Striking workers talk about working conditions that led to a walkout in…
Where's I. W. Abel?
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Made by Kartemquin and a rank-and-file steel workers caucus, the film documents the opposition of the rank-and-file to the no-strike agreement between Steelworkers President I.W. Abel and the ten major steel companies, made without a vote by the membership of the union. Featuring Staughton Lynd.
Citation
Main credits
Quinn, Gordon (Producer)
Quinn, Gordon (Director)
Quinn, Gordon (Film editor)
Cooper, Vicki (Producer)
Schmeichen, Richard (Film editor)
Morrissette, Jim (Film editor)
Other credits
Sound, Jerry Blumenthal, Richard Schmeichen; editors, Richard Schmeichen, Jim Morrissette, Gordon Quinn.
Distributor subjects
Economics; Labor Studies; Politics; U.S. History; Film History; Documentaries; Social StudiesKeywords
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.
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
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,
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
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
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
and you work harder. Thank you, in a competition
with him and the company gonna repay.
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
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,
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
we produced X number of tons and the other
turns, I’m good as they are, I’m producing.
00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
And this is what they try to do on a wide
scale. They try to get you as a individual,
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
worker competing with housing or
Joe Moa owing the other place,
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
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…
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
If the company can trick us
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
into struggling against the foreign workers, they think, they
can succeed in their plot to take away our basic rights.
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
Management has always tried to set workers of different
races and nationalities against one another,
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
to keep us weak and divided. As we begin
to unite in the mills here at home,
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
it becomes harder for companies to use this
tactic against us. So they try to set us
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
against our fellow workers in
foreign lands. Listen to this.
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
They know the rewards for upper grants and
they are ought to win with knowledge,
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
team work, muscle,
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
high skill, precision,
elimination of voice,
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
care of equipment,
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
avoidance of breakdown, quality,
on the job attendance records,
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
strategy,
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
the same place are own productivity
committees are working on.
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
Sure, foreign management is up to the same tricks.
They are also trying to get increased productivity
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
to maximize their profits at the expense
of the workers. The real worldwide contest
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
is between workers everywhere
and management everywhere.
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
The rewards are up for grabs and workers will get our share
only if we stick together behind the right to strike.
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
Listen to the ‘Where’s Joe’ film try
and make us believe that because
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
foreign workers work harder, they have taken
over from American production on all fronts.”
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
Their ambitions were bigger than we once knew. Today there
was no mistake what so ever. They are after the lion share.
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
And they’re going to use our historic
national technique rising productivity,
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
to put us right out of big leagues.
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
And this sounds like something simply could
not happen to a major American industry.
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
However take radio…
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
Oh, yeah. We… we didn’t see it happening, it started
so slow you see, then faster, then all of a sudden
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
and you wouldn’t believe, but 9
out of 10 radios sold in the US
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
were foreign made. Well,
fortunately I was able to,
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
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.
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
Refinishing an antiques. But I was really something
else how fast that thing hit us. They took over.
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
Who took over?
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
A large portion of consumer imports are not produced by
foreign companies, they are produced by American corporations
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
who build factories overseas so they
can exploit cheap, non union labor.
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
The American corporations are making huge profits off
this cheap labor, while American workers are unemployed.
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
And then they have the nerve to
tell consumers to buy American.
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
If they care so much, why don’t
they produce the goods here?
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
In recent years, US corporations have opened plants
overseas to produce shoes, sporting goods, sewing machines,
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
textiles, bicycles, and many other
products. Take the example of radio.
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
The antique finisher hadn’t really
been told what happened to his job.
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
If he works for GE, his foreign
replacement is still working for GE,
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
in one of it’s runaway plants in Singapore,
Hong Kong, or just across the Mexican border.
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
Between 1965 and 1970,
GE’s foreign employment
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
increased more then five times as fast as its
American employment. And GE isn’t the only one.
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
ITNT has new electronic plants in
England, France, Germany, Portugal,
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
and South Africa. We all know
about the auto industry.
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
GM makes its Capri in France and its Opal in
Germany. Chrysler has its Colt made in Japan.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
And other models such as the
Pinto are partially produced
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
in American-owned factories abroad. These US
corporations abroad have a combined output
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
of well over $200 billion which is larger
production than any other country in the world,
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
except for the Soviet Union
and the United States itself.
