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13 September, 2011Organizing new workers is never easy but in the United States it's tougher than most places. Participants at an Alcoa Global Unions meeting got to experience first- hand the challenges facing the US unions. The attendees from unions in Australia, Canada, Iceland, Brazil, Suriname, and United Kingdom, took part in an organizing drive assisting the United Steelworkers (USW) as part of their activities. The target company Traco is a subsidiary of Alcoa and employs around 450 workers. Incidentally "Here we go again" was the title of union busting materials Alcoa used in one of its plants and seems apt to use during this organizing drive.
Preparations begin the day before with a run through on some of the scenarios that may happen when the group arrives at the plant. The main message is that things can turn nasty and it's important that everyone respects the law, avoids a conflict and has contact numbers in case of a problem. It's a pretty large group of around 50 so no-one is quite sure how the company will react.
The following morning at 4:15am as we gather outside the hotel, it is pretty dark and cold but everywhere you look you can see the yellow USW logo being worn. The plants about a 30 minute drive in Cranberry, and we gather in a car park behind the plant. The plan is for a few Alcoa employees that are already USW members at other sites to go first and then the rest of the group after. Legally the Alcoa employees should have the right to access the car park but it is not clear this will be the case. When we arrive security is already present along with the plant manager and others.
The management will not allow access to the car park so we stand around the outside the plant and leaflet the morning shift. One manager is intent on forcing us to stand on the public highway despite the heavy traffic passing by-he keeps saying if we put one foot on the company property he will call the police. A stand-off between us and security continues for a couple of hours as we hand out materials to as many workers as possible. One female worker walks over and explains that it is her last day. She says there is a real buzz in the plant about the union being there but workers are afraid to be seen talking with us-she takes a hand- full of leaflets back with her. Once the shift change is over we return to the USW Headquarters but this will be the first off many visits for USW activists.
Liam O'Brien National Organizer at the Australian Workers Union, who participated at the Alcoa Global Unions meeting, explains "Union growth is the most important strategy in Alcoa, building density and visibility is our priority".