Less than a week after they ratified their first contract, three workers from Oxbow Carbon and Mineral jetted up to the ILWU International Convention. They stood front and center, loud and proud, at the action backing the Blue Diamond workers: Jose Villegas (second from left in front), Chuy Guzman to his right, and Alex Galvan behind Guzman.

“We want to share our experience,” Guzman said. “We want people to know this is positive.”

The contract the Oxbow workers signed July 13 as members of ILWU Local 13A gives them a $10 per hour wage increase over two years and a fully paid Kaiser health plan. They have two new holidays and four personal days plus two weeks’ vacation. 

“But the biggest thing you can’t put a price on,” Galvan said. “It’s recognition and respect. Management looks us in the eye now.”

The workers made their gains by acting like a union at the table and on the job. They buttoned up and stickered up and walked off the job for three informational pickets. When Galvan got called into the office, eight guys followed behind him. When Oxbow tried to fire one of the guys, they got his job back. And when Oxbow stalled and crawled in negotiations, they took a strike vote. It came down 31 to zero. Ten days later they had a tentative agreement.

—MER