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
How many jobs is that worth? American
companies have taken our jobs
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
and given them to the foreign workers
in their search for easy profits.
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
The plot to take away our right to strike is an attempt to
create the same cheap labor conditions in this country.
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
We are all familiar with their scare tactics
about foreign workers. Remember in their movie,
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
how they tried to blame the lack of jobs
in steel on the hedge buying cycle.
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
Foreign steel people turned our barkening
cycle into a three year rollercoaster.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
But it’s not amusement park.
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
This ferny craise of steel consumers,
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
the stock pile on metal and
anticipation of a strike
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
posses the serious problem to all concerned.
Foreign producers of steel have discovered
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
that this is an opportune time
to sell extra millions of tons
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
to consumers here to build a large supply.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
The hedge buying that always takes place,
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
during our negotiations creates
an artificial demand for steel.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
Thus result the companies here accelerate production
and foreign steel makers find new markets
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
for great amounts of metal that ordinarily
would be made by their own members.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
The results of this are tragic.
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
In my judgment we must find a way to
bargain ought our contractual differences,
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
peacefully and satisfactorily.
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
You know, I was talk about the hedge buying and
building up the uh… stock piling and so on.
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
It kind of you know, reminds me to… when
we first started out in this union,
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
we use to have one year contracts and
they uh… wasn’t possible to hedge buy.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
It wasn’t to build up any stock piling, and then
we went along and we got two year contracts
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
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.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
And then maneuver us into
this three years deal
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
where they got of time to stock pile, plenty of
time. They created this situation of hedge buying.
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
And then they want of… they
want us to get them out of it.
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
You know, they shouldn’t, we’ve never
resisted the company’s increase production by
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
for us doing over time and
all of the production units,
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
we’ve never resisted over compulsory
overtime during this period
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
which permitted the company to over produce for a
period of six to eight months prior to a negotiations
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
and the… and put us into this situation
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
where uh… we haven’t the full
force of our economic advantage
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
because the company is saying uh… we’ve got all this stuff
stock piling, we don’t care if you go out on strike
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
and we can absorb this stuff and we can
keep you out for a longer period of time.
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
Uh… Now we are in a situation
for the first time
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
where it is impossible for the company
to uh… put us in this kind of position
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
because of the uh…
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
need for the production this year,
they are unable to overproduce,
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
they’re utilizing all of the production
facilities and they can’t over produce,
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
this would be our opportunity to really uh…
change the situation and get some of the things
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
that we need and now we’re told
that we can’t use that opportunity
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
now all of a sudden, we don’t
even have the right to strike.
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
I.W. Abel seems to buy the line the company is pushing, but
we know better and so do the steel companies themselves.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
Father W.T. Hogan of Fordham University,
the company’s own acknowledged expert
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
indicates in his book, ‘The
1970s, Critical Years for Steel’
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
that hedge buying or no hedge buying there will
continue to be a percentage of foreign imports.
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
But US steel companies can’t
sell what they don’t make.
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
And if US companies don’t modernize and increase
capacity by 30%, you and I will be out of a job.
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
Of course, even with this new
technology and increased capacity,
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
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,
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
only with the right to strike can
we be sure that we get our share
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
of the benefits of modernization. Without the right to
strike, there will be no 30 hour week for 40 hours pay.
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
Without the right to strike,
there will be no job protection.
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
Without the right to strike, there will be
no protection from increased accidents.
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
Okay, we know the hedge buying cycle is a fraudulent
scare tactic, but if I.W. Abel really cared
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
about the hedge buying cycle, he could
always use the tactic that other unions do
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
in their negotiations. What about selective
strikes on a company-by-company basis
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
like the auto industry? What about one-year
contracts? These are only a few of the things
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
that could be done. But if we steel workers
give up our basic right to strike,
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
nothing can be done. We’ve not been fooled,
and are not going to let I.W. Abel
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
give away our only protection in the critical years
ahead. We are fighting now to save the right to strike.
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:28.000
(inaudible).
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:18.000
[sil.]
Distributor: Kartemquin Films
Length: 45 minutes
Date: 1975
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Closed Captioning: Available
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