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  • authored by Blackcat
  • published Thu, Jun 12, 2003

Jeffboat Wildcat

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Workers at JeffBoat, the United States' largest inland shipyard located in on the Ohio River in Jeffersonville, Indiana, went on wildcat strike on April 30th, 2001. JeffBoat workers were presented with a contract proposal that set them back on every point and gave their union, Teamsters Local 89, the power to make deals with the company without the members' consent. Officials at Local 89 attempted to intimidate JeffBoat workers into ratifying the contract. When JeffBoat workers rejected the contract proposal by a five-to-one margin, Local 89 President Fred Zuckerman announced--after all but twenty workers had left--that he would not sanction the strike. Union officials and office staff were instructed to call workers' at home and demand they report to work as usual or face penalties.

Several JeffBoat workers refused to enter the shipyard and started an unsanctioned picket line. Other workers joined in and by lunchtime there was a total walkout at JeffBoat shipyard. That afternoon JeffBoat workers packed Local 89 demanding an answer from President Zuckerman who now claims a "clerical mistake" has resulted in a year-long extension of JeffBoat workers' contract.

The wildcat strike at JeffBoat had begun. More background information here.

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Update:

It's been quite awhile since I have posted to this list or sent materials in to the IWW. I am still receiving emails asking about what happened at JeffBoat and I owe folks a final report. After being fired from JeffBoat, I've been working in a sweatshop and watching as the hard-won fights of the twentieth century are completely erased. I'm wondering what's up your alls way.

My last reports about JeffBoat were from this time last year. At that point the union--Teamsers Local 89--was openly supporting us workers with good strike pay and what seemed to be a solid contract team. In June, while driving to the picket line late on Fathers' Day, a car came out of nowhere and rammed the car containing my family and me head on. Our car was completely demolished but my children were miraculously alright though shaken while my wife suffered relatively minor injuries. As for me, my back was twisted like pretzel and I was out of commission in terms of helping with the strike for awhille.

A couple of weeks later I went to the union hall to find it packed with workers: on Tuesday, the Teamsters decided we needed an "emergency" strike vote and on Wednesday they held the meeting. Teamsters officials claimed they called everyone the night before but most of us received no call. I didn't.

Our business agent pressured us to vote in the same contract we wildcatted over in 2001 and officially struck over in 2002. "The scabs have successfully taken over the shipyard," he told us. "Your jobs are at stake." Local 89 president Zuckerman said the strike fund was about to run out and we'd be fucked. From the stage the business agent yelled out that "we have to concentrate on saving the union!" A volatile crowd voted and it was 300 and something to 200 and something in favor of accepting the contract. It was close and many of us were angry, even those who voted to accept. After the vote was counted, I was holding my son in my arms as I watched the president of our local, our business agent and the federal mediator walk away. The business agent gave the other two a thumbs up and the others laughed. I don't know who else saw this.

The contract was the same, ugly one except the union (!) added two years onto it (making it a five-year contract instead of a three) and gave some extra, extra treats to the company. Scabs would receive preference for shift and job. Any harassment of scabs would be considered grounds for termination. The Teamsters doubled our union dues.

Later we discovered the scabs were looting the shipyard and very little work was being done. It turns out our strike fund had three months of good pay left on it; after that it would drop to 75% for several weeks then 50% for some time and so forth. We were at the strongest place we'd been in since the week-long, Wobbly-organized and instigated wildcat strike of 2001.

We were given phone calls and letters telling us at what time we were to return to work. I received a letter telling me I had to show up for work within five days, but the letter was dated five days earlier and I had twenty minutes to report to work. I was fired and, interestingly, the termination letter came the next day. It was already in the mail. The Teamsters said there was nothing they could do.

