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In the early 1990s, the United Steelworkers helped developed the modern international strategic campaign during the Ravenswood lockout when they famously chased fugitive billionaire Marc Rich all over the world. The Steelworkers teamed up with unions in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Caribbean. These unions then put pressure on foreign government around the world to to block government deals with Rich’s companies unless the lockout in West Virginia was resolved.
They also worked with leading Swiss trade unionists to build political pressure to have Rich extradited from the country to face criminal proceedings in the United States for tax evasion, racketeering, and violating the embargo with Iran. Ultimately, the pressure tactics succeeded and created a playbook that unions have been trying to follow for the last 20 years.
Now, Marc Rich is dead, but the Steelworkers still find themselves in yet another ugly ten month lockout with one of Rich’s corporations, Glencore. The company, now run by his protegee, Ivan Glasenberg has locked out of 450 Steelworkers at Glencore’s Sherwin Alumina smelter facility in Gregory, Texas in October. The company demanded that the union accept a contract proposal from the company that would have eliminated retiree health care, eliminated pensions for new hires, and raised out of pocket healthcare costs by 75%. In October of 2014, when the union refused to agree to such drastic cuts, the company locked them out and hired “scab” replacement workers.
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