Darrell Becker speaks: "It's illegal to win a strike nowadays"

Scan page 4

4 SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1986 national union officers.

S.A.: What were some of these charges?

Becker: First they tried to deny me the ability to rerun in my own local union in July of 1985 on a technicality that was overturned by the Department of Labor.

Then they brought me up on charges for an illegal disbursement of grievance money. Obviously, I was found guilty. So I appealed and went to another hearing in front of the full General Executive Board of the union.

When they decided this case wasn't as strong as it should be, they brought me up on additional charges for having a union defense fund. This fund was created in February 1985 and was kicked off by a letter to the national union asking for funding.

Then, in August 1986, less than two months before a national election, they "discovered" Local 61 had a union defense fund. They attempted to discipline me at first, but then decided the best maneuver would be to put the local in trusteeship. The national president came in and conducted the hearing by himself on our trusteeship on Sept. 9.

I have been brought up on subsequent charges for refusing to comply with the trusteeship. The national union had scheduled to expel me at the convention, but they didn't give me enough notice according to their own rules.

They scheduled another hearing for Oct. 28. We went to the same federal judge who had ordered my installation for the 1985 election. He granted a temporary restraining order preventing the national union from any further discipline.

S.A: What happened at the convention?

Becker: The convention started with the turning in of credentials. I was denied my credentials based on the fact they ruled I was not a member in good standing. My vice president, who was the alternate delegate from Local 61, was denied credentials because they said there was an illegal election held in the local union.

The delegates should have numbered around 69 or 70, and they had 100 delegates at the convention. They just simply set up bogus locals. To make a long story short, with the swelled delegate ranks, they obviously won all the votes. In essence, that was the end of the convention-the very first day.

The Appeals Committee ruled that I was not eligible to be a candidate for the presidency of the union. It would have taken a two-thirds majority on the convention floor to overturn the Appeals Committee ruling, which was impossible.

S.A.: Was there any discussion of the issues facing the union at the convention?

Becker: There was very little business conducted at the 33rd convention of the Shipbuilders other than the fact they were disciplining Darrell Becker and discussing the trusteeship of Local 61.

We had several proposals for changes in the constitution that would cut the staff, cut the General Executive Board, and freeze the salary of the president. These were all soundly defeated. The main issues that face our industry were ignored at the convention.

S.A.: Did you have a chance to talk informally to other delegates about getting together some type of opposition?

Becker: Most certainly. We ran on a platform of save our shipbuilders. We have contacted several of the people who were at the convention since, and people are anxiously awaiting their interviews with the Department of Labor to possibly force a rerun of this election.

Once the trumped-up charges against Local 61 are lifted-and if the election is rerun-the next election will deal with the issues surrounding the shipbuilding industry. We anxiously await that.

S.A.: How do you view the general state of the labor movement?

----- pull-quotes -----

"Scabs have to be stopped from crossing picket line"