WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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We need the right to strike.
We need the right to strike.

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We need the right to strike.
We need the right to strike.

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We need the right to strike.

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The American Steelworkers’ right to strike

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is being sold out, and we won’t take it lying down. Let’s
look back and see how this most basic workers’ right

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is being lost and what we
can do to win it back.

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For several years there have been secret meetings between
I.W. Abel and management to sell out our right to strike.

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To soften us up for the blow, they
showed their film \"Where’s Joe\"

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in the mills just before they announced the ‘No
Strike’ pact. I’m Mike Olszanski from Local 1010,

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and along with many of you I saw through this
propaganda. At Inland Steel’s Indiana Harbor Works,

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our membership was vocal in denouncing
the so called experimental agreement.

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I’m not about to be scared by a movie into
giving up my only real right as a worker.

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I became involved with the District 31 Right to Strike
Committee, which is one of many rank-and-file groups

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across the country that are fighting to see that
this last great sell out is not successful.

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Let’s look at parts of the movie \"Where’s
Joe\" made by the companies and I.W. Abel.

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Then we’ll show what we found out about the real
problems in the industry from talking with other workers

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and doing our own research.
First, a piece of the movie.

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Today, top officials of the united steelworkers
and managements of steel companies

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met to mutually increase
productivity in the steel industry.

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It was the first joint productivity conference
resulting from the pioneering act last year

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when labor and management representatives
wrote into the steel labor contract,

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provisioned for a joint effort to improve industry
productivity. Today’s meeting was to evaluate

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the first year’s results. I.W.
Abel of the United Steelworkers

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and E. H. Gott of the steel
industry among others,

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pointed out to the 750 representatives
present, the absolute necessity of the effort,

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if this country is to halt the serious inroads by
foreign steel. Yeah, I saw the movie \"Where’s Joe?\"

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and I think it’s a farce. You see
they, there was a captive audience

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to stay with. You didn’t have a choice. You
would talk. You called to this certain,

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certain place and see this movie. And I
mean, they, they didn’t have a choice.

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And I believe now that they would even union have trouble forcing the guy to
even go see, even though they paid him and everything else to go see the movie.

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[music]

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[music]

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Where’s Joe? Where Sam?

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Dan, John, El?

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Where are 130,000 men we used to work with?

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I, I think it’s clear as
to what happened to Joe.

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I think you can see, stepped
up automation in the plants

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and uh… stepped up productivity,
uh… where they have men working

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in a rapid pace and unsafe pace,

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trying to get, trying to get production out

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and leaving safety in the rear. This
man knows the real reason for job loss

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and knows that without the right to
strike, we have no job security.

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The steel companies’ movie says that we have lost our
jobs in steel because of foreign competition. Listen.

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Here, are the new steel men.

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Hans, Adolf, Dilham, Turner,

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Jose, Patro, Victor, Josiah,

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Cobolt, New Field. Same
carnage, different names.

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Now they are after ours, steel,

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and they know what they are doing. They
were smart enough to discard us thoroughly.

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Now, we had better be realistic
and now discard them.

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Here are some of the things we find.
That many of us carry in our minds

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an outdated picture of our
foreign competitors mills.

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Men, homes,

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cities,

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but that isn’t how it is today.
This is modern,

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smart, tough, ambitious, capable,

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they are realists, they got what we’ve
got and they know how to get it.

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By increasing productivity, increasing
their prostate barrage over us.

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They know the open success secret
that lies in rising productivity.

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They know what to ripe down
on their bones and they know

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it’s an individual face off. Does
the movie make sense to you?

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Are we to blame for the plight of the steel industry? Why
is the company asking us to solve the problem it created?

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The film says that productivity
is an individual matter,

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how fast and hard we work. We already work hard,
we know that. We also know that the major factor

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in increasing productivity is the use of new
technology and modernizing plants and equipment.

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The film never mentions, but we’ve found
in our research, that for some 15 years

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the American industry resisted
applying the new technology.

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Now while more than 80% of Japanese steel
production uses the basic oxygen process,

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only 55% of American production is BOP.
On the other hand,

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in the last 15 years, America’s output of
steel per man hour has nearly tripled.

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Are they asking us to
pay for their mistakes?

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Speaking on behalf of the industry,
I can tell you exactly how we feel.

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And that is, that we have no intention
of permitting foreign competition

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to take away our market. We have invested
more then $10 billion in the last five years

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in more productive equipment
and now we are engaged

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with the United Steelworkers of America in a joint
effect to increase the productivity on the human side.

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There is just no question about it.
We must use

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all of our intelligence and energies to
find some way to meet this challenge.

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No you hear much about the
productivity improvement.

