Statistic
of the Week: The average
monthly check for the top 100 retired corporate CEO’s is $253,088. The average
monthly check for a typical retired US worker is $101. Institute for Policy
Studies.
Backed by Democrats, union pushes sellout deal to end Momentive strike
Backed by Democrats,
union pushes sellout deal to end Momentive strike
By Philip Guelpa
13 February 2017
13 February 2017
As the strike of 700 workers at Momentive
Performance Materials, a specialized chemical plant in Waterford, New York,
entered its fourth month, a tentative contract was reached late last Wednesday
between the company and International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications
Workers of America (IUE-CWA) union Locals 81359 and 81380.
The final negotiations were reportedly conducted
with the direct intervention of aides to New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew
Cuomo. Over the last few weeks, Democratic politicians, including the governor,
both US senators and the state’s comptroller put on a full court press to force
another concessions-filled contract onto the strikers.
A ratification vote will
be held on Monday and Tuesday. Full details of the proposed contract have not
yet been publicly disclosed. However, some information is available. The Times
Union reports the agreement includes pay increases of 2 percent per
year over the next two years and maintains the company’s matching payment to
the employees’ retirement fund. The offer also includes a $2,000 signing bonus
to exploit the economic difficulties of strikers.
These meager increases are more than made up by
reductions in health insurance coverage and vacation accruals. In addition, the
company will terminate health and life insurance benefits for retirees. These
last two are especially egregious given that Momentive workers are affected by
long-term exposure to toxic chemicals, which impact their health and longevity.
The pay increases are an insult to the workers,
barely covering current inflation and doing nothing to make up for past losses.
Momentive workers had suffered severe cuts in wages and benefits under
contracts negotiated by the union in 2010 and 2013. These attacks were
undertaken by a group of asset-stripping hedge funds, which purchased what
became Momentive from General Electric in 2006. To finance the purchase, Apollo
Global Management borrowed $3.8 billion, which it now must pay back by
extracting super-profits from its workforce.
In a further attack, the company plans to cut
the workforce by up to 100 workers, leading to increased pressure on the
remaining workforce. The proposed agreement also gives Momentive latitude for
increased automation.
Another issue is the fate of workers fired
during the strike. Reports vary, but up to 40 workers were accused by Momentive
of alleged acts against the company, either while on the picket line or in some
form of sabotage within the plant prior to the strike. Preliminary reports
indicate that instead of insisting on the reinstatement of all the fired
workers, the union has agreed to accept the results of a supposedly independent
review process conducted by a panel appointed by Governor Cuomo, which leaves
the workers in great jeopardy.
There is strong
sentiment among the workers that they all should return together. One worker,
Craig Finigan, told The Alt, “Of the 200 people I spoke with today,
we still believe this isn’t good enough. They’re not going to let everyone back
in at the same time. Workers like me would still be spending three to six
months on the sidelines.”
Momentive workers overwhelmingly rejected the
previous concessions-laden contract proposal negotiated by the IUE-CWA and
forced the union to call a strike. From the beginning, workers expressed their
firm determination to make up for the previous losses. The latest sellout
proposal by the union would put workers even further behind and exposes the
utter bankruptcy and betrayal of the organization that supposedly represents
them.
The union is presenting this proposed contract
as a victory. Dennis Trainor, vice president for CWA District One, said, “We
believe we have reached an agreement that addresses the concerns of our
striking members about retirement health and pension security.” (Trainor tried
to claim the same thing after helping sell out 39,000 Verizon strikers in the
summer of 2016, leaving them open to job losses, increased health care costs
and other attacks).
Many Momentive strikers view the deal very
differently.
One worker, speaking to
the Times Union, expressed exasperation at the choice they
confront. He asked, “But what will happen if we vote this down? The governor,
[US Senators Charles] Schumer, [Kirsten] Gillibrand, [state Comptroller Tom]
DiNapoli and everyone else is already supporting it. If we vote ‘no,’ we will
have no support from anyone.”
The unions have pushed the lie that workers need
the “support” of the Democrats. In fact, they are big business politicians
thoroughly hostile to the needs of workers. DiNapoli, for example, controls the
New York State pension fund, which has a roughly $34 million investment in
Apollo Global Management, the hedge fund that is currently the largest minority
owner of Momentive, and therefore has a vested interest in maintaining its
profitability.
This strike has put these 700 industrial workers
in direct conflict with the new Trump administration. Their situation mirrors
that of tens of millions of workers and their families across the country who
have seen their lives devastated over the last several decades by stagnant or
declining wages, cuts in benefits, increases in housing costs, etc., as the
economy came to be dominated by financial speculators under both Democratic and
Republican administrations. The accession of Trump and his coterie of billionaires
and ultra-right wing enemies of the working class means a sharp escalation of
these attacks.
