OCAW 1-591 History Series; Segment 3
as researched by Douglas W. Erlandson
"Nationwide Shell Strike
of 1973"
On January 21st, OCAWIU President Bob Grospiron called
over 4000 Shell OCAW members from 5 oil refineries and 3 chemical plants,
out on strike. Then made a nationwide appeal to the public to boycott
Shell Oil while the union continued its fight over the right to bargain
health and safety issues.
The union was seeking:
1) establishment of a joint Union-Management health
&
safety committee.
2) wanted the committee workers paid while
performing official committee duties.
3) the right to call in independent health & safety inspectors.
4) access to all company information on both death and disease rates.
5) annual company medical examinations provided at the company's expense.
As a tactic for the 1973 strike, OCAW employed
the first major ‘corporate campaign’ in U.S. history. OCAW
forged alliances with the scientific, academic, environmental and labor
communities to fight Shell’s position that it would not bargain
over health and safety. The union spent nearly half a million dollars
to advertise a nationwide boycott of Shell and to educate the public about
the need to protect the health of workers and the communities.
Even though 12 other major oil
companies had already signed contracts that provided for the new joint
union-management health and safety committees, they assisted Shell by
buying their gasoline and blacklisting Shell's strikers. The oil industry's
thinking was the new joint H&S committees would get in the way of
production and profits. Shell's corporate spokesman, J.H. Walter called the unions joint H&S
committee 'another attempt at featherbedding since the workers could then
decide how long they could safely work in the refineries and chemical
plants'.
Moreover, Shell stated that
health & safety was none of the oil workers' business: 'We are legally
responsible for the health and safety of Shell employees in the workplace
and this responsibility cannot be shared'. The truth was the oil companies
didn't want to give up control in this area. From 1963-1969, Shell used caged canaries as 'safety devices' at their
Houston chemical plant.(true story, no joke!) The canary's job was to
detect the presence of carbon monoxide. If the canary died, it was time
for the workers to leave. Shell went through a lot of canaries, OCAW was
claming by the time the canary died, the workers would already have been
exposed.
The union was also seeking the right to inspect company records and financial
reports of the pension funds Shell administered and to be able to grieve
the company's arbitrary actions with regard to disability pensions. (The
union suspected Shell's pension fund was under funded.) One Anacortes
member who worked for Shell for 17 years, was certified by two doctors
as being disabled, yet Shell wouldn't allow him disabled benefits even
though he met the 15 year employment requirement. For the union, this
was an item that needed to be addressed.
The International Representative assigned locally was Virgil
Coragliotti, with Representative Tom Burkholder assisting on occasion. Don
Yates was the Shell unit chairman and the committee members were Gil Nuessen,
Wes Shull, F. D. Ferguson, Bob Melton Sr. Jerry Vrooman was the Local President
and Jim Burgess was the financial secretary. Picket pay was $25 a week. The 1-591 union brothers at General
Chemical and Texaco assessed their monthly dues to help support
 the Shell
members. Financial support was also received regularly from the Ferndale OCAW
1-590 local. Because Shell Oil’s daily production was unaffected and
they didn’t lose any profits during the strike, the strikers received
unemployment benefits under what was then known as the ‘dark plant rule’.
Not surprising, Shell Oil later lobbied to get that section of the unemployment
law changed.
About a week before the strike
Snelsons’ had contracted with Shell to do maintenance work on a
recently shutdown furnace. Their plan was to use the Boilermakers union,
Local 104 out of Seattle. OCAW had gotten wind of it and a group of about
60 Shell brothers were on site waiting for the 14 building trades members
when they attempted to cross the picket line, being led through by Bill
Snelson. Several Shell picketers became so upset that they turned over
both of Snelsons’ trucks and trailers. At the same time, someone
smashed out Snelson's rear window. Out of fear, Snelson romped on the
gas throwing John Garner, who was standing in front of him, onto the hood
of his car. Garner was able to roll off as Snelson bolted on through.
The Sheriff was immediately called.
Fred
Nelson, Bob Melton and Charlie Pyburn were identified as the lead individuals
involved and were fired. Later, after two days in court, Judge Deierlein had
Melton and Pyburn jailed, then sharply criticized Shell management for not maintaining
better communications with the union and local law enforcement officials in
trying to prevent emotional blow-ups. Later Snelson took OCAW 1-591 to court
and won $6700 for the damage done to his vehicles. Shell also fired Virgil Avey
for breaking windshields with his picket sign. While the other three were unable
to get their jobs back, Fred Nelson was eventually rehired. Old time Union members
refer to this incidence as the "Day of the Windstorm." OCAW also had trouble with the
Teamster's Union from Seattle. The same teamster leadership that was scabbing
on the United Farm Workers, had ordered their drivers to disregard the
picket line established by OCAW. And since there was an injunction limiting
the number of pickets to two per gate, the union was unable to do much
about the Teamsters pushing through with their trucks. To keep in the health and safety issue in front of the public, OCAW
had teams that traveled the northwest speaking to the news media and public
about the need for work place safety. Shell later admitted the mobile
speakers bureaus were very effective. Finally, Shell, in the face of public pressure, bargained a compromised
health and safety clause as well as meeting the union's demand allowing
the pension fund to be reviewed and grieved if necessary. On June 1st
the strike was officially ended.
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