West Coast Dock Strike Settles–Just in Time for Oil
Refinery Strike
by Chriss W. Street 22 Feb 2015Newport Beach, CA
With the West Coast ports labor dispute involving 13,600 unionized dockworkers inflicting
pain on 318 million Americans by causing billions of dollars a day in losses to
the U.S. economy settling yesterday, now 30,000 unionized refinery workers
across America intend to play the same leverage game by cutting off two-thirds
of all U.S. diesel and gasoline supplies.
Just after US Labor Secretary
Tom Perez took to the television circuit
to tout how the Obama
Administration believes the US
economy can “recover quickly” from the nine months-long port turmoil, the United Steel
Workers (USW) launched the first nationwide oil refinery strike in
35 years, which will drastically reduce fuel supplies to ships, trucks and
railroads trying to clear the docks and relieve bottled-up American supply chains.
The USW represents workers at 65 refineries that produce
about 64 percent of US
petroleum-based fuel production. A union spokesman said the USW expanded a
strike that started at a couple of refineries in Texas and California, because
the industry refused to “meaningfully address” safety issues through good-faith
bargaining. But the real issue is who pays the Obamacare “Cadillac Tax”
on “gold-plated” health plans.
Breitbart News, in “Cal Fruits and Crops Rotting
at West Coast Ports In Union Fight,” chronicled how the labor
slowdown at the 29 West Coast ports
between employers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association and members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union,
whose members command average wages and benefits of about $1,200 a day, was causing $2 billion a day in economic
damage to the U.S. economy and letting about one third of West Coast
agricultural exports rot.
The labor dispute was settled with the ILWU signing a five
year contract that included maintenance of nearly no-cost health coverage, an
$11,000 increase in maximum pension benefit to $91,000 a year, and a
$1-per-hour wage increase over each of the five years. Perhaps the most
egregious element of the new contract is that despite fighting for the rest of
America to be forced into Obamacare, ILWU members negotiated that employers will
have to pay the approximately $11,000 Obamacare “Cadillac Tax” on the ILWU’s $40,000 a
year “gold-plated” health insurance plan.
The USW appears to be timing its shut-down to leverage the
built up port turmoil that was expected to take up to two months and tons of
overtime to clear. The USW struck 15 plants, covering about 6,550 union
members, on February 1 when it rejected a new three-year contract negotiated
with employers represented by Shell Oil Co.
BP spokesman Scott Dean told the Chicago
Post-Tribune that USW employees are among the highest paid hourly workers
in the midwest. “The average BP USW employee earns more than $82,000 a year
in base salary. This does not include overtime, bonuses, company retirement
contributions or other benefits, which on average adds well in excess of
$20,000 to the total annual compensation package for the average BP USW
employee.”
Worker duties at the
highly automated plants are to minimize process interruptions by 1) anticipate
machinery malfunctions and develop contingency plans; 2) conduct process
control; and 3) ensure smooth refinery operations through efficient use of
equipment.
Jim Savage, leader of United Steelworkers Local 10-1 at an
oil refinery in south Philadelphia, told the Washington
Post: “We picked a fight with the wealthiest, most powerful people in the
history of the world. So we’re either very courageous, or the stupidest people
walking.”
The union said it expanded a strike that started February 1
at six refineries, including the Tesoro California plants
in Carson, Benicia and Martinez, because the industry refused to “meaningfully
address” safety issues through “good-faith bargaining.”
“Safety issues” is usually union code for increasing staff
levels and eliminating non-union contractors that do daily maintenance work.
But the USW refinery workers, like ILWU dock workers, are also part of the 26 million American workers in
multi-employer health plans who are subject to the Obamacare “Cadillac Tax”
on “gold-plated” health insurance plans.
It is difficult to project how long it will take before the
strike will start restricting fuel supplies, but prices are already moving up.
As companies begin to start hoarding fuel stocks, the 30,000 USW refinery
workers will start causing billions of dollars a day in economic damage to the
U.S. economy–and perishable crops will again rot.
Obamacare
Obamacare is Barack Obama’s signature policy
initiative.
Note:
CGI Group Inc.
was the Obamacare contractor that
developed Healthcare.gov web site.
