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Against Both Company And Union Hacks: Rank And File Steelworkers Continue Their Struggle

By VVAW

On Feb 8, the united Steelworkers of America held their much publicized election of national officers. The contest was billed as a battle between the young reformer, Ed Sadlowski and the old guard machine represented by Lloyd McBride, a lieutenant of I.W. Abel who was ruled the union with an iron hand for the last several years.

Abel himself had originally been elected as a reform candidate, but over the years he became entrenched in the union to the point where he had earned the hatred of rank and file steelworkers. The Abel machine has co-operated with the steel companies all the way. The way Abel and his followers understand things is in opposition to the experience of the rank and file. The Abel crowd says that the only way workers can get ahead is to co-operate with the steel companies, and if the companies prosper, the steelworkers will prosper.

It is not at all a coincidence that this kind of outlook makes things easier for the union hacks. They don't have to do the hard work of fighting the steel companies; they don't have to get their hands dirty mixing with ordinary workers, and they get to sit back in their plush offices collecting handsome pay checks. However, the experience of the workers on the shop floor give a different, more accurate picture of the steel companies.

That daily experience teaches that no matter how prosperous the steel companies get, they will nevertheless try to squeeze more from the labor of the workers. From the daily harassment to criminal medical facilities to the constant threat of layoffs, it is clear where the companies are coming from. Profit is they'd like to keep workers bowed down before the king. Abel and some of his cronies have been trying their best to keep workers down, and have themselves been rewarded for their efforts by being made eunuchs in the court of King Profit.

Some of the lowlights of Abel's regime have been his agreements with the companies around the Experimental Negotiation Agreement (ENA) and the Consent Decree. The ENA gave away the right to strike until 1980 in return for supposedly higher wages and binding arbitration. The strike is the most powerful weapon in the worker's arsenal, and to give it up is like going to war with bows and arrows. Thus when 40,000 jobs were lost in the industry since 1971 due to the combining of jobs and when massive layoffs hit tow years ago, the union leadership wasn't able to fight this cutback (even if it wanted to.)

The Consent Decree was supposed to eliminate discrimination, but all it has done is eliminate the seniority system with discrimination still present. Also, within the union, the right to ratify national contract has been taken from the rank and file and put in the hands of a national committee who (you guessed it) follow the lead of the union misleaders. All this heritage of sellout unionism has been passed on to Lloyd McBride who defeated Ed Sadlowski in the election.

Workers in steel have been fighting their oppressive conditions all along, but over the last couple years that fight has been heating up and getting organized. The failing economy has hit the steel industry as well as everything else, and the companies are trying to take it out on the workers. Working conditions have worsened, layoffs are coming down heavy, jobs are being combined and sped up. Rank and file organizations such as Breakout in Chicago, Steel Unity in Sparrow Point, Md. And On the Move in Seattle have been formed, and individual workers have more and more voiced their displeasure with both the steel companies and the union. All this unrest was focused on the recent election where Sadlowski, to a large extent, represented the gathering momentum of the workers and McBride represented the old union and its policy of looking out for the best interests of the companies.

Sadlowksi was no hero. He was pushed up to where he was and what he stood for by a rank and file beginning to stand up and fight for their rights and needs. His campaign served to stimulate that fight and expose the current union leadership for its role in protecting the companies' interests. That he lost does not mean the end of the battle to make the union a real force that fights the companies for the needs of steelworkers. The organization and clarification of where each side stands were real advances coming out of the election campaign.

The rank file have not let up in their efforts to take on the companies and the union hierarchy. On February 14, the day negotiations began for the new contract, rank and file steelworkers held a demonstration outside the Washington hotel where the union and companies were working out their latest deals. They presented the demands of steelworkers to smash the ENA and the Consent Decree, fight discrimination, defeat productivity drives, fight company attacks on working conditions, turn the union into a strong weapon in workers' hands and for jobs now for all workers. Look for continued struggle from rank and file steelworkers in the future.