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Ena Attacks Workers

By VVAW

In March, 1973, the "Experimental Negotiating Agreement" (ENA) was signed by United Steel Workers of America (USWA) president, I.W. Abel and R. Heath Larry S (executive of US Steel and chief negotiator for the steel companies). This "agreement" is a direct attack on steel workers. It prohibits industry-wide strikes; but beyond this, the ENA also seriously jeopardizes the living and working standards of all working people in the US.

The ENA is indeed an experiment. It is not clear why the USWA was singled out for this test, but it may be because the union is less democratic than many other unions. For example, after Abel signed away the workers' right to strike, the ENA was then ratified by a meeting of 300 USWA union officials. The rank and file workers in the USWA were no consulted, just as they are not allowed to vote on union contracts. The ENA is in the process of being tested, and the profit-minded corporations will be watching the steel industry with great interest. Corporations, as well as the leadership of other unions, have hailed the ENA as a "landmark agreement," and you can bet that if the ENA is not met with firm resistance, the right to strike will be ripped away from workers in other industries.

The ENA means that steel workers are prohibited from striking over their national contract until 1980. Local strikes around local issues are allowed but they must first be approved by Abel. In return for the loss of the right to strike, steel workers are to receive a $150 bonus for 1974 (which was immediately labeled by many workers as a "bribe"), the promise of a 3% wage increase (which won't come close to keeping up with the current rate of inflation) and the continuation of the 1971 cost-of-living agreement. This "cost-of-living" agreement many sound like a good deal, but looking at it more closely, we see that this increase equals 1 cent an hour increase for every .4 increase in the cost-of-living index. This 1 cent an hour increase doesn't even begin to come close to keeping up with actual cost of living.

The rationale that Abel claimed was his reason for selling-out the unions' right to strike is that strikes are harmful to the workers. He claims that when a company like US Steel knows that contract time is coming up, they import and stock-pile foreign steel in the event of a strike. If there is not a strike, the workers are laid off until the stock-pile is used up. In fact, when contracts approach, the companies step up production by making more workers work harder and longer hours. This is the real way that stock-piles are created. Abel and the companies are using this "Buy American" campaign as a tool to place the blame of work lay-offs on other steel-producing countries, rather than where it belongs -- on the general crisis of the US economy and the hunger for profits by the corporations.

To push this "Buy American" campaign, Abel stated that the main thing steel workers should do is unite with management to "increase productivity." A "productivity" clause was introduced into the workers' contract, and since that time, steel workers have lost 40,000 jobs and there has been a 25% jump in their injury rate. With the introduction of the ENA, workers have been unable to effectively fight this increased "productivity" which has undermined their working and living conditions.

The battle against the ENA is crucial as a defense of the interests of all working people in this country. Rank and file steel workers, uniting with workers of other industries, are fighting back and saying, "The right to strike is not for sale!" Shortly after the ENA was ratified, many locals throughout the country passed resolutions condemning the fact that their right to strike had been sold by the union leadership and the steel companies. Since then, steel workers around the country have set up committees to organize against this no-strike deal. Petition campaigns against the ENA have been conducted in steel mills; demonstrations to demand an end to the ENA have been aimed at Abel and at meetings of USWA bureaucrats; walk-out strikes have been carried out. All of this shows that steel workers are not going to take the ENA lying down, but they are building a movement for fighting back against these attacks on their basic rights.

The fight against the ENA does not only belong to steel workers because the ENA is an attack on the rights of all working people. The right to strike has long been paid for in the blood of hundreds of workers who have been killed, and the thousands more who have been wounded and jailed in mass struggles for better working and living conditions. The strike is one of the few weapons that working people have to defend their standard of living, and this right will not be taken away by the signing of a simple peace of paper. It will be necessary for workers in all industries to join with the steel workers to see that the ENA is smashed -- both for steel workers and before similar "agreements" are made in other areas of industry. It is clear that Abel and his buddies will not get rid of the ENA on their own because they are the ones who tried to shove it down the workers' throats in the first place. It will take the united, militant action of rank and file workers themselves to force an end to this no-strike deal.