THE YEAR THEY BROKE MY DAD’S UNION

With all the Union stories in the last week, my mind was jogged to a strike that occurred 39 years ago when I was 8 years old. I guess it is odd that I would remember particular incidents about that strike even though I was only 8. I wasn’t a normal kid. I still remember sitting on the floor in my living room by myself watching the Watergate Hearings on PBS. I actually used my little tape recorder to record Nixon’s resignation speech on a cassette tape.

My Dad worked for Atlantic Richfield from the day he graduated high school until the day he retired 43 years later in 1986. The Atlantic refinery was in South Phila on Passyunk Avenue. It is still there under the banner of Sunoco. He was a member of the Atlantic Independent Union. It’s membership was 6,000 workers. The union was formed in 1937. National union membership peaked in the 1950’s and was in rapid decline by the early 1970s.

The strike occurred between January 3, 1972 and February 1, 1972. Truck drivers, mechanics, and even secretaries manned the picket lines. This wasn’t a strike about wages or benefits. It was a strike about fairness. Atlantic merged with Richfield of California in 1966. They then merged with Sinclair Oil in 1969. The company decided that employees of all three companies would receive the same pension benefits. The Atlantic Employees Union claimed that Atlantic employees had contributed more to the plan over the years, so they deserved higher benefits. If that was true, it sounded like a reasonable demand. This was not a union that caused trouble. They had never declared a strike in their 35 years of existence. But this one was a doozy.

This was the 1st time I had ever heard the term “Scab”. My Dad would do his daily stint on the picket line in front of the refinery gate. Management and “scabs” continued to deliver gasoline to the gas stations during the strike. My understanding was that a few “scabs” may have met the wrong side of a baseball bat after their shifts. While stopped at red lights in the City, somehow the valves were opened on trucks allowing gasoline to pour all over the highway. Windshields were smashed and cops had to protect the “scabs”.

This strike went on for one month. We certainly were not a well off family. The Union paid a small amount to each worker from their funds. I think we used food stamps for the 1st and only time in our lives. I remember many meals of Hamburger Helper and the always tasty Spam and eggs. My mom would buy one gallon of milk and mix it with powdered milk and water to get two gallons of milk. The highlight for an 8 year old was when the strikers and families marched on the company headquarters in downtown Phila. It was South Philly, so our march was accompanied by a String Band.

Being a small union, with limited resources, they eventually cracked. After one month, they threw in the towel. The union lost badly. They drained their resources and didn’t win better benefits for their workers. I truly don’t know which side was right, but I know which side won. Eventually, ARCO was swallowed up by BP. I do know for a fact that BP has methodically thrown its retirees under the bus as they reduced promised benefits and increased the healthcare costs for its retirees. Their goal was to make retiree benefits so expensive that the retirees would would just switch to Medicare. Brilliant financial corporate move by the most respected corporation in the world. Stick the taxpayers with your overpromising of benefits.

 When it comes to unions and mega-corporations, it is tough to distinguish between the villians and the goods guys.