Redazione di
Operai Contro,
Migliaia di operai del settore petrolifero, tra cui
quelli di EXXON, stanno scioperando in 9 Stati degli Stati Uniti d’America.
Anche se molti raccontano la lotta come economicista ed incentrata sull’aumento
della paga oraria, le rivendicazioni sono ben maggiori, e solo iniziali:
abolizione del contributo obbligatorio dei dipendenti per l’assicurazione
medica, protesta contro la continua riduzione di organico che comporta più
lavoro e fatica a carico di chi resta, rifiuto delle esternalizzazioni per
alcune mansioni affidate a ditte terze già specializzate, anzichè inserire
formazione all’interno delle imprese…
A seguire
articolo originale. Saluti Operai da Pavia
m.l.
February 04,
2015
Labor Up in Smoke?
Oil
Refinery Workers Go on Strike
by DAVID MACARAY
On Sunday, when 3,800 members
of the United Steelworkers (USW) walked off their jobs at nine oil refineries
across the country (including two in my home state of California), it marked
the first national oil refinery strike in more than three decades, going all
the way back to 1980. Congratulations, USW. With this strike, organized labor
is finally showing signs of life. Although industry analysts have pointed out
that gasoline prices were already edging upwards several days before the
strike, everyone is going to blame the union for any rise in gas pump prices.
And why wouldn’t they? Unions make excellent scapegoats. Indeed, with the
strike only a couple days old, expect the oil companies to seize this
opportunity to raise prices disproportionately. But the facts tell a different
story. Looking back to 1980, the year of the last national refinery strike,
Phil Flynn, an analyst with the Price Futures Group, noted that even though
that strike lasted a whopping three months, it had little effect on gasoline
prices. According to Flynn, it raised prices only “a couple of pennies at
best.” The USW called this current strike after rejecting five substandard
proposals (the union described the final offer as “insulting”) from Royal Dutch
Shell, the company acting as lead negotiator for the oil industry. In a
strategic move, the USW’s walkout targeted specific facilities. Among them: the
Tesoro Corporation, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Petroleum, and LyondellBasell
Industries, facilities stretching from California to Texas and Kentucky. Aware
that the oil companies and media will try to portray these union members as
greedy bastards, USW spokeswoman, Lynne Hancock, made it clear that, while
hourly wages are a component of these negotiations (as they have been in
virtually every contract negotiation in every industry in history), they are
not central to the bargain. This shutdown isn’t about hourly pay. “Wages are
not a part of this walkout whatsoever,” she said. Among the issues central to
the strike are: mandatory employee contributions to medical insurance, continued
reductions in headcount (leading to lower staffing, longer hours and more
fatigue), and the company’s refusal to take seriously the union’s request that
the membership be trained for jobs that are increasingly being performed by
outside contractors. This outside contractor issue has become a huge deal to
unions everywhere. And when it reaches critical mass, it’s going to become a
huge deal to non-union workers as well. Based on what’s occurring in the
marketplace, it’s the dream of every company to change the status of their
workers from “employee” to “independent contractor,” thereby allowing them not
to have to pay for insurance, pensions, vacations or holidays. Once your
employees become classified as contractors, all you have to do is give them
cash for doing the job. Write them a paycheck and be done with it. And because
there’s almost always going to be a surplus of workers, market forces are going
to constantly drive wages downward. But even on those occasions when employers
are required to pay top dollar for workers, the savings in benefits and
administrative costs is going to be enormous. Which is why the move toward
“de-categorizing” employees has become so popular. No matter how this USW
strike turns out, one hopes it sheds light on what’s become a dangerous trend.
The notion of loyal employees retiring after working thirty years for the same
company is an anachronism. Companies don’t want loyalty. They want flexibility.
And what they can’t get from contractors, they’ll try and get from robots. It
ain’t a pretty picture.
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