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April 26, 2002, 10:50PM 

Workers demand answers

Union challenges insurance policies

By L.M. SIXEL

When Shell offered $10,000 of free life insurance to its refinery and chemical workers six years ago, Alan Barnes says he found it sort of morbid, but signed up anyway. He knew Shell would receive the balance of the value of the life insurance policy, which the company told workers could be as high as $750,000 per person. That's likely much more than a worker would get, but the refinery operator figured at least his family would be $10,000 richer when he died. But now that Barnes is business manager of PACE Local 4-1, which represents workers at Shell Oil and Shell Chemical at Deer Park, he sees the policies in a different light. He and other members of the union are challenging the practice, hoping to collect as much for the survivors of deceased union members as the company collects. The catalyst for this change was a recent court case in Houston that confirmed that Texas law does not permit employers to profit from the deaths of their rank-and-file employees. Barnes sent a letter to Shell executives last week asking for the names of the 13,500 workers who signed up for the insurance, the face value of the policies and who death benefits have been collected on. A Shell spokeswoman responded to questions for this story by saying she couldn't locate any information about the insurance policies. As the obscure Texas law banning this practice becomes common knowledge, more companies are going to be hit with tough questions from employees or their attorneys. Barnes said he is already looking into the possibility of recovering the face value of the insurance policies for the families of deceased operators, maintenance workers and plant hands, a remedy permitted under Texas law. Other union locals are sending out mailings to employers to find out if their members were covered with similar goals in mind. Jim Lefton, international representative for the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union in Houston, has sent letters to 16 local companies, asking whether they have purchased corporate-owned life insurance policies, or COLIs, on the lives of their bargaining unit employees. He also requested all the details, from the policy's face value to the names of the workers involved. Companies have been buying the policies, better known as "dead peasant" insurance, for years because of the income, which is enhanced by tax breaks. While Shell was upfront with workers about the policies, most companies that have such policies do not tell employees their lives have been insured for the company's benefit. The union has a right to ask about the policies under collective bargaining laws, Lefton said. Rose Broome, human resources manager for Agrifos Fertilizer, one of the companies on Lefton's list, said she has received the letter and is working on a response. Another company on the list, Lyondell Citgo Refining, has never had COLI policies on its bargaining unit employees, spokesman David Harpole said. Lawyers representing individual workers also are jumping into action, using the rules of evidence gathering to uncover company-owned life insurance policies. Employment lawyer Joe Ahmad said he has already begun asking every employer he sues whether such a policy exists on his client's life, adding the question to the basic list of employee information he routinely seeks. Byron Buchanan, an employment and personal injury lawyer at Williams & Bailey, said he will begin doing the same for job-related injury and death cases.

 Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

May 1, 2002, 3:34PM 

May Day in the USA: A Forgotten History

by Michael Thomas

Every year on May 1st, for over a century, workers around the world have marked Labor Day with rallies and speeches, picnics and celebrations, demonstrations and riots. Traditionally, these May Day events have provided a primary occasion for workers, especially in Europe, to collectively express their unity, their enthusiasm, and their commitment to social change. Today, the United States stands virtually alone among the industrialized nations in officially ignoring the historical and political significance of May Day for the Labor movement. When Americans do look past the occasional rites of spring, our responses are usually dominated by fearful Cold War images of May Day riots in Europe or tanks and mobile missile-launchers parading before the Kremlin. Few Americans realize that the seemingly foreign celebrations of labor held worldwide on May 1st actually commemorate historical events here in the United States. During the late 19th century, while corporate power was growing at an unprecedented rate, American workers faced a political and legal system that failed to recognize even the most basic rights of workplace safety, community sanitation, and child protection, let alone the right to organize and strike. On May 1st, 1886, the American Federation of Labor declared a national strike to demand an eight-hour work day and 350,000 workers across the country responded. In particular, the city of Chicago was virtually paralyzed; railroads, stockyards, and other businesses were forced to close. Two days later, police fired randomly into crowds of fleeing strikers, killing four and wounding many more. Angry workers began to call for armed retaliation. The next day, when police attempted to disperse a peaceful rally in Haymarket Square, a bomb was tossed into their midst, wounding nearly 70 officers, some mortally. Again firing randomly into the crowd, police wounded another 200 citizens, killing many. With no clues as to the source of the bomb, police arrested eight revolutionary labor leaders, seven of whom had not even been present in Haymarket at the time. In the absence of any evidence linking them to the bomb, the "Chicago Eight" were tried solely on the basis of their political beliefs. All eight were sentenced to death; most were eventually executed. News of the trial electrified labor groups everywhere; protests were held around the world. In 1889, the Socialist International declared May 1st a day of demonstrations, and since 1890 these have been held annually worldwide by a variety of labor movements, in many cases eventually forcing official recognition of the holiday. Soon, labor advocates in the United States, too, pressed for a national holiday recognizing workers. Although by the 1890s, May 1st was already being celebrated as Labor Day in some states, other states celebrated in early September. Proponents of the September date emphasized that this filled a long gap between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving holidays. Presented thus, flanked between patriotic celebrations of national origin and family unity, this Labor Day was obviously attractive to business and government leaders opposed to labor militancy, and had the additional advantage of being as far away as possible from the "subversive" May Day, while still promising good summer weather for outdoor festivities. Thus, the first Monday in September received official recognition. Nevertheless, neither labor militancy nor public interest in May Day celebrations showed any signs of abating. May Day rallies were held, for example, in New York City's Union Square every year since 1924. And soon, the simple displacement of Labor Day was no longer deemed a sufficient tactic; conservatives began renaming May Day itself in an effort to finally erase its unsettling symbolism from the American consciousness. In 1947, amidst the anti-Communist Cold War hysteria, the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars renamed May 1st "Loyalty Day" and a joint session of Congress later made the pronouncement official. Loyalty Day was explicitly designed as a weapon against leftist labor tendencies, and specifically the American Communist Party, by encouraging citizens to reaffirm their commitment to the State. The right of citizens to join legal political parties of their own choosing without harassment was apparently not an American value to be celebrated on this holiday.During the 1950s, Loyalty Day flourished at the expense of traditional May Day events. For example, the Loyalty Day parade in New York City, one of the largest in the nation, was designed to lure citizens away from the long-standing Union Square rallies and to distract attention from the Communist Party march on the same day. Ten years later, however, the association of such parades with support for the American war in Vietnam led to a drastic decline in public participation across the land. Nevertheless, despite this waning interest, these conservative holidays actually succeeded in their objective; for if Loyalty Day has now been all but officially forgotten, so too has the historic significance of May Day.The tragic irony is that this historic memorial to American labor, which continues to inspire workers abroad, has been largely forgotten by workers at home. Mention a Labor Day picnic in May to most people today and they will assume that you have misplaced your calendar. Sadly, what has really been lost, or should I say stolen, is a powerful symbol of the historical struggle by average working Americans for freedom and democracy.OUTQUOTES:Few Americans realize that the seemingly foreign celebrations of labor held worldwide on May 1st actually commemorate historical events here in the United States.In the absence of any evidence linking them to the bomb, the "Chicago Eight" were tried solely on the basis of their political beliefs. All eight were sentenced to death; most were eventually executed. In 1947, amidst the anti-Communist Cold War hysteria, the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars renamed May 1st "Loyalty Day" and a joint session of Congress later made the pronouncement official. Loyalty Day was explicitly designed as a weapon against leftist labor tendencies, and specifically the American Communist Party, by encouraging citizens to reaffirm their commitment to the State.

 Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

Mitsubishi forklift workers vote to join union

By L.M. SIXEL

Employees at Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift of America voted to join the Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local 54 in Houston in a 210 to 198 vote. The National Labor Relations Board supervised last week's election at the company's west Houston plant, which makes and distributes forklifts. This was the Sheet Metal Workers union's first time to try to organize the plant. The employees had rejected two previous organizing attempts by the United Auto Workers. The Mitsubishi Caterpillar employees were upset because they believed they weren't treated with respect, said Linda Morales, project director for the Sheet Metal Workers International Association. They were also frustrated with the way company managers pushed them to produce more forklifts with fewer workers, she said. The production and maintenance employees were also upset because they hadn't had a raise in a couple of years, Morales said, although they received a 2.3 percent raise about two weeks after the organizing campaign began The sanders, decalers and materials handlers earn about $7 an hour, while the mechanics and welders earn about $14 an hour. One of the hurdles of the organizing campaign was that the ethnic makeup of the work force was diverse, Morales said. While there are a predominance of Hispanics and Vietnamese, there were also many Nigerians, Ethiopians, Jamaicans, Bosnians, Russians and African-Americans. Morales said the racially diverse organizing team called themselves the "Mod Squad," referring to the late 1960s television show featuring a groovy trio of young undercover detectives. That way, the organizing team had someone who was part of an employee's own ethnic group available to speak to employees. That built a sense of trust and employees gravitated to the organizers who spoke their language, she said. She said the company ran a campaign that asked employees to give the company another chance before voting in a union. Larry Clore, an employment lawyer with Fulbright & Jaworski who represents Mitsubishi Caterpillar, said he did not want to comment.

May 14, 2002, 6:56PM

Lockout of steelworkers ruled illegal

Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. -- Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.'s 20-month lockout of steelworkers was illegal, an administrative law judge has ruled, ordering the company to "make employees whole for any loss of earnings." It was not clear whether the decision by Judge Michael Stevenson of San Francisco means Houston-based Kaiser will be forced to pay up to $200 million in back wages and benefits. Kaiser spokesman Scott Lamb in Houston said the company disagrees with the ruling and will "vigorously appeal" the decision. Stevenson's order did not fix an amount of wages and benefits owed locked-out workers or say how many workers would be eligible, said Veronica Clements, an attorney at the National Labor Relations Board's Oakland, Calif., office. The 66-page decision is a recommended order for the full board in Washington, D.C., which could reject, modify or accept it, she said. A complaint filed by the board in July 2000 contended Kaiser failed to bargain in good faith with the United Steelworkers of America. Kaiser locked out union employees at five plants in Washington, Louisiana and Ohio after a September 1998 walkout. The labor dispute ended in November 2000, when a new five-year agreement was signed. Shortly after the employees went back to work, Kaiser shut down much of its aluminum production in the Northwest and sold surplus electricity in a tight energy market. The union expects the eventual award to be the largest award in the history of the NLRB, steelworkers official David Foster said Tuesday.