For decades millions in profit have gone to the capitalist owners of Bayou Steel from the labor of the workers and community. Despite the continued need for reclaiming scrap steel for reuse, the company was handed over by a rotten transnational corporation to a vulture capitalist hedge fund. Hedge funds make their profits by selling off inventory and assets. The Black Diamond fund announced it would close the plant throwing hundreds of workers out and harming local towns.
None of this is the fault of the union, but today unions and workers are trapped in the mindset that capitalist owners can do whatever they want with “their” property.
To fight back against the effects of “restructuring,” run away shops, and automation, we workers must climb out the box and challenge that notion that capitalists, by virtue of laws they passed, cannot be challenged on these decisions. But that won’t happen by relying on courts or politicians. Workers will need to struggle.
The sit-down strikes of the 1930’s all over the country built the unions and defended those workers’ jobs. They are not romantic history but a guide to what is needed now.
The following letter is addressed to members of the United Steelworkers facing layoffs at Bayou Steel:
Dear Officers and Members of the USWA,
We are outraged by the lies and trickery of Black Diamond. ArcelorMittal LaPlace clearly conspired with the BD hedge fund to loot the profits and assets of Bayou Steel, leaving the workers and community high and dry. That BD was obviously negotiating in bad faith is even more egregious.
This bankruptcy should also outrage every hardworking taxpayer in Louisiana. Since 2008, ArcelorMittal LaPlace has enjoyed nearly $11,000,000 in tax exemptions from the state and yet workers will have nothing to show for it if Arcelor and BD have their way. The company should be forced to pay these deferred tax dollars to meet its obligations to the workers.
The company’s illegal actions are not confined to conspiracy and bad-faith bargaining. Failure to abide by the WARN act (by claiming sudden economic catastrophe), premature cutoff of health benefits, and failure to provide severance pay are all crimes against the workers.
Pouring acid on the wound, BD is keeping a crew in shipping to move remaining inventory out and suck the last drop of profit out.
Their lawyers were fully prepared and filed bankruptcy immediately in Delaware, a tax haven for corporate crooks. The union and community should be appointed trustees based on their investment of decades of labor and support. Rather than getting nothing in these proceedings, the workers ought to be entitled to a preferred status based on the labor they’ve invested in the plant.
After the sit-down strikes in the 1930’s in plants across the country, the U.S. Department of Labor under Frances Perkins was forced to declare the strikes legal as the workers had a property right due to their labor.
Depending on politicians to assist in this situation is a delusion. A recent action by coal miners in Harlan County, KY, shows the way forward. When their company filed for bankruptcy and attempted to cheat the workers out of back pay and more, the workers blocked a train carrying coal inventory until they got paid. Joined by the community, Bayou Steel workers should stop the inventory from leaving the plant.
As long as labor is shackled into believing that only corporate owners have rights and that we must play by their rules, workers will suffer as they force us into a race to the bottom.
The loss of any union job hurts all Louisiana workers; we need more unions. Taking bold action outside the box can invigorate workers and help them see that unions are organizations willing to fight for their rights.
We are workers and community members and would do anything we can to support such an effort. We are sure that many workers will join you if you decide to fight back. It is only by fighting back that you can win even a small measure of what is owed to your members and the community.
In solidarity,
New Orleans Workers Group