The McCall oil workers and supporters keep up the ULP picket line through the freezing weather.
by Marcy Rein
At 12:01 a.m. Dec. 5 the workers from McCall Oil and Chemical in Portland walked off the job, with the beat of the No War Drum Corps filling the freezing night and nearly 100 people rallying to buoy their unfair labor practice strike.
Those supporters helped keep at least 15 people on the picket line throughout the 36 hours the workers stayed out to protest McCall’s refusal to bargain a first contract. McCall’s 10 operators and one maintenance man voted unanimously to join the IBU March 8, 2005.
"One hundred percent of us have been along for this ride," bargaining team member Vicky Wintheiser said. "This is a company that does not want to deal with us. They legally have to now and they still don’t."
Over the last nine months, the company met with the workers just 11 times to discuss the contract—and threw the union bargaining team out of one of those. It claimed it didn’t have to put issues in writing and refused to look at the union’s counterproposals. It refused the union’s request to go to federal mediation and broke off talks, telling the union it had made its last, best and final offer.
"Their favorite comments at the table were, ‘We’re not going to discuss this,’ and ‘We never asked for this,’" bargaining team member Charlie Finger said.
McCall’s behavior moved the IBU to file charges with the National Labor Relations Board. After a careful investigation, the Board issued a complaint Nov. 15, saying the company "failed and refused to collectively bargain with the union."
The workers say the company’s refusal to bargain reflected the same attitudes that drove them to organize. They handle ship fuel, diesel and asphalt, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. They fuel barges and tugs, many crewed by other IBU members. They unload hot asphalt from rail cars, mix it to customers’ specifications, then load it in trucks. This work requires knowledge and experience, and can be hazardous, but McCall’s management shows no respect.
"They dismiss safety as an annoyance," Wintheiser said, and routinely yell, scream and bully the workers. "This company is the exact reason unions exist."
On the line, Wintheiser and her co-workers saw another reason to be union. Members of ILWU warehouse, retail and allied Local 5, longshore Local 8, marine clerks’ Local 40 and longshore Local 21 from Longview walked with them. So did ILWU pensioners and members of Jobs with Justice, SEIU, AFSCME, the Teamsters and the Carpenters. The IBU set up a regular schedule to bolster the line.
"People turned down overtime and didn’t take work calls so they could be there," said IBU Columbia River Patrolman Mike Conradi. IBU crews on Sause Bros. tugs didn’t fuel up at McCall till the picket came down. Teamster truck drivers and railroad workers (members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, now merged with IBT) also honored the line, so trucks didn’t fuel up and trains didn’t drop off at McCall.
Solidarity literally kept people warm on the line. Local 5 brought a Weber grill and Local 8 members donated the firewood to burn in it, as well as a propane heater.
"I’ve been on strike many times and never seen this kind of support, not only from the ILWU and the IBU but from people in the community," IBU Columbia River Region Executive Board member Joe Maresh said. "Jobs with Justice put a lot of people out there."
Any kind of picketing takes determination, Finger said, but the round-the-clock line had some special challenges.
"In the middle of the night it can get a little daunting," Finger said. "But trucks come by and people honk so that buoys up your spirits. Up the road [from McCall] is the dump and the transfer station. Lots of ordinary Joes drive by. It’s an industrial area."
McCall brought in three scabs the first night, hired six extra security guards and kept security cameras trained on the workers. Still, all the workers stayed out until noon Dec. 6.
Some 40 people gathered for a back-to-work rally, Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain among them. The people scheduled to work at noon walked back in without incident, except for some sour words from the sales manager.
During the strike, McCall signaled it would be ready to sit down again. The NLRB hearing on the complaint is set to begin March 7. And ILWU members in the Portland area took another step together.
"The McCall workers walked off their job, and that takes a lot of courage and a lot of faith," Conradi said. "The group out there with them helped supply the courage. It really reaffirmed my faith in us all."