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And I remind you that over the past
10 years, the basic steel industry

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has enjoyed only a 2% productivity factor,

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2%. Now realistically speaking,

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since our standards of life is geared to
that. I know that you don’t want to settle

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and I don’t want to settle
for that kind of improvement

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in our standard of life as we get down the road. The Nixon
Administration did a special study on the steel industry.

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This study clearly states that the real reason
for the steel industries low productivity

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is not the worker but inefficient equipment.
In fact, one of the major reasons

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that Japanese undersell US firms, is because
they are willing to accept a lower profit rate.

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Our research shows that
between 1965 and 1969,

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the five largest US companies took
profits at a rate twice as high

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as did five large Japanese
firms, during the same period.

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We wanna storm by something for a dollar. You are not
gonna go two blocks down the street and buy for three

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and this is what happened here.

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Foreign steel market was able to sell at a
reasonable, you know, a reasonable price

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and the steel industry for
years before, after World

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War shipped all their steel over there and
built these plants and stuff and set back and,

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with wore out equipment
and now it’s coming home,

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they can’t keep up, you know,
that’s the only thing.

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And I don’t think that it’s a big problem with the,
the foreign imports that they made out it to be.

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If they, if they want to stock it out, all they got to do
is, compete with them, that’s all in the market place.

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You know, dollar for dollar and you’re gonna
come out ahead anytime, I don’t care who it is,

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and this is what happened with steel. But they wants protection. They
want to cry (inaudible) with two loafs of bread under their arm.

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You know, they got two loafs of bread under their
arms, they crank (inaudible) that is starving.

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And this is what happened with the steel industry. They made
it, they made all that bread all those years and now it was,

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it’s a little more tougher problem.
The company wants us to believe

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we are all in this together. But when they talk about
productivity, they only talk about what the workers can do

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to solve problems that company has created.
Listen to the film \"Where’s Joe\"

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explain the glorious fight to come. And then we’ll hear
from Buddy Hill, what really happened in the mills.

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Head realistically right into the
challenge zone where the game will be

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won or lost, productivity. Our productivity
committees will move to a new level of effectiveness.

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Yes, but even before that, we have each got to
excel over our individual foreign competition

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on an individual basis.
Personal excellence,

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and that’s part of a counterattack
we can each start now,

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one on one defense. This is a showdown.

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They even showed picture of a Japanese steel
working run backs and forth and doing his job,

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you know, and, and the guys, all
got concerned about the job.

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You know, it says, hey, we better do something or they win
out. And they really… They really can’t concern about…

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So they started really doing a hustling,
really running here and there

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and trying to produce (inaudible) and they
wrench a point where they were making

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the (inaudible) was too much money and they
are coming with a difference in a plan

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and says that, cut the earning down
to about… Well, they only worked from

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200 down to about 100, so 120,
you know, 80 ducks of paying,

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they never cut. And they used some
clauses in a contract which said that,

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\"If they make a change in a condition
in a mill, then improve productivity.\"

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They can have the right to make and change in a
incentive plan, to reflect their change in a mill.

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You know, the company has a suggestion program.
In any suggestion, that you can come up with,

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you know, you can write it down on a
piece of paper and you send it in.

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So this guy, they claim.
Because of his suggestion,

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they will be able to run more steel and it was just
a light. In the equipment? Yeah, it was a light.

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A little light like a flash bulb light.
You know, and it come on

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and they put it on a control that tell
you about some speeds on the mill.

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In which, some of the people, lack called technicians, and
the mechanical technicians says, it was there to start with

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but they just didn’t utilize it. They had a gauge instead
of a light. But the company was looking for a way out.

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Yes, man, the guy got $10,000 for this
suggestion. It’s the highest you can get

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and he got the highest you can get.
And that individual was happy,

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but, like I said before they, they made it back in
three pay days, four day days because you take any

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uh… the $100 of each employee you wanted,

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they got it all back pretty quick. They got it back and then
they still reap in the benefits from, from years to come.

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The guys in the Parma field, you
know, they, working attorney UNISES.

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You know, if had been back years ago, they would
say, well, you either give that money back

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or we’re gonna strike, but union have grievance and
you wait, and you wait and you’re losing money.

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You know, you’re losing. And he’s waiting for
that money and waiting for something to be done

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and it takes years to go through the grievance
procedure and to finally to the arbitration.

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We have all heard of similar events at other plants.
Increased productivity results in less pay for the worker

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and greater profits for the company. Not
only does it throw workers out of work,

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but it means, those of us left are forced to
work even harder in more hazardous conditions.

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This whole productivity drive is a hoax to divide
the workers and keep us from demanding our share.

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Listen to this pitch in the company’s film.

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That renders down to squaring
off in a man to man showdown,

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manager versus manager, skill versus skill,

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head to head, it’s a one on one
defense, it’s a personal matter.

