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It was a long road that brought us here: two years of passing out leaflets in the burning sun, crowding into a garage for membership meetings, and beating back the company’s misinformation on late-night calls with our co-workers.

But everyone’s hard work and determination paid off last month when we voted 3-to-1 to ratify our first ever union contract.

Workers at Haynes International in Arcadia, La., are now proud Steelworkers of Local 1505, protected by a strong collective bargaining agreement.

For us, forming a union was never about the pay (though our members aren’t complaining about the new increases).

Under our new contract, workers who used to put in month-long stretches with mandatory overtime and no scheduled days off will now have more time to spend with their families. We’ll receive the same medical coverage as longtime union workers at the company’s other plant, and we’ll finally have flexibility to visit our doctors and fully utilize that benefit. And, most important, we’ll have a voice on the job and a procedure for holding the company accountable.  (more…)

USW’s Randy Johnson and Dave Foster address the 2012 Democratic Convention and share their stories about working for companies controlled by Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital.

There is only one place in the world that makes Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil: the Reynolds plant in Louisville, Ky.   So what that means is the 325 Steelworkers who work there manufacture the entire world’s supply of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil.

As Jack Coates, who served as president and business agent of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 155 for nearly 17 years until this June, explained, from annealing—baking the aluminum in huge ovens—to packaging the finished product, the members of Local 155 engage in every step of making Reynolds Wrap.  They also make off-brand aluminum foil, with occasional contracts with companies like CVS, Walmart and Sam’s Club.  So truly, USW Local 155 supplies the world with aluminum foil. 

For the entire 65 years Reynolds has fabricated aluminum foil, there’s been a Reynolds Wrap factory in Louisville. The headquarters and production remain an iconic part of Louisville’s landscape, although the factory is now owned by the Rank Group and no longer by the Reynolds family.  

To make Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil, Steelworkers take 30,000 pound coils shipped from Hot Springs, Ark., and temper them in annealing ovens to make the metal workable.  When the aluminum comes out of the ovens, it is suitable for milling.Steelworkers then run the aluminum through six sets of rollers to flatten it to the appropriate thickness for home use: usually .6 mils (or .006 of an inch) for standard household foil.  It goes to the ovens a second time to bake off any chemicals that might contaminate food and is then cut, spooled and boxed.   (more…)

At Citigroup, shareholders had their say on CEO pay — and they yelled, “No damn way!”

Concerted action by shareholders, workers and public interest groups compelled corporate change in several other cases this spring as well.

At least three CEOs resigned. Executives truncated one shareholder meeting to 12 minutes. And across America and Europe, CEOs lamented the end of automatic approval for excessive executive compensation.

A wave of corporate change is rising because the rabble and the stockholders share an interest: decent corporate governance. To shareholders, decent means more long-term corporate vision providing reasonable returns and fewer risky, quick-profit schemes benefiting only executives. To workers, the unemployed, community and environmental groups, decent means operating corporations in the best interest of the nation, including treating workers with dignity and refraining from polluting. Together, the rabble and the shareholders wield power.

They’ll be exercising it inside and outside the ExxonMobil shareholder meeting next week. Some activist stockholders will seek approval of resolutions calling for the corporation to form a task force on climate change and to reduce greenhouse emissions. (more…)

In the small town of Jeannette in Western Pennsylvania, 400 skilled Steelworkers fabricate, assemble, test and repair centrifugal compressors and steam turbines for Elliott Group. Really, what they make is energy.

The turbines and compressors that members of United Steelworkers Local 1145 construct are essential building blocks of the energy industry and are used in the petrochemical, refining, oil and gas, and process industries.

In the energy sector, Elliott’s main business, the company’s products are used to transport oil and natural gas, aid in power recovery and even boost clean energy production by capturing and redirecting exhaust heat.

The work is exacting, technically advanced and large scale.  Recently retired Chief Operating Officer Anthony Casillo likened the large rotating machinery made in the plant to a “500,000 pound Swiss watch.”

Skilled union machinists, welders, assembly and test technicians work to exact tolerances in manufacturing components and housings. Millwrights, industrial electricians, plumbers, carpenters, pipe fitters, tin workers, certified painters, material and waste handlers, clerical workers and more, all contribute to the process.

Impellors, rotating blades used in turbomachinery to create pressure and increase the flow of liquids, are among the major components produced at the plant. The impellers are machined to exact specifications from massive blocks of steel and, once completed, are test spun at high speeds in enclosed pits to ensure they are precisely balanced. (more…)

By David Sagers
President USW Local 500

It seemed more like a swanky brunch than a legally-required business meeting with black-suited corporate types greeting friends and nibbling on a spread of pastries while waiters scurried to clear plates and glasses.

But it was actually the annual shareholder meeting for GATX, owner of American Steamship, a Chicago-based corporation that has refused for more than two years to offer a fair contract to Steelworkers in ) Local 5000. GATX even replaced our members and now those replacements are trying to decertify the unit.

So members of Local 500 weren’t there to munch pastries and schmooze with the industry elites. Armed with proxy shares from union pension funds, we were there on a mission to raise issues and question the company executives. And that’s what we did.

