Baird blasts Bush for letting
Bay Bridge use foreign steel
Washington Congressman Brian Baird talks to union workers at Oregon Iron
Works about “Buy American” legislation he is pushing.
Delphi asks bankruptcy
court to void union pacts
NEW YORK (PAI) — As expected,
Delphi Auto Parts asked a federal bank-
ruptcy court judge on March 31 to let it
void all of its union contracts. The pro-
posed cuts were so drastic that the lead
Delphi union, the United Auto Workers,
said if implemented, the company’s
plan could lead to a strike. The next
hearing on Delphi is May 8.
Delphi’s request came barely a week
after UAW agreed with the bankrupt
auto parts maker on a buyout proposal
to offer to all 24,000 UAW members
there. There was no indication of how
many would take the buyout, and UAW
General President Ron Gettelfinger said
Delphi’s plan to kill the contracts also
“kills the momentum” from that.
If Delphi succeeds, workers wages
would drop from an average of $27 an
hour now to $22 an hour later this year
and $16 an hour next year.
Delphi originally wanted to cut
workers’ wages to $9.50 an hour.
“Delphi’s misuse of bankruptcy to
circumvent the collective bargaining
process and slash jobs and wages and
drastically reduce health care, retire-
ment and other hard-won benefits or
eliminate them altogether is a travesty
and a concern for every American,”
Gettelfinger and UAW Vice President
Richard Shoemaker said. “Delphi’s pro-
posal goes far beyond cutting wages
and benefits for active and retired work-
APRIL 7, 2006
ers. Delphi’s outrageous proposal
would slash the company’s UAW-rep-
resented hourly workforce by approxi-
mately 75 percent, devastating Delphi
workers, their families and their com-
munities.”
“Delphi’s motions with the bank-
ruptcy court — like the quality of the
proposals it made to the UAW — are
another indication Delphi has never
been serious about finding a solution to
its current problems through the collec-
tive bargaining process,” they added.
The International Union of Elec-
tronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine
and Furniture Workers, an affiliate of
Communications Workers of America,
the second-largest of the six unions at
Delphi, represents 8,500 of the firm’s
workers, was also upset. Seven of its
eight locals, at plants in Alabama, Mis-
sissippi, New Jersey and Ohio, have al-
ready held strike authorization votes.
Delphi wants “to set aside our col-
lective bargaining agreements, and
eliminate retiree health care and life in-
surance. Every working man and
woman should share our disappoint-
ment and our concern. If left
unchecked, actions like this threaten the
very existence of the middle class in this
country. We will use every weapon in
our arsenal to insure that this is not al-
lowed to happen,” IUE’s Henry Re-
ichard said.
VANCOUVER — At a March 21
rally at Oregon Iron Works, Washing-
ton 3rd District Congressman Brian
Baird accused the Bush Administration
of trying to outsource American jobs by
failing to enforce “Buy American” pro-
visions in a 1982 law.
The law requires that domestic iron
and steel be used in federally-funded
transportation projects unless that
would increase the cost of the project
by more than 25 percent.
Baird said the Federal Highway Ad-
ministration (FHWA) has collaborated
with the California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) to interpret
the law in ways that violate its intent.
Caltrans is replacing parts of the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to make
it better able to withstand a severe earth-
quake. The project has undergone sev-
eral redesigns, extensive delays, and
massive cost-overruns, and is currently
expected to cost taxpayers $6.2 billion.
Caltrans has said it will apply the
Buy American law’s 25 percent re-
quirement to just the steel superstruc-
ture portion of the project, rather than
to the cost of the overall project. Cal-
trans also has maintained that Buy
American doesn’t apply because the
project uses only state money.
Baird said the Federal Highway Ad-
ministration has cooperated with Cal-
trans by withholding federal funding
until the project has been bid on.
That violates a “sense of Congress”
resolution that Democrat Baird suc-
ceeded in adding to the transportation
bill passed last year. But such resolu-
tions are nonbinding, and in October,
FHWA’s top lawyer wrote in an inter-
nal memo that the agency doesn’t in-
tend to be bound by it.
Oregon Iron Works had hoped to
compete for the contract, and was one
of four structural steel manufacturers in
Oregon and Southwest Washington that
formed a consortium to bid on the Bay
Bridge work. The companies are cur-
rently producing steel for the bridge’s
east span, but didn’t bid on the project’s
next stage, the center span.
Thomas Hickman, marketing man-
ager for Oregon Iron Works, said be-
cause of the way Caltrans was inter-
preting Buy American law, they knew
their bid would be noncompetitive. The
contract would have meant 5 million
hours of work, and to complete it, Ore-
gon Iron Works would have built a new
facility and hired 300 people at union
wages; workers at the company are rep-
resented by Iron Workers Shopmen’s
Local 516.
Last year, California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Chinese
steel contractors to bid on the project,
and most observers predict a Chinese
company will get the contract.
Local 516 Business Agent Mike
Lappier said the Buy American provi-
sion is about protecting good jobs.
“The workers here face a threat,”
Lappier said, “not from a foreign army
but from an army of foreign workers,
who are so low-paid they don’t make
enough in a day to buy a Happy Meal."
The contract was bid March 22 and
Caltrans is expected to make a decision
within 30 days.
Baird introduced legislation Feb. 8
that would strengthen the Buy Ameri-
can provision’s enforcement. He also
has asked Transportation Secretary
Norman Mineta to enforce Buy Ameri-
can more aggressively.
“All they care about are the short-
term costs,” Baird said. “But the gov-
ernment ought to be willing to pay more
if it means jobs for American workers.”
T HE M ARCO C ONSULTING G ROUP
T HE M ARCO
C ONSULTING
G ROUP
INVESTMENT CONSULTANTS TO
MULTI - EMPLOYER BENEFIT FUNDS
P LEASE CALL J ASON Z ENK IN T ACOMA , WA AT (253) 759-6768
W EST C OAST O FFICE
M IDWEST O FFICE
E AST C OAST O FFICE
2912 N ORTH 26 TH S TREET
T ACOMA , WA 98407
P: 253-759-6768
F: 312-575-9840
550 W EST W ASHINGTON B LVD .
N INTH F LOOR
C HICAGO , IL 60661
P: 312 575-9000
F: 312 575-9840
1220 A DAMS S TREET
F IRST F LOOR
B OSTON , MA 02124
P: 617 298-0967
F: 617 298-0966
L EGAL P ROBLEMS ??
For $16 a month
coverage includes:
❖ Unlimited toll-free phone
consultation with attorneys.
❖ A comprehensive will with
yearly updates is included.
❖ Representation for traffic tickets,
accidents, criminal, and civil suits.
❖ Coverage on IRS tax audits.
❖ Divorce, child custody, bank-
ruptcy and many more benefits.*
THESE LEGAL SERVICES
ARE PROVIDED BY THE
VERY BEST LAW FIRMS
IN OREGON & WASHINGTON.
* Some services not 100% covered
For more
information,
call 503-760-2456
or toll-free at
(888) 252-7930
www.prepaidlegal.com/info/randallnix
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 7