Unionists rally to support GE strikers

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Mobil goons injure strikers : SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1988 treasurer of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council, called the event the largest labor rally in Cincinnati's history.

The strike began on Feb. 16 when 6700 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 647 and International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 912 walked out over job reclassifications and subcontracting out of union work.

Before the day was over, an injunction was granted limiting picketing at plant gates to no more than four people. GE and the big-business-controlled courts want to make sure that the thousands of people in the community who support the strikers do not also show up unexpectedly at the plant gates.

The immediate cause of the strike was a major reclassification plan that GE insisted be implemented on Feb. 22. This plan would reduce 84 separate job classifications to 32 and would go into effect four months before the UAW and IAM contracts expire.

This major reorganization of work in the plant is necessary "to ensure its [GE's] competitiveness in the years immediately ahead," states George Krall, GE vice president and general manager of the Evendale Production Division.

But GE already produces the majority of jet engines worldwide, and its Aircraft Engine Group (of which the Evendale plant is a part) was 15 percent more profitable in 1987 than in 1986.

GE Spokesman Ron Hess said there would not be any layoffs because of job consolidation. "Nobody is going to be laid off," he promised. "There will be job reductions, but that will be handled through attrition."

Despite the company's claims, the workers see GE's plan as a threat to their job security. One of the signs at the read: "GE Brings Layoffs To Life."

First, nothing is said about the 325 union members already layed off in January of this year. Second, on Aug. 17, 1987, the company admitted to the union that there would be a 10 percent reduction in the TORRANCE, Calif.—On March 15, a pick-up truck hit two strikers on the picket line at the Mobil Oil refinery here, critically injuring one. The driver of the truck was an off-duty security guard who had been hired to protect the gates from picketers during the strike.

Juan Canizales was thrown onto the hood and through the windshield of the speeding truck, sustaining severe head trauma. He remains on the critical list and is in and out of a coma. The other striker who was hit, Evert Jenkins, sustained injuries to both legs and one hand, but was released from the hospital that day.

An off-duty police officer saw the driver, Onna Brown, hit Canizales and Jenkins. He chased Brown at high speed with a drawn gun for more than a mile and had to radio for assistance before Brown stopped. But Brown was not charged with fleeing from the scene of a crime, with resisting arrest, or with attempted murder.

Steve Sullivan, president of the Oil, Chemical, & Atomic Workers (OCAW)

Local 1-547, to which the strikers workforce as a result of job combinations.

At the rally, John Angrela, president of Local 571 of the Sheet Metal Workers in Cicero, IIl., addressed this issue. He said that in the last 10 years GE has closed 20 plants and laid off 125,000 workers. He added that these plant closings and layoffs were directly related to job reclassifications.

Also at the rally, Kevin Mahan, president of Local 201 of the International Union of Electrical Workers in Lynn, Mass., said his local struck for a month over similar issues last year. No wonder GE does not want to negotiate the job-reclassification plan during this year's national contract talks!

belong, said, "There have been many other strikers hit by cars during this strike. We have filed police reports on five of the most serious injuries, including on the 14-year-old son of one of our people. The police refuse to protect us."

"It is a sad day," he continued, when union members who are out there fighting for their families are treated more harshly by the megabuck oil industry than are hit-and-run drivers who try to mow down our picket lines."

The OCAW strike began on Feb. 3 after the union refused to accept Mobil's proposal to change console-operator jobs to supervisory jobs.

"The head operator is the last remaining buffer between the profit demands of management and the safety concerns of workers," Sullivan says. The company has refused to negotiate with the union unless their proposal is accepted.

The workers have good reason for their safety concerns. An explosion and fire rocked the refinery on Nov. 24. An investigation of the causes still has not been released to the union or to the public.