GATX CEO Brian Kenney looked flustered when our hands shot up during the question and answer session. Not used to being questioned, maybe?

We asked whether Kenney felt it was a good use of shareholder money to maintain a lengthy labor dispute while paying replacement workers significantly more than our members. And we asked why his company is letting three ships sit idle – at large cost for docking and maintenance – even as Kenney acknowledged strong demand and his competitors run at full capacity.

His answers were short and evasive. He claimed the idle boats are older and less efficient, but we pointed out that other companies are using similar ships. Even though we’ve got documentation showing GATX paid replacements more, Kenney disagreed with the premise of our wage question and quickly adjourned the meeting.

As he hurried out of the room, he smiled and shook hands with other attendees. He gave us a glare as he speed-walked past us and out the door.

Big surprise.

Bosses question and challenge our members every day. This time, the shoe was on the other foot: Executives need to learn that accountability is a two-way street, and Steelworkers are happy to help teach that lesson. Unlike Brian Kenney, we walked out of the meeting with our heads held high. 

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David Sagers, President USW Local 500, left,
Thomas Lind, Member, right 

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Mike Lux
Co-founder and CEO, Progressive Strategies

The big news coming out of the Pennsylvania primaries yesterday are that two of K Street’s favorite Capitol Hill Democrats, Tim Holden and Jason Altmire, got upset in races where they had lots more cash than their opponents but still got taken down. The way these races played out should be a big lesson to Democrats who think they can take special interest cash, make pro-special interest votes and still win elections. And with big issues like student loans, tax subsidies for Wall Street and Big Oil, and accountability for the big banks in play the rest of the year, politicians should pay attention.

Holden was an incumbent and his only weakness was that he was forced to run in a more Democratic district than he used to have. Given that he voted with corporate special interests and Republicans a lot of the time — including on the Bush tax cuts and fracking and factory farms — that became a big problem when he faced a progressive challenger named Matt Cartwright. Holden had the support of the Democratic establishment and the monied interests, but Cartwright thumped him. One of the key ads in the race directly took on his ties to Wall Street:

First, Republicans opposed extending the payroll tax cut that put an extra $20 a week in the pockets of 160 million working Americans.

Next, they supported it. If the cost were offset the way they wanted. Even though Republicans previously had said that tax cuts never need be offset.

After that, they opposed a stopgap measure extending the break by two months. Even though the cost was offset.

Ultimately, they approved the 60-day extension.

Then, they opposed extending the tax cut another 10 months. Unless the cost were offset.

Finally, however, they supported that. Even though the cost was not, in fact, offset.

What’s that sound? It’s the frantic flailing of a grounded GOP fish: flip flop, flip flop, flip flop.

Republicans revel in casting themselves as the principled party. They claim they’re the moral majority. Their values, they contend, are unshakable. So their serial waffling on this issue is confusing. Against it; for it; against it; for it. Isn’t that what they ridiculed a Democratic Presidential candidate for?

There’s a simple explanation, however. Throughout this entire episode, Republicans never wavered or vacillated or faltered in any way in performing their most vital, their most basic function as a political party: pandering to the rich.

The thread running through this drama, from beginning to end, is Republican opposition to equitably taxing the rich. The GOP did whatever it took to prevent the nation’s millionaires and billionaires from parting with another cent. In the end, the party’s public image took a beating. But Congressional Republicans triumphed in shielding the nation’s richest from paying their fair share.

So focused are Republicans on providing welfare for the rich in the form of special tax  breaks and perks that initially the party didn’t support extending the payroll tax cut for the middle class at all. Late last November, party leaders, including U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, announced they opposed a one-year expansion.  Republicans said they’d allow a temporary tax cut for the middle class to expire, no problem, even though they’d previously contended they couldn’t end the supposedly temporary income tax cut Bush gave the rich because that would be a “tax increase,” and they could never support a tax increase. Not ever.

For Republicans, who are so true-blue to blue bloods, the real problem with extending the payroll tax cut for the middle class was that Democrats proposed paying for it with a small surtax on the nation’s wealthiest.

That confronted the GOP with a choice: side with the rich or go with the middle class. This was hardly a Sophie’s Choice, however. It was no difficult decision for the average American, say one of the 160 million for whom the extra $1,000 a year from the payroll tax break is meaningful.

Despite that, the GOP sided with 350,000 millionaires and billionaires. Republicans worked to ensure those millionaires and billionaires would not have to pay an additional amount insignificant to the 1 percent individually, but collectively substantial to the federal budget. (more…)

The United Steelworkers (USW) and Occupy Toronto join forces to highlight the Bank of Montreal’s role in prolonging one of the longest strikes in Toronto history. The flash mob of dozens of demonstrators, including more than 25 Occupy Toronto dancers and singers, showed up at the main Bank of Montreal branch at King and Bay to challenge BMO to help end the 27-month strike at Infinity Rubber.

Steelworkers who work at refineries on the East Coast conducted a candle light vigil at Gov. Corbett’s mansion on Feb. 8 seeking his support for saving jobs at the refineries slated for closure.