegates gathered here for the 23rd USWA Constitutional Convention on Aug. 25-29. International officers, delegates, and guest speakers all focused on four major topics: the USX lockout, organizing, political action, and trade policy.

After hearing detailed reports on the situation at USX, delegates enthusiastically adopted a resolution in which they said "HELL NO!" to the company's outrageous demands.

USWA International President Lynn Williams compared union and corporate mergers. He said that just as a corporate merger fails to create a single new job, a union merger doesn't add one more organized worker. He stated the "fundamental answer is to have a bigger and stronger labor movement by organizing the unorganized."

Williams explained that the USWA's membership loss appears to have ended as a result of the recent organizing successes. The USWA is averaging five organizing wins per week. During the convention, six new members detailed what a Steelworkers victory had meant to them and their coworkers.

Although Canadian Labor Congress President Shirley Carr and President of the Executive Council of the Yukon Territory Tony Penikett described some of the advances brought about by the Canadian New Democratic Party, there was no discussion on the need to form a labor party in the United States.

Instead, Williams urged convention delegates to redouble their efforts to elect Democrats this November.

Despite the increased attacks from the steel bosses in the past few years, International officers still insist on joint company-union action to restrict imports. There is still little recognition that the interests of the steel barons and those of steelworkers are directly counterposed.

As USX is so vividly demonstrating, the interest of the bosses is to make the highest profits with the least possible number of workers-and with these workers earning and benefits.

Foreign policy stance

The resolutions committee condensed the hundreds of resolutions submitted by local unions into 53 policy resolutions. Most of these were discussed on the convention floor. These included resolutions on collective bargaining, political action, women's rights, civil rights, world affairs, and national and state legislative policy.

The President of the Zambian Federation of Trade Unions opened the debate on the South African resolution. International Vice-President (Human Affairs) Leon Lynch then described the repression he witnessed during his trip to South Africa. National Director of Canada Gerald Docquier gave a detailed account of South Africa's foreign policy against the people of Angola. After this discussion, delegates unanimously passed a strongly worded anti-apartheid resolution.

The World Affairs resolution stated: "The United States is financing a war of terrorism against the people of Nicaragua by supporting the so-called contras, whose leaders are mostly former officers of exdictator Somoza's National Guard." *The resolution continued, "The Reagan administration has repeatedly refused to negotiate with the elected government of Nicaragua and has undercut the Contadora peace proposals by refusing to participate." The resolution went on to criticize the Speakers called USX the USWA's PATCO, describing this as an attempt to break the union in the largest basic-steel company.

The importance of solidarity was also recognized. The USX support resolution concluded: "No locked-out US worker stands alone. Every steelworker walks the picket line in Gary, Fairchild, the Mon Valley, Fairless, Lorain, Geneva, Baytown, Iron Ore Range, and other locked-out USX facilities. What's more, trade unionists everywhere stand with us. We cannot lose."

With regard to the LTV bankruptcy, delegates acknowledged that the threatened strike against all of LTV's profitable facilities resulted in the restoration of retiree benefits. They understood that this strike forced a favorable ruling from the bankruptcy judge and Congressional action.

Concessions bargaining was roundly condemned as delegates explained how concessions don't save jobs. Yet, there was no challenge to the basic framework of labor-management cooperation. Similarly, there was no challenge to the long-standing reliance on the Democratic Party.