Jay paperworkers gain solidarity for IP battle

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and Oilers Union, with about 50 members, struck the International Paper Company's Jay mill on June 16, 1987. The strike began when workers rejected the company's final proposal, which included the loss of hundreds of jobs and the takeback of overtime pay for Saturday and Sunday work.

Since then, the striking unions have responded to the company's challenge with unusual enthusiasm. They have held weekly meetings with attendance consistently over 1000. These meetings have kept members informed of strike activities and provided a forum for discussion. The unions have also sponsored three major solidarity rallies, the largest drawing almost 10,000 supporters.

The town of Jay demonstrated the local support that exists by passing laws that bar the use of professional strikebreakers, limit temporary housing on IP property, and order town officials to strengthen enforcement of environmental rules.

Unfortunately, these laws have not been enforced because of the lack of funds by the town and especially because of the inability of the union leadership to tie the new laws in with a more militant strategy that could confront IP with the real power of the In a related development, just days before the chemical spill, the town of Jay, supported by union officials, repealed the anti-IP laws. IP's immediate response was they would sue the town for the cost of their attorney's fees in fighting the laws. After the spill drew state-wide attention, IP quickly rescinded their threat.

Strike strategy

The paperworkers' strike has provided much-needed experience for workers everywhere. Their use of mass meetings and rallies has shown the potential for strike solidarity that exists. The laws passed by the town of Jay had the potential to severely restrict IP and to protect actions by the union.

But the lack of experience and lack of a class-struggle perspective by the union leadership never allowed the full weight of the strikers and their supporters to come to the fore. They felt obliged to honor injunctions handed down by the courts restricting picketing.

This automatically allowed IP to maintain control of the plant gate and continue production with scabs recruited nationwide. Lawyers for the union and state and national representatives for the AFL-CIO counseled "non-violence" in the face of economic and political violence by the company.

Continued reliance on the Democratic Party has been pushed by both local, state, and national labor leaders. Prominent Maine Democrats have been featured speakers at strike rallies and meetings. Many times during the strike, labor officials have told the workers that their salvation can be found in this or that legislator or this or that proposed bill. This, of course, has led to a lack of reliance by the workers on their own strength and has limited the choices for militant action on their part.

Because of bringing IP back to the bargaining table, the UPIU, spearheaded by Local 14, hired Ray Rogers and his Corporate Campaign organization last December. Rogers got his start in the labor movement by leading the successful J.P. Stevens boycott, later forming Corporate Campaign. He was also hired by Local P-9 of the UFCW during their strike against Hormel in Austin, Minn., which ended last year.

Role of corporate campaign The basis of the Corporate Campaign strategy is the belief that you can embarrass the corporations into dealing with you by publicizing their attacks and making life difficult for the individual directors. If we can tell everyone who the nasty corporate directors are then the good directors will be shamed into fighting for you.

The information that Corporate Campaign digs up on interlocking directorates in American business, and the role individual directors have played in labor disputes in the past, is very educational and certainly can play a role in any strike. However, the information itself becomes the "magic wand" of the campaign and organizers believe that if they can only tell enough people about these corporate misdeeds, they can be forced to respond to the workers' legitimate demands.

In the case of the Jay paperworkers' strike, the addition of the Corporate Campaign has certainly broadened out the geographical area where the strike is being publicized.

For instance, throughout the month of January, Local 14 ran a strike caravan through most populated areas of Maine, stopping at mill towns and major cities. There they leafletted factories and mills and held public rallies. They were able to generate many news stories on their behalf. This outreach campaign is being continued into the Boston area and further into other industrial areas of New England.

Unfortunately, a publicity campaign cannot take the place of worker action, especially in the case of Jay, where it was clear that there was overwhelming public support for the strikers. It would have been easy to call on supporters to help in whatever militant action the union might have chosen.

The lack of experience in confronting the newly aggressive American corporations has hampered today's labor leaders. Some of the older generations have been raised in an era of relative labor peace. And many of them have become part of the system which is hammering away at the standard of living of the American worker.

It is up to the newer leaders of our unions to look beyond that limited experience of their predecessors and begin to organize the workers to use their own power.

adding, bust myself!"

The broad support for the strike was evident by the variety of speakers. These included Hank Sanders, a Black state senator from Alabama and one of 14 state legislators arrested for attempting to remove a Confederate flag flying over the capitol; a representative of local student groups doing strike-support work on Boston-area college campuses; and a garment worker from the Chinese Progressive Association, whose greetings were translated into English.

Jack Taylor of the IBEW Local 103 announced the results of a collection that had been taken earlier in the evening and presented UPIU Local 14 President Bill Meserve with a gigantic "solidarity check" for $11,541. A number of unions and community groups had sent representatives to present checks on their behalf.

Bill Meserve encouraged everyone to attend a rally set for the following Friday at the Bank of Boston, saying, "We cannot let this fight die, cannot, cannot!"