uswlocal12-6.org Blog

For some reason when it comes to union matters many conservatives feel that their precious free market society shouldn’t apply to workers banding together to get the best working conditions possible.  Many feel that it’s ok to make your best deal one on one but workers should not gather together to wield real power.  I don’t care what union it is, the one thing collective bargaining agreements have in common is they are negotiated by both parties and are ratified by the union’s respective membership.  No harm no foul,  sometimes management ends up with the better deal and other times the members do.  The bottom line is nobody holds a gun to either sides head to sign the agreement, it is an agreed upon contract.  The sooner people quit blaming unions for the ills of our economic downturn the sooner we will get to the real solutions of this mess.  The UAW has been hammered and blamed for the auto industry’s current mess, when in actuality, the UAW has probably given more in concessions over the decades than most unions.  Don’t blame the UAW for the mess corporate greed has sown.  

Along with the improvements to our current wage and benefits package here are a few other things that have been accomplished over the years.  The union was able to negotiate with the company during the Chevron/Texaco merger to allow those that were nearing retirement to separate from the company and partake in Texaco’s Change of Control provision of the Texaco White Book.  These negotiations allowed younger employees to stay with the company.  When Shell wanted to close the Rosedale refinery, the union worked with elected officials to convince Shell to sell the refinery to Flying J thus keeping the employees of the refinery employed.  Unfortunately, Flying J changed to Big West and screwed up a functioning and profitable business, and now the union is trying to keep the door open for a new contract with whoever buys the refinery.  In 2004 Chevron decided to layoff some 39 field employees; however, through intense negotiations that number was lowered to 14.  Even though it was  disappointing it was definately better than what was originally proposed by the company.  Currently the International Longshoreman’s Union is embattled with Rio Tinto in Boron, Ca. over a company lockout.  As Rio Tinto continues to choke the life out of this desert community under the guise of needing the “flexibility to compete globally” the union will do the best job it can to hold onto the dignity and well-being of their members.  Unions will continue to provide workers with the power needed to balance the scales in the management/labor relationship, but always remember the union is only as good as its membership.  Support your union by becoming a member and buying products made in the USA by union labor.

I would like to take this time to thank our retiring USW staff rep Saul McGarity.  Saul did a great job in the difficult economic and social times we are currently experiencing.  He helped negotiate a new contract in 2009 and was involved in many negotiations at the Statewide level.  Saul took great pride in representing USW members and Local 12-6 wishes him a long and happy retirement.

The economy needed a catalyst to help get us out of the doldrums of the derailed internet bubble.  Real estate came to the fore since nothing says, “ wow, we have a great economy” like the availability and affordability of single family dwellings.  It seemed like a good idea.  What was needed for things to get going were financial tools aka new mortgage options.

The options included zero down with interest only loans, adjustable rate mortgages, and we also have to remember interest rates were at historically low levels.  These gave many folks the opportunity to get a home of their own.  The government was on board and pushed financial institutions to help those that wouldn’t normally qualify for a home loan through a number of government backed programs.  The real estate market was catching fire. 

People were taking loans that in years past would seem ludicrous, such as interest only loans.  How did these loans make sense.  The market was feeding on itself.  Because the value of houses were going up so fast that the equity was increasing fast enough to make these loans work, and supply was unable to meet demand.  It was all working so well; people were being told to take the equity out of their homes and many did exactly that.

The credit market was going crazy.   The influx of participants with their pockets full of cash was pumping up most sectors.  The stock market was good, builders, banks, and retailers of all types had hit the mother load.  Flipping houses became the new American past time.  Everyone wanted in on the real estate boom and brokers were taking on new agents as fast as they could pass their exams.  The American Dream was available to more of the population than ever before.

It didn’t stop there.  Others wanted in on the fun as well such as insurance companies and retirement funds for example.  How do we get in there?  Real estate derivitives seemed to be a great way of gaining exposure to this market.  Corporations had to keep pace with the market even if they had little to do with real estate.   If they didn’t their stocks would be sold and investors would buy stocks with better performance.  Capitalism was in full effect.  But in reality the whole country was overleveraged.  The government, corporations, banks, and yes the general public were all overleveraged.

