Labor War in the Mojave

In an article for The Nation magazine, author Mike Davis described the company proposal as, quote, “Rio Tinto, in essence, claims the right to rule by divine whim” and “to blatantly discriminate.”

The day after workers turned down Rio Tinto’s proposal, the world’s third-largest mining company proceeded to lock out Boron’s 570 union workers and brought in temporary replacements.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/26/labor_struggle_in_boron_union_workers




The biggest hole in California, with the exception of the current state budget, is Rio Tinto's huge open-pit mine at the town of Boron, near Edwards Air Force Base, eighty miles northeast of Los Angeles...The Boron pit, which replaced an underground mine, produces almost half the world's supply of refined borates.

In last year's contract negotiations, Rio Tinto (the British-Australian multinational acquired its Boron facility, U.S. Borax, in 1968 and renamed it Rio Tinto Borax) stunned members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, ILWU, Local 30 (Boron), by demanding abolition of the contractually enshrined seniority system and the surrender of any worker voice in the labor process.

The company wants a contract that would allow it to capriciously promote or demote; to outsource union jobs; to convert full-time to part-time positions with little or no benefits; to reorganize shift schedules without warning; to eliminate existing work rules; to cut holidays, sick leave and pension payments; to impose involuntary overtime; and to heavily penalize the union if workers file grievances against the company with the National Labor Relations Board... On January 30, Local 30 members unanimously rejected the concessions demanded by Rio Tinto.

The company deadline expired the next morning, when Terri Judd set off for work as usual with her lunchbox and thermos. At the locked front gate she and other day-shift workers encountered a phalanx of nervous Kern County sheriff's deputies in full riot gear. Inside the plant, an elite "strike security team" hired by Rio Tinto had taken control of operations...


http://www.zcommunications.org/labor-war-in-the-mojave-by-mike-davis