On Monday's Rick Smith Show, I invited Jim Savage United Steelworker local 10-1 president from Philadelphia to talk about the ongoing oil workers strike. The strike is in its 16th day, and surprise, surprise, the strike isn't about pay. Listen to Jim Savage explain that this strike is about the health and welfare of the workers and the communities in which they are working.
Here is a short transcript of the interview.
Rick Smith Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show. So it's day 16 of the nationwide strike, and it should be called the "Strike for Safety" because every person that I talk to says "look, this is about making sure things don't go boom." And look, we spent during our people's tour of America, when we were doing our cross country labor history tour, we stopped in West, Texas. And I stood on the ground where there was a 93 foot around, 10 feet deep hole in the ground because the company was holding thirty thousand tons of ammonium nitrate in wooden boxes in a wooden shed in Texas heat with no sprinkler system. What could possibly go wrong?
When it went "boom" there's tons of pictures that showed what happened when it boom. And I remember standing on that ground looking at the school that the whole backside of it was blown out. Looking at the nursing home across the street, the whole corner of it was gone. The houses throughout the whole neighborhood, gone. And when the Attorney General of Texas said "well, we don't need regulations. If you want to know what's in there, just go knock on the door and ask."
I don't get a warm, fuzzy, feeling about that. I have to tell you if I have one of these plants in my area, I want to make sure it is safe, and the best way to do that is at the workplace. So for me, this strike is extremely important. Not to just keep the workers safe, but to keep the community safe. Here to talk about the strike and what's going on, I asked Jim Savage, he's the president of United Steelworkers local 10-1 down in the Philadelphia area. Jim, thanks for taking time for us.
Jim Savage Thanks for having me on Rick.
RS So I look at this, and for me, the reason why I find this interesting and important is this is just not about the workers. I think it's about the communities as well.
JS It absolutely is. Absolutely is. Ultimately, whatever permits or licenses the companies get, the true license to operate comes from the communities in which we operate.
RS And maybe you don't have an illegal amount of something that shouldn't be stored in a much better way than 30 tons, 60,000 pounds, of ammonium nitrate in wooden boxes, in a wooden shed with no sprinkler system.
I got to think if you had a union at that place, and I've asked this before to people, you got to think that the workers would have gone "you know there's wrong with that. Maybe we should sit at the bargaining table, and talk about it."
JS Absolutely. There certainlty isn't anything that flagrant going on in any union refinereis. What problems we do see, we tried for several rounds to get them addressed. Nothing but broken promises from this industry. We got tired of that. Said "enough is enough," and here we are.
RS Walk me through this. Day 16. How did this all start?
JS Our three year agreement was coming up on Feburary 1st. Every local sent delegates to a conference back in October and we had a serious discussion. 300 people and we approved a very lean, what we thought was reasonable and achievable, agenda. And it was completely focused on the health and safety of our members and the communities in which we operate. That's fatigue. Workers fatigue. Staffing, which is tied into the fatigue. Contracting of work and training of our maintenance personnel, and our health care costs. That was really the big issues. Typically we go in there 12 or 15 different proposals. We went in there with 4 proposals this time. We're satisfied. This is not about economics. If we can fix the rest of the stuff, we can get some gains. Get some promises. Some enforceable language from this industry on the health and safety stuff. We'll figure the economics out....
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