Bay Area unions mobilize to protest scab steel mill

Scan page 4

PITTSBURG, Calif.—Shouting "scabs go home!" and we shall not be moved!" over 15,000 union members marched to the main gate of the USX-POSCO steel plant here on March 19 to protest the hiring of non-union labor for a gigantic reconstruction project. The demonstration was the largest action ever in Contra Costa County labor history.

USX-POSCO Industries is a joint venture between the USX Steel Corp. and Pohang Steel of South Korea to complete a $350 million modernization project on the Pittsburg U.S. Steel mill-once the main employer in this working-class city.

All the construction work is being done by the non-union BE & K Construction Co.—an Alabama-based outfit that pays its workers well below union scale.

Over the last decade, the building trades have been increasingly pushed out of new construction projects by non-union contractors, who now feel emboldened to challenge this once-impregnable union stronghold. The USX-POSCO project is the latest expression of this war CINCINNATI-About 3000 people rallied here on Feb. 27 to support workers on strike against the General Electric Aircraft Engine Plant in Evendale, Ohio, a nearby suburb. Dan Radford, executive secretaryThe 102-day national strike in 1969-1970 gave birth to coordin: ated bargaining by all the 13 national unions within GE. Since that time, the company has been out to break this united approach that concentrates the full force of the unions against the employer.

On Feb. 18, members of the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) at six GE motor plants voted to accept an agreement that will cut wages by $1.20 per hour over two years and prohibit any cost-of-living increases until Dec. 1990.

The agreement will exclude motordivision workers from any general increases that may be negotiated in the national contract talks. An "open season" has now begun in which GE will try to "pick off" other divisions one by one in order to destroy any possibility of a strong, united resistance by all 13 unions involved in the national negotiations.

GE was able to obtain takebacks from the motor-division workers after the company announced that two plants will be closed down. GE then threatened further closings unless concessions were obtained. The "take cuts or lose jobs" threat will now be used to get wage cuts and work-rule changes in all the divisions. against workers.

The march was spearheaded by the Bay Area building trades unions. Thousands of construction workers, carpenters, painters, pipefitters, steamfitters, and electricians also mobilized to demand an end to the conspiracy of the South Korean Government and the USX Corp. to break unions in Northern California.

The largest union contingent in the spirited march was the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), which mobilized over 5000 members from ports up and down the West Coast, from Seattle to San Diego.

At a rally held earlier, the assembled unionists heard Democratic Party presidential hopeful Jesse Jackson give a rousing pro-union speech.

Knowing the audience he was playing up to, Jackson waxed demogogic and gave a good speech concerning the need for American and foreign workers to support each other against corporate greed, both locally and abroad. But Jackson had nothing to say concretely about the USX-POSCO project and he offered no concrete program to turn his words into deeds. ILI

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

'Divide and conquer'