7,000 workers on strike in post-katrina Mississippi shipyards

fixed!

7000 - a good big number. 5 unions - that's good too. the strikers should also be ready with broadsides about profiteering and, better, family disintegration.

Here's the AFL-CIO's take on the strike.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/16/gulf-coast-workers-come-together-for-justice-at-shipyard/

Here's Labor Notes take on the strike:

http://www.labornotes.org/node/700

from labornotes:

90 percent - another good number

This is yet another example of the attack on the working class that the war in Iraq is having. The great thing is that hte working class is using its own specific organizations to carry out struggles in its own interest. Does anybody know of any revolutionary organizations that may be working with the workers?

This is a nice blow to the US and is being kept hush hush by much of the bourgeoise US media.

do you rank numbers much newyawka? i like 17 and 42.

on a more serious note, this is pretty encouraging.

hopefully not - that would be even more of a victory if there wasn't some revolutionary vanguard involved in this...

Doubtful any revolutionary organization is involved.

The workers at this shipyard primarily work on military vessels. They're probably sone of the highest paid and most unionized workers in Ms. and suspect folks are probably a bit more conservative than elsewhere.

That said, good to see workers standing up for themseleves and taking on the greedy bastards of Grumman.

interesting point there syndacalist. Wasn't there some guy on here a while ago who was decrying the striking Venezuelan oilworkers as being reactionary or something?

The reason that I'm asking is that Commong Ground is in NO, and they are loaded with anarchist organizers, and it would have been interesting to see how involved they were with the workers. There's also some other organizations down there that have done canvassing and pretty good revolutionary work, notably POC (People's Organizing Committee) that organized survivor's councils. Yeah, the POC is Black Nationalist, but they've done some pretty good stuff, well at least a year ago, not sure now.

So, there's a left presence there, I'm just wondering how involved it is in the strike.

No End In Sight For Ingalls Strike

March 22, 2007 09:46 AM

No deal. That's the only real news to come out of the meeting union leaders had Wednesday with Northrop Grumman officials. It's the first meeting with a federal mediator since the strike began.

"We met with the company and identified our issues, and little progress was made," Metal Trades Union President Mike Crawley said.

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=6261831&nav=menu40_3

FMCS assigns a mediator to every set of contract negotiations. They have no authority whatsoever. I'm not saying there won't be some intervention that is negative but a "federal mediator" usually means nothing in and of itself.

Just because they're assigned doesn't mean you know anything about them. They usually call when your file says negotiations are coming up and then like 6 months later or something. Several months ago the feds thought this particular negotiation in vegas was going badly so the mediator came in and did crossword puzzles for a few sessions. Shortly after that 800 nurses and techs got locked out.

FMCS is very useful.

test

Fuck!! I've been unbanned! MashAllah!

FYI update:

Unions, Northrop talks resumed at Miss. shipyardhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17823737/

from New Orleans indymedia:
Pascagoula Shipyard Strike: Day 20
by Christian Roselund Wednesday, Mar. 28, 2007 at 12:20 AM
Nearly 7,000 workers at the Ingalls shipyards entered their twentieth day on strike today, amid contract negotiations that seem to be going nowhere fast.

March 27, Pascagoula, Mississippi- Nearly 7,000 workers at the Ingalls shipyards entered their twentieth day on strike today, amid contract negotiations that seem to be going nowhere fast. This afternoon officials with the metal trades council, Teamsters, IBEW and other striking unions met with Northrop Grumman officials, however in a statement read after the negotiation union officials said that they had not discussed matters related to salaries and benefits in the meeting. Northrop Grumman officials left the meeting by a back door and were not available for comment.

As the end of the month approaches strikers are getting ready for a lean time with rents and mortgage payments coming due. Many workers are also in danger of having their health benefits suspended until they return to work. However the mood on the picket line was positive and strong, with many union members insisting that they are ready for a long fight. Some say they will find other work before they give up their position, and even Northrop Grumman officials estimate only three hundred workers in sectors that are on strike have crossed picket lines.

Union members say that the last strike at the Ingalls yards was in 1999 and lasted three weeks. At the time the Ingalls was run by Litton Industries; the company was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2001.

from your "favorite" trot newspaper:

Workers Vanguard No. 893
25 May 2007

Pascagoula, Mississippi

Powerful Strike Sold Short by Labor Tops

After four weeks of struggle and sacrifice, union workers at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, voted to return to work on April 4. The powerful strike by this multiracial workforce shut down shipbuilding at Ingalls, where Navy destroyers and Coast Guard cutters are built, in the midst of U.S. imperialism’s murderous occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Workers emerged from the strike with pride in having held firm against the world’s largest naval shipbuilder despite the ongoing post-Katrina economic hardship weighing down on them and other working people along the Gulf Coast. Several workers told Workers Vanguard that they are determined to fight again when the new contract is up in three years.

The settlement was widely opposed by the workers interviewed by WV. It includes a pay increase of $1.68 per hour the first year, only 28 cents higher than the contract offer that was overwhelmingly rejected in early March. The agreement means “28 cents for 28 days” on strike, as some Ingalls workers put it. For many, the wage increase will not even cover the post-Katrina jump in the cost of gas. Meanwhile, family health care premiums will increase by $50 per month over three years and still will not cover dental or vision care. But workers did take satisfaction in making Northrop Grumman CEO Philip Teel “eat his words” after he had said he would not give more in wages, even as the company is rolling in billions of dollars of profits and handouts from the Navy.

There is anger and frustration at how the union officials ran the strike, which included giving the workers less than 24 hours’ notice to show up for the contract vote. As a boilermaker at Ingalls told WV, “Any time you rush a vote, it is better for the company.” With Ingalls workers spread over four states, and many having to work temporary jobs to make ends meet, less than half of the strikers were able to make it to the vote. Nonetheless, nearly 40 percent voted to reject the contract and continue the strike.

Continued:
http://www.icl-fi.org/print/english/wv/893/pascagoulasoldshort.html

If the workers were against the contract then why'd they vote to accept it?

That article makes it pretty clear that a majority of strikers weren't able to vote either way, so obviously they didn't.

The article from Worker's Vangaurd? You aren't serious right?