NASCO workers win fight for dignity

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CHELSEA, Mass.—On Nov. 14, striking here at the NASCO Box Spring Company won to union recognition by a margin of 39 to 16.

The workers walked off their jobs on Nov. 3 when they did not receive a pay raise that had been promised. The Chelsea workers also demanded improved safety conditions, seniority rights, basic benefits, and respect The following is an interview with Darrell Becker, president of Local 61 of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America (IUMSWA). The interview was conducted on Nov. 9, 1986, in Pittsburgh, Pa., by Shirley Pasholk.

Socialist Action: What made you decide to run for president of the Shipbuilders Union?

Darrell Becker: It goes back to 1982 when I was originally drafted to run for president of the local and got laid off by the company. I went to my first union convention and explained how the company was manipulating a union election, fully expecting that the union would support my position.

I found out that even back then it was a bureaucratic clique. They denied my appeal, and I ended up going to the Department of Labor to file a complaint over the election. My complaint was upheld and the national union was forced to hold another election in the local, which I won by acclamation in July of 1983.

We started a strike against our employer, Dravo Corp., in September of 1983. They were seeking 38-percent wage and benefit cuts. The national union originally did very little to help. That changed from not helping, to stifling any support we were trying to generate internally in our national union, to open criticism-and then to all-out attack.

It got to the point where I realized there was never going to be any significant change in our national union unless the leadership was changed. In an effort to polarize and galvanize the dissidents into one movement, I decided the time was right to run for national president.

S.A: What were the main issues you tried to raise in your campaign?

Becker: Shipyard after shipyard had been shutting down. There were no lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., for legislation that would help the shipbuilding industry. There was no organizing going on, especially in the Southern shipyards where a lot of the work was going.

Instead of dealing with financial problems the union was facing by organizing new members, they were taxing the older members at a higher rate. So basically the goal of my campaign was to go back to the purpose of the union—which is to organize, educate, and move in collective action.

For the most part, the issues of the campaign were never clarified because most of my campaign dealt with defending myself against trumped-up charges by the on the job from management.

When company Vice President Harvey Shapiro was workers asked by the workers about the pay raises, he answered the right that this is a "free country" and that the workers could leave and find another job. The NASCO workers replied that they were likewise free to stay and fight to make their job a better one.

In a rare move, 48 NASCO workers did not return their jobs while they sought union representation to Alliance Box 12082 Edmonton, Alliance P.O. Box 71 Vancouver, V5R 5T3 assist them in their fight. They had learned from previous experiences that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) can delay elections long enough to allow employers to fire militant workers.

In the past, the predominantly Hispanic and foreignborn workforce at NASCO had been intimidated by management personnel.

With the assistance of Local 66 of the Laundry and Dry Cleaners International Union, the workers solicited and received food, money, and support from food markets, unions, and church and civic organizations. Domenic Bozzotto, president of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union in the Boston area, said: "This is everybody's fight."

With a multi-million dollar mortgage and other bills due, NASCO was forced to accede to the workers' demands for a prompt election for union recognition.

Although the NASCO strike involved only a small number of workers, the lessons from it are significant. The NASCO workers identified the employer as the major obstacle to their earning a livable wage and improving the quality of their life.

The workers succeeded because they turned their backs on the empty promises of management and a government bosses the NLRB. They took their fight out of the bosses' office and brought it into the streets to involve their community in the struggle.

The NASCO workers won their battle because they utilized the tried-and-true strategy of a strike. They employed sound tactics that threatened the company's profits.

The NASCO workers understood that they alone could represent their interests. "This is our strike," one worker, Rosario Consolo, said. "We called the union in to help."

Becker: I think the P-9 struggle did a lot to educate people and present a truly national perspective of what's happening with unions. You had coal miners, shipbuilders, steelworkers, and meatpackers all united around a single issue of concessions—which we all know don't save jobs.

There's no short cut. You have to work from the grass-roots level and get people involved. Just seeing what happened with P-9 and the overwhelming response from unions around the country, I think the labor movement has a bright future if it's allowed to blossom.

But, if it's left in the hands of the people who are in now, who make concessions and follow the line that half a loaf is better than none, we'll be led down the path of minimum-wage jobs—if there are any jobs left for union workers.

I think the unions have to take a much more militant stance in the way they approach strikes. When scabs are going to cross the picket line, they have to be stopped. When injunctions are granted, they still have to be stopped. If you just stand aside because a court order tells you that these people have a right to go in and out of the plant, you've already lost.

There are other ways of going about this than standing in front of a plant gate and having a confrontation. Go into the neighborhoods where the people live and let their neighbors know what they're doing. This makes it much easier to keep people out of the plant.

There's a lot of things you can do to create the public pressure needed to keep scabs out. But you also need people on the picket line and you do have to stop them. You can't be single-focused, but you can't stay in the confines of the law and win a strike. It's illegal to win a strike nowadays.

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