Donna S. Morea
was the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.,
and a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, the Economic Policy Institute, the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
George
P. Shultz was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
William E.
Brock III was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Ray
Marshall was the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Labor, and is a director at the Economic Policy Institute.
Alexis
M. Herman was the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Labor, and is a director at the Economic Policy Institute.
Robert B. Reich
was the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Labor, and is a director at the Economic Policy Institute.
Leo
W. Gerard is a director at the Economic
Policy Institute, and the president of the United Steelworkers of America (USW).
Mary Kay Henry is
a director at the Economic Policy
Institute, and the president of the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU).
Anna
Burger is a director at the Economic
Policy Institute, and was the secretary-treasurer for the Service Employees International Union
(SEIU).
Turner
Pollard Strategies, LLC was the lobby firm for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and is the lobby firm
for the International Longshoremen's
Association.
Jennifer
Cunningham was the political director, Local 1199 for the Service Employees International Union
(SEIU), and is a managing director at SKDKnickerbocker.
TransCanada
Corporation is a SKDKnickerbocker
client, and the proposed builder for the Keystone
XL pipeline.
Jill
Zuckman is a managing director at SKDKnickerbocker,
and was an assistant to the secretary for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Kathryn B.
Thomson is the general counsel for the U.S.
Department of Transportation, married to Christopher P. Lu, and was a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.
Maritime
Administration is a division of the U.S.
Department of Transportation.
Christopher P. Lu
is married to Kathryn B. Thomson, the
deputy secretary for the U.S. Department
of Labor, was Barack Obama’s
legislative director, the White House cabinet secretary for the Barack Obama administration, and a
litigation associate at Sidley Austin
LLP.
D. Cameron Findlay
was a partner at Sidley Austin LLP,
and the deputy secretary for the U.S.
Department of Labor.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, and Obamacare is his signature
policy initiative.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin
LLP, and is director for the Chicago
Council on Global Affairs.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Robert S. Osborne
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and was the EVP & general counsel for Booz Allen Hamilton.
Booz Allen
Hamilton is a contractor for Obamacare.
CGI Group Inc.
was the Obamacare contractor that
developed Healthcare.gov web site.
Donna
S. Morea was the EVP for the CGI
Group Inc., and a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development.
George
P. Shultz was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
William E.
Brock III was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Lloyd Howell Jr.
is a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, and the EVP for Booz
Allen Hamilton.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. was a managing director at Booz Allen Hamilton, is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, an honorary life director for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and
an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
John
H. Bryan is an honorary life director at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and was a director at BP p.l.c.
Lynn
M. Martin is director at the Chicago
Council on Global Affairs, and was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Michael H. Moskow
is the vice chair for the Chicago
Council on Global Affairs, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was the under secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Lester
Crown is the chairman for the Chicago
Council on Global Affairs, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, was a director at the General Dynamics Corporation, and a lifetime
trustee at the Aspen Institute (think
tank).
James
S. Crown is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), and a director at the General Dynamics Corporation.
Turner
Pollard Strategies, LLC is the lobby firm for the General Dynamics Corporation, the International Longshoremen's Association, and was the lobby firm
for the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU).
Anna
Burger was the secretary-treasurer for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and is a director at
the Economic Policy Institute.
Mary Kay Henry is
the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and a director at the Economic Policy
Institute.
Leo
W. Gerard is a director at the Economic
Policy Institute, and the president of the United Steelworkers of America (USW).
Ray
Marshall is a director at the Economic
Policy Institute, and was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Alexis
M. Herman is a director at the Economic
Policy Institute, and was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Robert B. Reich
is a director at the Economic Policy
Institute, and was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
Ann
McLaughlin Korologos was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor, and the chair emeritus for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Naomi A. Walker
was the associate deputy secretary for the U.S.
Department of Labor, and the deputy director of government affairs for the AFL-CIO.
George
Meany was the president of the AFL-CIO,
and the president of the American
Federation of Labor.
American Federation of Labor
Affiliated unions and
brotherhoods
Longshoremen's Association,
International
Seamen's International Union of
America
Labor secretary to press 2
sides in West Coast port dispute (PAST RESEARCH)
Monday, February 16,
2015
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