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Present benefits are secured
by our 1971 Labor Contract.

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There’s no backing off from these on the basis
of productivity, but we must look to the future.

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And the future looks bleak if the collaboration behind
their film and the No Strike pact is successful.

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The fact is, workers are suffering
under the 1971 contract.

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Accidents have increased dramatically,
up 25% in the first quarter of 1972.

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Joint productivity committees
have been used to combine jobs,

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cut crews, and reevaluate incentives
downward. Hear what workers and their wives

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have to say about working under the present
contract. There’s more accidents now

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and they never were in lot of
this do the productivity thing,

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were they pushing the guy harder. They are… They are getting…
Trying to get all they can get with the equipment and,

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and you are a piece of the
machinery to the company

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and they don’t care and so they push
you harder to it. He says he’s tired.

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He says things were bad. He says uh… the
foreman is, telling him to work harder.

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And everyday when he’s gone, since his
friend of his was killed, I’m scared.

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Because I know that uh… it’s
not safe where he’s working.

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I put a life and we can’t see. They continue to
uh… bring contractors in heavily in the mills

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to take the place of steel
workers that work for less

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than contractors do and they
still do this real heavily.

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And at the same time, they, they are crying
that the cluster, you know, too high,

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they can’t keep going, you know. And I think it’s all part of
a program to go ahead and, and have people who want to work,

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you know, harder and put out more, you
know, and forget about conditions that,

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you know, to make things in
the mills better, you know.

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That brings us down to squaring
off in a man to man showdown,

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manager versus manager, skill versus skill,

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head to head. It’s a one on one defense.
It’s a personal matter.

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They gonna get to you and get,
you know, mad at, at the…

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The German steelworker, the
Japanese in, you get mad at him

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and you work harder. Thank you, in a competition
with him and the company gonna repay.

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And here get nothing. You know,
he going to get nothing and…

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They do it with the turns. They get one turn
against the other one. They turn to say,

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we produced X number of tons and the other
turns, I’m good as they are, I’m producing.

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And this is what they try to do on a wide
scale. They try to get you as a individual,

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worker competing with housing or
Joe Moa owing the other place,

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you know, and… then the
guys don’t think, you know.

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They, they tuck it. My
superintendent Cohen,

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Cohen phrased during this. Where’s Joe
movie even town we beaten, you know,

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Japanese in World War II and we’ll beat them now, you know. And that was
his battle cry, but he didn’t show himself after they cut and send it for…

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If the company can trick us

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into struggling against the foreign workers, they think, they
can succeed in their plot to take away our basic rights.

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Management has always tried to set workers of different
races and nationalities against one another,

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to keep us weak and divided. As we begin
to unite in the mills here at home,

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it becomes harder for companies to use this
tactic against us. So they try to set us

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against our fellow workers in
foreign lands. Listen to this.

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They know the rewards for upper grants and
they are ought to win with knowledge,

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team work, muscle,

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high skill, precision,
elimination of voice,

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care of equipment,

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avoidance of breakdown, quality,
on the job attendance records,

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strategy,

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the same place are own productivity
committees are working on.

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Sure, foreign management is up to the same tricks.
They are also trying to get increased productivity

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to maximize their profits at the expense
of the workers. The real worldwide contest

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is between workers everywhere
and management everywhere.

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The rewards are up for grabs and workers will get our share
only if we stick together behind the right to strike.

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Listen to the ‘Where’s Joe’ film try
and make us believe that because

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foreign workers work harder, they have taken
over from American production on all fronts.”

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Their ambitions were bigger than we once knew. Today there
was no mistake what so ever. They are after the lion share.

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And they’re going to use our historic
national technique rising productivity,

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to put us right out of big leagues.

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And this sounds like something simply could
not happen to a major American industry.

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However take radio…

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Oh, yeah. We… we didn’t see it happening, it started
so slow you see, then faster, then all of a sudden

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and you wouldn’t believe, but 9
out of 10 radios sold in the US

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were foreign made. Well,
fortunately I was able to,

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you know, get put earlier and so that I could get a new
start. I wanna tell you, I’ve got a great thing going here.

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Refinishing an antiques. But I was really something
else how fast that thing hit us. They took over.

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Who took over?

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A large portion of consumer imports are not produced by
foreign companies, they are produced by American corporations

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who build factories overseas so they
can exploit cheap, non union labor.

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The American corporations are making huge profits off
this cheap labor, while American workers are unemployed.

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And then they have the nerve to
tell consumers to buy American.

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If they care so much, why don’t
they produce the goods here?

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In recent years, US corporations have opened plants
overseas to produce shoes, sporting goods, sewing machines,

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textiles, bicycles, and many other
products. Take the example of radio.

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The antique finisher hadn’t really
been told what happened to his job.

