Labor Research Review

UE Local 277's Strike at Morse Cutting Tool

Dan Swinney — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:50:44 PDT

[Excerpt] In the Spring of 1982, a small local union took on a conglomerate giant and won. What initially appeared as a battle over concessions at Morse Cutting Tool, a subsidiary of Gulf+Western in New Bedford, Massachusetts, became a broad-based community/labor fight against the rights of capital. Careful research by the Industrial Cooperative Association (ICA) documented G+W's disinvestment and kept the company on the defensive for the strike's thirteen-week duration. The victory of United Electrical Workers Union Local 277 showed that imaginative leadership and militant unionists can overcome corporate power even in the midst of a new depression. This strike deserves close study by all those interested in the labor movement.

Gulf + Western: A Model of Conglomerate Disinvestment

Bennett Harrison — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:50:43 PDT

[Excerpt] Historically, the great majority of businesses in this industry have been small, and locally (often family) owned. Sometimes a skilled machinist leaves one firm to set up a new one, with a small bank loan and help from family savings. Some of these locally-owned companies are incorporated, for tax purposes, but the mode of management is essentially the same: personal (even paternalistic) and usually relatively informal.

All across the United States, during the late 1960s, there was a wave of conglomerate acquisitions of precisely the most successful of these previously independent or small corporate operations. Giants like Gulf+Western, Textron, Genesco, Litton and a hundred others sent buyers into areas like New England and made offers that those small business owners could not refuse. Every sector of the economy was affected: not only metalworking, but also apparel, shoes, department stores, hotels. In the years following the acquisition, a definite pattern emerged.

Investment & Strategy at Morse Cutting Tool

Industrial Cooperative Association (ICA) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:50:42 PDT

[Excerpt] Local #277 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America contracted with the ICA for a preliminary assessment of the long term viability of Morse Cutting Tools. The union had become alarmed by declining employment at Morse and by Morse management's statements regarding the company's inadequate profitability and shrinking market share. Of even greater concern was the threat that the conglomerate which owns Morse, Gulf+Western (G+W), might close the New Bedford plant. We were asked to examine Morse's position in the cutting tool business with particular attention to the adequacy of G+W's investment in plant and equipment and of Morse's management strategy.

Eminent Domain & Bank Boycotts: The Tri-State Strategy in Pittsburgh

Mike Stout — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:55 PDT

[Excerpt] American steel corporations are currently in the process of cutting as much as 20 to 25 per cent of their productive capacity, much of it in the Pittsburgh area. With U.S. Steel's recent move to buy steel slabs from overseas steel companies, the snowball effect on other companies could eliminate more than 50 per cent of the hot-metal producing end of steelmaking in America.

Steel: Past the Crossroads

Tom DuBois — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:46 PDT

[Excerpt] A majority of the 154,532 steelworkers who are presently laid off will never go back to work. They will be shut out of the steel industry because the steel companies have a new game plan. They plan to increase profits in such a way that they will not need to employ many steelworkers. In an effort to raise the price of steel and reduce labor costs, the steel companies will continue to cut down steel capacity, shut down old mills and departments and introduce labor-displacing technology. Unless public pressure forces the government to step in and change this game plan, the steel industry, steelworkers, and steel communities will never be the same—even with an upturn in the economy.

Would Wage Concessions Help the Steel Industry?

Jack Metzgar — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:46 PDT

[Excerpt]The American steel industry is dying. 150,000 steelworkers are laid off, and thousands of them will never work in steel again. The steel companies will report losses of some $2 billion for 1982, and Wall Street analysts predict— advocate—that as much as 20 per cent of the industry's primary capacity will be eliminated. The loss of steel jobs threatens more than a dozen local and regional economies with decades of Depression-like conditions. And the worst is not likely to be over soon.

Even though most people recognize that the primary cause of this situation is the misguided and mean-spirited policies of the Reagan administration, public opinion seems to have accepted a simple logic: If the industry is in such trouble, steelworkers should help it by granting concessions on wages and work rules.

Comment on Jobs and Profits in Steel

Dennis Shattuck — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:45 PDT

[Excerpt]As Tom DuBois and Jack Metzgar point out in their articles, the American steelworker is approaching an important crossroads. In the next decade, the enormous changes the steel industry started in the late seventies will continue at a greater pace.

How steelworkers and their union will respond to these developments is still unclear, but already it has caused a major rejection by the local union presidents of a contract supported by the entire International Executive Board. This division over the direction of the union is not likely to disappear soon.

Concessions at South Works: What Price a Rail Mill?

David Bensman — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:44 PDT

[Excerpt] Things are grim in South Chicago. Two years ago, Wisconsin Steel went bankrupt, leaving 4,000 steelworkers without jobs, pension plans, and their last paycheck. Then Pullman Standard closed, after United Steelworkers of America District Director Jack Parton's frantic efforts to save the plant failed. U.S. Steel's South Works itself is down to a crew of 950, one-seventh its size of two years ago. And the Republic Steel mill, scene of the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937, is down from 5,300 to less than 3,000 employees.

Some Notes on Labor Costs

Sam Rosenberg et al. — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:44 PDT

[Excerpt] In the past year the steel companies have mounted a tremendous publicity campaign to get the public to believe that labor costs are at the root of the industry's problems. No aspect of the companies' argument is trickier than their presentation of "the facts" on this subject.