In the heat of the summer the company put the entire shipyard on twelve hour days, seven days a week. A number of workers suffered heat exhaustion and it was reported to me that there were several cases of heat stroke. The company maintained this grueling schedule into the fall at which time it instituted a massive layoff. The layoffs did not respect seniority as demanded by the union contract and a handful of former JeffBoat workers told me that the layoffs served to get rid of any radical, outspoken, or simply insolent workers.

Many of JeffBoat's customers abandoned them and the CitiCorp Venture Group subsidiary that owned JeffBoat sold it. The new owners are claiming rights to the workers' pension fund (valued at 50 million dollars) and the union is telling workers to sign it over to the owners. Now the shipyard workers are completely docile while the company is not paying its electric bills and suppliers are repossessing unused boxes of disposable earplugs.

After I was fired, I went to work at Faurecia, a French-owned factory that makes exhaust systems for General Motors and Ford. JeffBoat was a hellhole but Faurecia made it look like the fucking Hilton. The air was damn near unbreathable, full of metal dust. The work involved heavy lifting with backtwisting repeated hundreds of times a day. We worked ten to twelve hour days and often more, seven days a week. The company was constantly trying to take away our ten minute breaks.

I worked as a welder. I would load parts into a jig, weld them as fast as possible then lift out the entire assembly and throw it into a bin for the air checker. After four months of this work, my back began to ache. I had no insurance (it takes six months to get insurance at this place) but my car insurance took care of some chiropractic treatment. All through January and February my back was killing me and after work one late February day, my spine curled sharply sideways, leaving my left leg about six inches higher than my right and taking away my ability to walk.

I spent five weeks recovering. I brought a doctor's note to work saying I couldn't work past eight hours a day and no heavy lifting, but the human resources manager said my note comprised sabotage of business activity and was felonious (I told her to call the cops on me). This is standard behavior for Faurecia. I limped out of the plant one day and noticed that everyone around me was bandaged from carpal tunnel syndrome, hunched over, one fellow was dragging a leg behind him, and so forth. A few of us were very pro-union and wanted to try to organize but the majority of the workers there were unbelievaly frightened and cowed. It was amazing and sickening to see, especially when it impacted my health.

The state OSHA office did an inspection of the plant while I was there. This was the first time I'd ever seen OSHA anywhere in this state. The OSHA agents were coughing and wiping their eyes in the toxic air. Later I learned the plant was cited but they were cited for not having enough weld curtains up. I spoke to the OSHA agent in charge of the inspection. She was one of the most helpful persons in government I have ever spoken with, but even though she admitted the air was ridiculously poisoned with carcinogenic dust, she said there was nothing they could do. OSHA recorded air quality levels using a monitor worn all day by a worker and the company picked the worker; in this case, a fellow who stands by one of the only ventilated spots in the building and does almost no welding. I also learned that there is apparently no record of the plants many injuries; several lost fingers, back spasms, a broken tooth, a crushed leg. Where are places like this dumping their safety records now?

I've since walked away from that job. There are other places like this operating in the area. Technically they aren't sweatshops. A sweatshop pays substandard wages, has terrible working conditions and practices ruthless union suppression. That job, like others in the region, pays the average, low wage for that kind of work. But the working conditions are godawful and they are vilently anti-union. Faurecia literally put chains on its doors several years ago when some workers contacted UAW. After three says of being locked out, workers were let in and told that any talk of a union would send the company straight to Mexico. This is illegal, of course. At another shop in southern Indiana, workers recently had a union meeting in their off hours. The company heard about it and said that it would have union supporters drug out and beaten. Against this backdrop, working conditions are plummeting and everyone it seems is going to ten and twelve hour days.

Is this happening all over?

A couple of us Wobs in town have put together Red Horse, a workers' collective that does interior/exterior painting, gutter cleaning, light carpentry, landscaping, and such. We have a mixer and are hoping to do brick and block laying work. We split the money equitably and nobody's the boss. If you're in the area or are going to be in the area let me know if you have skills and need to or want to work.

IWW Jeffersonville, Indiana

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