Socialist Action /June 1999
Wildcat Protest Against Employer-Union Partnership
By ROLAND SHEPPARD
SAN FRANCISCO-On Thursday, May 20, hundreds of carpenters shut down construction
at San Francisco International Airport and other sites throughout the Bay
Area.
This two-day "wildcat strike" was in protest of a new working
agreement negotiated on May 15 by the Northern California Carpenters Regional
Council.
For the past 15 years, carpenters in the San Francisco Bay Area have
endured one concessionary contract after another.
They have gone from having every other Friday off to a return to the
40-hour week. The new contract includes provisions that give up overtime
pay for work done on Saturdays to make up for weekdays missed because of
bad weather or equipment failure.
Due to the recent construction boom in Northern California, rank-and-file
carpenters had expected to recoup some of these concessions and to secure
a reasonable wage increase to begin to catch up with the high inflation
rate in this area. And they wanted rest breaks beyond merely a half hour
for lunch in one 10 to 12-hour day.
The contract did include a $5 increase over four years, but $1 went into
an annuity plan and just 25 cents per hour on the check. There were no improvements
in working conditions.
The greatest cause for the "wildcat strike" was the fact that
the membership of the Carpenters Union no longer have the right to vote
on their contract or how the wage packet will be allocated.
Over the past few years these rights have been delegated to the Northern
California Carpenters Regional Council of the Carpenters International Union.
The delegates, over one-third of whom are appointed by the secretary-treasurer
of the council, originally voted against the contract. But after a standing
roll call vote, the contract was ratified.
Every aspect of this "vote" represented the degeneration of
the Carpenters Union. The council has complete control over the wages and
working conditions of the working carpenters. They have used this power
to develop a "partnership" with the employers against the interests
of the membership.
Whenever the union pension plan becomes "fully funded," instead
of increasing benefits, the council allows the employers to stop paying
benefits for a period of time until the plan becomes "underfunded."
When this happens, the non-union contractors actually pay higher wages than
the union contractors on public works jobs.
The council has dictatorial control over the day-to-day policies of the
union and the membership. The council, on the other hand, is under the dictatorial
control of the president of the Carpenters International Union.
The only rights that the membership have is the right to pay dues and
to occasionally vote for the secretary treasurer of the council who appoints
all of the business agents and controls the hiring halls.
In the recent period, these union officials have had a consistent policy
of refusing to respect pick lines and to raid other Building Trades Union's
(BTU) jurisdictions by underbidding on the wage package.
They recently "organized" non-union contractors who have been
doing the earthquake retrofit work in San Francisco. In this case, the newly
organized workers are paid one-third to one-half the average (BTU) union
wage ($8-$12 per hour). Thus, they are undermining the wages of all construction
workers.
In reality, this union is more like an employers' employment agency than
an organization that defends workers' rights. Workers do not need unions
that cut wages and advocate piecework-workers can do that without a union.
The rank-and-file opposition to the decline of this once militant union
is the force behind the May 20 "wildcat strike" and the solidarity
that was demonstrated by the union carpenters and the rest of the union
construction workers.
It is just the beginning of the struggle among workers in opposition
to the straitjacket that they have been put in by their union officials
acting in partnership with the employers.
Roland Sheppard is a recently retired business representative of Painters
District Council #8 in San Francisco.
Socialist Action /June 1999 |