It has taken MCLR a while to disentangle the facts from the tortured interpretations put on them by the companies, interpretations which have been thoughtlessly repeated by the media. We are preparing a comprehensive analysis of labor costs and productivity in the steel industry for the next issue of Labor Research Review. In the meantime, we present here some brief notes on some of the companies' tricks.

The End of Affirmative Action? Work Rule Concessions at South Works

Steve Alexander — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:43 PDT

[Excerpt] The recent Rail Mill Manning Agreement between U.S. Steel South Works and Local 65 of the United Steelworkers of America changed both the local and Basic Labor Agreements. This paper will demonstrate the adverse effect that this Agreement will have on minorities and women.

Job Combinations and Speed-up in Steel

David Bensman — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:42 PDT

[Excerpt] The Rail Mill Manning Agreement at South works in not unique. Reducing labor costs by combining jobs is a key part of the steel companies' strategy for regaining profitability. MCLR has conducted a survey of five other mills to find out what the companies are doing to reduce the work force, and speed up work. We print here a summary of our preliminary findings.

Concessions Rejected

USWA Local 1010 Steelworker Inland Steel, East Chicago, Indiana — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:42 PDT

[Excerpt] On November 19, steelworkers came within 90 votes of making giveaways worth as much as $6 billion dollars to the basic steel industry. By a vote of 231-141 the Presidents who make up the Basic Steel Industry Conference rejected a unanimous recommendation from the International Executive Board to grant the biggest package of concessions in the history of the American labor movement.

Lackawanna & Johnstown: Shutdowns, Steel Towns and the Union

Jack Metzgar — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:41 PDT

[Excerpt] On December 27, 1982, Bethlehem announced that it was all over for Lackawanna. Ironically, this was greeted with a sigh of relief in Johnstown.

Ever since 1965 when Bethlehem built a multi-billion dollar greenfield plant at Burns Harbor, Indiana, people in Johnstown had thought their days were numbered. Many of them held Lackawanna in such awe that they couldn't imagine that the nation's second largest steel producer would abandon it, especially because for a decade Bethlehem has been threatening to leave Johnstown instead.

Interview With Janet Saglio

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:30:40 PDT

[Excerpt] Janet Saglio is head of the Business Department at the Industrial Cooperative Association (ICA) based in Somerville, Mass. The ICA works with union locals that are: a) considering an employee buy-out, or b) seeking an independent study of a corporation's business strategy.

The primary purpose of the ICA is to assist worker-owned businesses, helping them become worker controlled through democratic systems of ownership, decision making and accountability. The ICA is therefore often called upon by union locals to assess the feasibility of employees buying a factory threatened by a shut-down...and always recommends against a buy-out if the business has been badly run down.

IAM District 100 Vs. Eastern and the Banks

Andrew R. Banks — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:28:15 PDT

The story that follows is a story of how IAM District 100, step by step, escalated a struggle over almost every major issue facing the labor movement today: concessions, control of corporate investment decisions, the power of the financial industry, management- initiated "employee involvement" schemes, workers' education, joint control over large corporate pension funds, and union leadership style. The Machinists at Eastern would begin this struggle on the shop floor and eventually take it to Eastern's stockholders meetings and to the boardrooms of the world's largest financial institutions. In this bleak period for labor, where unions are battling daily against corporate demands for concessions, IAM District 100 had the harder task of ending concessions that had already been granted.

To Frank Borman

Barbara Mungovan — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:28:15 PDT

[Excerpt] Frank Borman's campaign against the Machinists at Eastern included a flurry of letters to the union's membership. These letters, as has become standard in employer campaigns for concessions, blamed the union leadership for the company's problems and tried to convince the rank and file that the company, not the union, had the worker's best interest at heart. Borman always ended his letters by saluting "his" employees with a hearty "God Bless You."

Barbara Mungovan, an aircraft servicer at Eastern's base in Miami and a member of LAM Lodge 702, sent Frank the following reply in February 1983.

I Don't Remember Raping You

Barbara Mungovan — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:28:14 PDT

[Excerpt] I Don't Remember Raping You (Sung to the tune of I Don't Remember Loving You by John Connlee)

Research, Experts and Building Solidarity

Marty Urra — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:28:13 PDT

[Excerpt] The message read, "Be in Atlanta for emergency meeting of unions with Eastern" and was signed by Charlie Bryan. The contract we had won with Eastern now had to be defended against the banks to whom Eastern owed so much money.

In Atlanta we listened to a very somber Frank [Excerpt] Borman describe how the banks, led by Chase Manhattan and Citibank, were refusing to roll over loans that were coming due. The bankers insisted that Borman win "concessions" from us by June 21 or Eastern would be thrown into "technical default."

Questions & Answers

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:28:13 PDT

[Excerpt] As part of a sophisticated public relations campaign, management released a series of bulletins which purported to answer its employees' questions and "concerns." Samples from Bulletins 7 and 8 are reprinted below.

On the facing page is a Bulletin 9 of unknown origin. It followed a similar format as the company's previous bulletins. But, as you'll see, its answers have a different character and point of view. Bulletin 9 was distributed through regular company channels until it was discovered that it did not accurately reflect management's views. After that, rank-and-file Machinists made sure that their brothers and sisters had a copy ofN°9.

Chapter 11: The Fall Crisis at Eastern

Paul J. Baicich — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:28:12 PDT

[Excerpt] When the IAM's contract with Eastern was ratified on April 8, membership morale and self-confidence were at a high point. But labor relations in the airline industry as a whole were bad and getting worse.