Chevron workers fight drug-testing
1987 1987-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 6 →
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6 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1987 EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—About 100 members of the Chevron unit of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union (OCAW) Local 1-547 held a lunch-time picket line and rally at the refinery here on May 7 to protest Chevron's unjust and arbitrary drug- and alcohol-testing policy.
The protest grew out of the employees' outrage at a recent incident, which was used by the company as a test case of its new, unilaterally implemented policy.
On Feb. 24, 1987, Tom Baughman, a fire marshal, objected when his normal work load was tripled. He protested this increase as unsafe to himself and to his fellow employees.
Instead of rescheduling the work or providing adequate job coverage in line with the company's own safety rules, Baughman was required to undergo drugtesting. He was placed on suspension without pay pending the test results.
Baughman, who has a perfect attendance record for the past seven years, does not fit any profile of an individual under the influence of drugs. The company simply used this policy as a method to control a worker who would not agree to abide by unsafe and hazardous work conditions.
Baughman and OCAW 1-547 filed a grievance protesting this harassment. The company, in a formal grievance hearing, admitted that perhaps "proper procedure" had not been followed. But they would not agree to remove the suspension from his record or reinstate his back pay, despite the fact that his test results were negative.
The union leafleted the plant the next Distributors of Socialist Action in Canada:
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At the May 7 rally, which received extensive press and TV coverage, Baughman described the drug-testing process as "humiliating and degrading." He gave details of the lengthy procedure, including the fact that he had been stripped and forced to submit to urinalysis in front of male and female witnesses.
This came as no surprise to the many Chevron employees who have recently been confined under guard to their control rooms for personal searches, while dogs have been brought in to sniff for drugs in their lockers.
Program is unconstitutional
The rally was also addressed by Paul Schrade, a former regional director of the United Auto Workers and currently the cochair of the Workers' Rights Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
Schrade explained that drug tests have varying degrees of inaccuracy—sometimes up to 30 percent and higher—and that even expert toxologists cannot always agree on what the tests indicate. He also pointed to the program's unconstitutionality.
But the fact is that the courts have thus far ruled that, in private industry, laws protecting individuals' rights to privacy do not apply and that the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, can be dismissed.
The company's drug-testing program has nothing to do with on-the-job impairment or concern with workers' safety.
Chevron's attacks come in the midst of an aggressive organizing drive in which the union has increased its membership by 23 percent at the El Segundo refinery. The union has taken a militant fightback stance.
The drug issue is a smokescreen behind which the bosses can intimidate and harass workers and attempt to get rid of so-called troublemakers—like union militants, organizers, and whistleblowers. • Kathleen O'Nan is a former Chevron employee and former member of OCAW 1547. Dave Campbell is the Chevron unit chairman and the Organizing Committee chairman of OCAW 1-547.