It isn’t clear exactly what happened but the credit market began to teeter.  Somehow there were companies and banks getting cold feet and they may have been ready to take their profits off the table, which could have  started a ripple effect.  It became apparent that the housing values may be a little high.  No problem, a little correction could bring things back in line.  But once things started ”correcting” they just kept going.  Home loan seconds were starting to become a burden as the value of homes were not worth as much as previously thought.  Folks were going upside down with no way to refinance their debts.  Real estate derivitives were becoming almost impossible to value as the housing market was slipping and investors were treating these instruments like a hot potato.

So home loans and their seconds were going into default, derivitives are of an unknown value, 401ks are dropping like a rock, builders are still building to meet the now nonexistent demand and home values continue to drop.  It looked as if we were headed for another full-on depression.  President Bush started to pump money into the economy to try to stabalize the markets.  After President Obama was elected he really cranked up the printing press, but in my opinion, he had no choice.  Although most fiscal conservatives believe that the free market should have been left to sort things out, the aftermath of watching countless American businesses and citizens go down for the count would have been a depression none of us would want to see.  We can argue about the continued support the government is providing the markets, but the economy had to be helped, and like it or not Obama made the right decision.

So what’s next?  Has greed the very heart of capitalism, finally become the ultimate enemy of this country?  Are we going to try to compete with third world nations and risk the very real possibility of becoming a third world nation ourselves?   Or are we all just waiting for the next bubble?

I want to say right off the bat that I generally believe in capitalism; however, I believe that capitalism has been manipulated and we are now digesting what we have sown.  During the internet boom of the ’90’s we saw companies that sold virtually no tangible  products increase in stock value to unprecedented levels.  Suddenly companies were discontinuing pensions in favor of 401k plans, and the public was eating them up.  Unions continued to extol the virtues of pensions while many American workers bought into the 401k mystique.  No longer were young men checking out the ball scores, instead they were reading the Wall Street Journal and business sections of their local papers.   President Bush and many conservatives were working on plans to privatize Social Security.  Can you imagine the anguish if this concept had been accepted and placed into our hands.

As the stock market continued to climb to previously unthought of heights, people bathed in the euphoria of economic bliss.  Along with this  windfall, credit limits and the debt that followed also climbed.   Folks did not increase their savings rate much at all, they continued to live high on the hog even if it meant borrowing to do it.  The stock market climbed on speculation and easy credit.  CEOs smiled and our 401ks made us all feel like we could retire tomorrow.  

Then in the early 2000’s the internet bubble and its unsustainable company values burst.  The stock market began to correct and purge itself of companies selling concepts and not products.  However some of these companies with well thought out ideas did make it through the correction.  Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and many others did make it to profitability and emerged as  economic powers while others fell by the wayside along with the Dow and our beloved 401k plans.

Things were looking mighty grim, but then a new bubble began to appear and with it a credit crisis of epic proportions.  The housing and real estate boom was about to save us temporarily from our economic comeupence.  Again the stock market rose on real estate values previously unseen.  Houses in Bakersfield doubled and tripled in value for reasons most of us did not understand; however, many of us started cashing in our equity values and barrowing on them for everything from vacations, cars, and other niceties.  Stay tuned for part 2 soon.

I was listening to the radio today and I heard how bad the health care bill is for America and how government intervention in our lives needs to be stopped.  Let me say that if we are getting our news and opinions from talk show hosts we are in trouble. People, we cannot possibly be properly informed without doing a little research.  Read a book and take the time to go beyond the 10 minute force-fed information of these radio entertainers.  Many of us are being brainwashed by these so called political experts instead of forming our own opinions based on a variety of different sources. 

Let’s get into the government intervention issue.  Conservatives hear this, America is becoming more liberal.  We have the greatest military and we can’t win a war.  Our wars are political wars based on special interests.  We get into these situations and we don’t seem to have a plan or exit strategy, so many Americans see this and decide most of our wars aren’t worth the human costs.  America becomes a little more liberal. 