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If he works for GE, his foreign
replacement is still working for GE,

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in one of it’s runaway plants in Singapore,
Hong Kong, or just across the Mexican border.

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Between 1965 and 1970,
GE’s foreign employment

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increased more then five times as fast as its
American employment. And GE isn’t the only one.

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ITNT has new electronic plants in
England, France, Germany, Portugal,

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and South Africa. We all know
about the auto industry.

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GM makes its Capri in France and its Opal in
Germany. Chrysler has its Colt made in Japan.

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And other models such as the
Pinto are partially produced

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in American-owned factories abroad. These US
corporations abroad have a combined output

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of well over $200 billion which is larger
production than any other country in the world,

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except for the Soviet Union
and the United States itself.

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How many jobs is that worth? American
companies have taken our jobs

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and given them to the foreign workers
in their search for easy profits.

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The plot to take away our right to strike is an attempt to
create the same cheap labor conditions in this country.

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We are all familiar with their scare tactics
about foreign workers. Remember in their movie,

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how they tried to blame the lack of jobs
in steel on the hedge buying cycle.

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Foreign steel people turned our barkening
cycle into a three year rollercoaster.

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But it’s not amusement park.

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This ferny craise of steel consumers,

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the stock pile on metal and
anticipation of a strike

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posses the serious problem to all concerned.
Foreign producers of steel have discovered

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that this is an opportune time
to sell extra millions of tons

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to consumers here to build a large supply.

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The hedge buying that always takes place,

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during our negotiations creates
an artificial demand for steel.

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Thus result the companies here accelerate production
and foreign steel makers find new markets

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for great amounts of metal that ordinarily
would be made by their own members.

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The results of this are tragic.

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In my judgment we must find a way to
bargain ought our contractual differences,

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peacefully and satisfactorily.

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You know, I was talk about the hedge buying and
building up the uh… stock piling and so on.

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It kind of you know, reminds me to… when
we first started out in this union,

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we use to have one year contracts and
they uh… wasn’t possible to hedge buy.

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It wasn’t to build up any stock piling, and then
we went along and we got two year contracts

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with the one year wage we open. We could still go out
on strike at the end of a year and that wasn’t too bad.

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And then maneuver us into
this three years deal

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where they got of time to stock pile, plenty of
time. They created this situation of hedge buying.

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And then they want of… they
want us to get them out of it.

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You know, they shouldn’t, we’ve never
resisted the company’s increase production by

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for us doing over time and
all of the production units,

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we’ve never resisted over compulsory
overtime during this period

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which permitted the company to over produce for a
period of six to eight months prior to a negotiations

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and the… and put us into this situation

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where uh… we haven’t the full
force of our economic advantage

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because the company is saying uh… we’ve got all this stuff
stock piling, we don’t care if you go out on strike

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and we can absorb this stuff and we can
keep you out for a longer period of time.

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Uh… Now we are in a situation
for the first time

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where it is impossible for the company
to uh… put us in this kind of position

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because of the uh…

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need for the production this year,
they are unable to overproduce,

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they’re utilizing all of the production
facilities and they can’t over produce,

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this would be our opportunity to really uh…
change the situation and get some of the things

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that we need and now we’re told
that we can’t use that opportunity

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now all of a sudden, we don’t
even have the right to strike.

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I.W. Abel seems to buy the line the company is pushing, but
we know better and so do the steel companies themselves.

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Father W.T. Hogan of Fordham University,
the company’s own acknowledged expert

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indicates in his book, ‘The
1970s, Critical Years for Steel’

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that hedge buying or no hedge buying there will
continue to be a percentage of foreign imports.

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But US steel companies can’t
sell what they don’t make.

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And if US companies don’t modernize and increase
capacity by 30%, you and I will be out of a job.

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Of course, even with this new
technology and increased capacity,

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we could be out of a job if we don’t have the right to strike.
As we have seen with the recent productivity agreements,

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only with the right to strike can
we be sure that we get our share

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of the benefits of modernization. Without the right to
strike, there will be no 30 hour week for 40 hours pay.

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Without the right to strike,
there will be no job protection.

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Without the right to strike, there will be
no protection from increased accidents.

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Okay, we know the hedge buying cycle is a fraudulent
scare tactic, but if I.W. Abel really cared

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about the hedge buying cycle, he could
always use the tactic that other unions do

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in their negotiations. What about selective
strikes on a company-by-company basis

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like the auto industry? What about one-year
contracts? These are only a few of the things

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that could be done. But if we steel workers
give up our basic right to strike,

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nothing can be done. We’ve not been fooled,
and are not going to let I.W. Abel

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give away our only protection in the critical years
ahead. We are fighting now to save the right to strike.

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(inaudible).

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[sil.]