Several strikers told
the media they had voted for Trump based on his campaign promises to bring back
jobs. The Daily News quoted one Momentive striker, Carmine
Cervini, as saying, “Trump promised to help America, to get us good jobs. Well
here we are, fighting for our good jobs. I voted for him. I’m going to give him
a chance.” Another worker said, “I gave him my vote because of what he
promised--now I want to see him earn it.”
These illusions began to
be exposed when Trump nominated Stephen Schwarzman as chairman of his
“Strategic and Policy Forum,” a body of corporate executives from top US
corporations, along with union officials such as AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka. Schwarzman is a billionaire who made his fortune in private equity
deals, buying and stripping companies’ assets. He is founder and CEO of the
Blackstone Group, a part owner of Momentive. Unlike Trump’s earlier and
completely bogus intervention with Carrier,
not even a token gesture has been made by the administration regarding the
Momentive workers.
Another striker, Amber
Izzo, expressed her concerns about Trump to the Daily News. “I
never voted before in my life, my first vote was for Trump. I like his straight
talk. But then I heard he’s got Schwarzman creating jobs, and I thought, ‘Oh
man, that’s a problem.’”
As an illustration of utter bankruptcy of the
union’s effort to bolster illusions that pressure can be exerted on Republican
or Democratic politicians, last week the union staged a protest outside of
Schwarzman’s home in Manhattan. The CWA held another diversionary stunt in
Washington, with union members handing out leaflets near the White House as
Trump met with Schwarzman.
In addition to the intervention in the
negotiations by Cuomo aides, other politicians, including both of New York’s
senators, Schumer and Gillibrand, had recently intervened in an attempt to end
the strike. Last week, a group of 10 state legislators and the state
comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, made photo-op visits to the picket line to urge a
settlement.
The union expressed high praise for Cuomo’s
intervention, with the head of the New York AFL-CIO stating that the governor
had exhibited “true leadership.” The resulting sellout agreement reveals the
true nature of this “leadership,” and the unity of Democrats, Republicans and
union bureaucracy in the all-out assault on working people.
For its part, IUE-CWA, a large, national union,
with hundreds of thousands of members, has left the strikers to walk the picket
line for three months, under increasingly harsh winter conditions, as scabs
were bused in every day. While other local workers would frequently join the
picket line, the union blocked any effort to unify strikers with workers across
the country who themselves have suffered from decades of attacks and
deteriorating living standards.
Such a mobilization, the unions fear, would have
led to a direct confrontation not only with the Trump administration, but the
Democrats as well.
The proposed Momentive
settlement, which must still be ratified by the workers, is being hailed by the
press, the union and the politicians as a tremendous victory. As was the case
with last year’s deal between the CWA and Verizon,
it is nothing of the sort. This proposal must be rejected!
To take this fight
forward Momentive workers must break from the straightjacket imposed on them by
the union and form independent strike committees to marshal the vast potential
support from workers across the country and around the world who face the same struggle
as you. The Socialist Equality Party stands ready to assist workers in this
fight. Contact us via the World Socialist Web Site.
The author also
recommends:
Momentive workers strongly oppose tentative agreement
[7 November 2016]
Momentive workers strongly oppose tentative agreement
[7 November 2016]
Strikers at
Momentive plants vote down union-backed sellout deal
[9 November 2016]
[9 November 2016]
Momentive workers
fight Trump’s billionaire appointee Schwarzman
[3 January 2017]
[3 January 2017]
THE DEMOCRAT
PARTY and the final collapse of AMERICA:
WALL STREET
LOOTERS’ PROPAGANDA MACHINE TO KEEP LEGALS’ MOUTHS SHUT
AND KEEP
PAYING FOR THE BAILOUTS AND CORPORATE PLUNDERING OF AMERICA.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-crony-bankster-democrat-party.html
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY'S RELIGION IS ONLY CRONY DONOR BANKSTER BAILOUTS,
OPEN BORDERS, AMNESTY TO LEGALIZE MEXICO'S LOOTING, NO E-VERIFY AND NO DAMNED
LEGAL NEED APPLY!!!
SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, HUBBY LOOTER
RICHARD BLUM AND LAP B ITCH, BARBARA “BRIBES” BOXER…. Along with Nancy Pelosi,
four of the most corrupt and self-serving plunderers of America… These Cretans
redefine the term CRONY CAPITALIST PIGS!
FOR YEARS THEY HAVE SUCKED THE BLOOD OUT OF A DYING
NATION!
“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan THEAMERICAN THINKER.com
No comments:
Post a Comment