The last four or five decades have seen corporate America become more and more powerful.  They acquired and merged with smaller companies turning their corporations into megacompanies.  These companies have gotten bigger and with that weild more political power.  The economic crunch of the last couple of years has turned much of the population against corporate America blaming them for much of this economic calamity.  Many folks are desparate and feel they are being squeezed between a rock and a hard place.  In my opinion, people are ready to take a chance on government vs. corporations.  Let me tell you why I don’t believe this will work.  To put it simply, our government is constantly being fed and manipulated by big business and to expect government to bite the hand that feeds it is doubtful.  

Unions have become villians eventhough  in my opinion it is middle America’s best chance to fight this situation.  Unions have made mistakes and many have not done the best job trying sell their message to the masses, but we have to fight big organizations with a big organization.  I don’t see it happening any other way.  Why do you think corporations are fighting the card check thing so hard.  They don’t want any more competition to take away from what many of them are trying to do, which is make more money without giving more to their employees.  In the fifties slaughterhouse workers unionized and turned a very dangerous and low paying job into a well-paid and respected job.  They made a good wage with benefits, pension, and changes to working conditions which made it much safer.  Unfortunately, many of these gains have been turned back.  Ccompanies have used their governmental influence to weaken these unions and turn back the hands of time to the preunion days.  Now slaughterhouses not only abuse their product (animals), they also abuse their employees with the help of  governmental policies. 

So if we want  better wages, safer working conditions, better benefits not paid by the government, and a bigger voice in what happens in our government we need to get organized, and involved in our unions.  Don’t blame unions like we do the government because as a population many of us have given up our voices by not voting or getting involved in the organizations that have the best chance to help us.  Are unions perfect no, but they are only as good as the people involved in them.

                As with most years, 2009 was a very exciting and sometimes sad year. On a national level, America elected its first black President, Michael Jackson died under mysterious circumstances, and the economy continued to struggle to get back on track after many years of poorly controlled credit.

                As far as the union locals of 2-19 and 12-6 are concerned we were able to negotiate new three year deals with Aera and Chevron. The Big West Refinery continues to be in an idled state, with rumors continuing to swirl around its future. This is an important issue as they contributed many members to local 2-19.

                After the ’09 contract negotiations, we saw Chevron HR rep Kim Mudford transfer out of the area and was replaced by two newer HR reps. after some definite growing pains both of these reps have quit the company and have been replaced by Dave Reed. Chevron also added HR rep Matt Legg to the mix as Mr. Reed’s boss. We have had a better relationship since these changes were made and are hopeful going forward for continued successful negotiations. The years ahead will bring many changes as many members are closing in on retirement and the younger employees will take the lead in field operations. We will see many negotiations between the USW and the oil companies in the future to usher in these changes.

                On a sadder note, Chevron statewide committee member Mr. Steve Audap took an early retirement due to health issues. We also lost members of the 12-6 family in Jim Barraza and Rodney Stigall to failing health and Dan Brockett was killed in a motorcycle accident.

                 I want to say how important it is for the newer employees to take an interest in the union/company relationship, because like it or not it is going to be left in your hands to take care of your future workplace concerns. We do have some newer union reps that have been elected to various committees and positions within both locals and are doing a great job. Any employee wanting to get involved should speak with a current rep or better yet join us at the local 12-6 membership meeting held the second Tuesday of every month at the Taft union hall.

                It is my hope to continue to update the local 12-6 website on a regular basis, as I am burning to get some things off of my chest concerning union, political, health, sports, social, business, and a myriad of other issues and remember the comments written in this blog are not necessarily the views of local 12-6 or the USW. I would like to ask members to watch a movie I saw over the holiday season entitled Foods Inc. I will be burning on some of the topics brought up in this movie. And your comments are always welcome through this website.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author and are not necessarily those of USW Local 12-6 or USW International