Occupy Spring

West Virginia Retirees Occupy - And Win

By Jake Olzen
Waging Nonviolence
April 2, 2012

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/04/west-virginia-retirees-occupy-and-win/

Karen Gorrell choked back tears one Saturday in early
March as she pulled the final stake from the tent that
had been her home for the past seventy-five days. Last
fall, the protracted struggle she led for retired
workers from Century Aluminum Corporation found itself
an accidental part of the Occupy movement. "I'm elated
that a bunch of little senior citizens can take on
corporate giants in West Virginia," Gorrell said.

The group fought to have their health care benefits
reinstated after the company unilaterally dropped
coverage for more than 500 retirees and their families.
After more than a year of organizing, protests and,
ultimately, a physical occupation, the Occupy Century
group reached a settlement with the company late last
month that will restore those health benefits and grant
$44 million to the retirees over ten years, with up to
$25 million in additional contributions to follow.

"I love these people," Gorrell, 62, said about her
fellow occupiers, whose ages range from their early-60s
to mid-80s. "This is the closest family you could have
in the world." Gorrell is married to a Century retiree
and describes herself as a high school graduate, a
community volunteer and a grandmother.

The Century Aluminum factory in Ravenswood, West
Virginia, had seen struggles before. In 1990, 1,700
union workers at, what was then called Ravenswood
Aluminum Corporation, were locked out in an effort to
drastically cut wages. The ensuing "Battle of Fort RAC"
was a divisive conflict for the Jackson County
community; the negotiations that ended the two-year
lockout and picket resulted in workers forced to take a
significant pay cut in exchange for health care
retirement accounts. When the plant closed in 2009,
laying off 651 workers, Century Aluminum promised
workers that their health benefits would continue.

In June 2010, however, the company announced it would
be terminating health coverage for its retirees and
keeping the $25 million that workers had paid into
their pensions. "You've been exposed to every hazardous
chemical in the book - asbestos, coal tar pitch, all
kinds of extreme hazards from aluminum - and when the
men retire and they're actually beginning to suffer
from the exposure, then the company comes in and just
pulls out the rug," Gorrell said.

Not only that, but Century Aluminum qualified for and
was accepted by - yet chose not to participate in - the
Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, a provision of the
Affordable Care Act that President Obama signed into
law in 2010, which grants federal funding to help cover
retirees' health care costs. The company later accepted
EERP funding; in the fourth quarter of 2010, Century
reported a net income of $65.3 million citing "changes
to the retiree medical benefits program [that]
increased quarterly results by $56.7 million."

"It's not only morally wrong, it is absolutely criminal
what they're doing to America's most vulnerable
people," Gorrell said, "and the sad part is, the
federal court system is upholding these decisions by
these corporations."

Not this time.

United Steelworkers (USW), which represents most of the
unionized workers, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the
Century retirees. Meanwhile, Gorrell and others began
to organize, picket and protest. "My daughter kicked me
in the pants and told me to stand up and fight!" she
recalled. "I said, `Jody, this is corporate America.'
She said `Mom, you've got more fire in the britches
than anyone, you can do this.'"

On December 18, 2011, after months without benefits,
through faltering negotiations and litigation, two
dozen or so retirees from Century Aluminum occupied
their old workplace.

Weathering the cold and snow, the makeshift occupation
became home to dozens of retirees. There they slept,
cooked meals, played games, gave interviews and
celebrated Christmas together. "It was the greatest
Christmas I ever spent," Gorrell recalled. "So many of
these people are seriously ill - cancer, heart disease,
emphysema, lung disease from the industry. One guy
said, `If this is where I'm supposed to die, of
pneumonia, it's worth it, because everybody is fighting
for the right thing.'

"Every one of us believed it, that the sacrifice was
worth the risk," she said. "It could be the last
Christmas some of them have, but we had an overwhelming
outpouring of support."

Karen Gorrell. Photo by James Fassinger, all rights
reserved.

Part of Occupy Century's success was due to the
negative publicity it was able to generate about the
company, making the blood on its hands visible. When
Gorrell and three others traveled to Century Aluminum's
shareholder meeting in California last June, for
instance, she wore a bright yellow shirt with a photo
of her friend Bryce Turner screen-printed above the
words "Murder without a Gun."

At the time, Turner was hospitalized with leukemia
while his health coverage was discontinued. He has
since died.

"I told the board at the shareholder meeting that Bryce
is in the hospital," Gorrell recalled. She said to
them, "I want you to remember, every day you go to the
bank and deposit your profits, that he gave you 36 and
a half years of his life."

Many of the group's tactics targeted Century's CEO
Logan Kruger, who left the company in November, taking
with him a going-away present of $6.2 million. When his
successor Michael Bless visited the retirees' camp last
month, he told Gorrell that he remembered her.

Meanwhile, Occupy activists and local union shops
across the country were also picketing and protesting
Century Aluminum in support of the retirees' cause,
including at the company's global headquarters in
Monterey, California, where Occupiers confronted Bless
on a regular basis. Occupy Charleston joined the
retirees at the state capital. And workers from the
Century Aluminum plant in Hawesville, Kentucky, Gorrell
said, "supported us all the way through."

West Virginia senators Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin,
as well as the West Virginia state legislature, offered
key support for the retirees while facilitating
negotiations at USW offices in Pittsburgh. Rockefeller,
in particular, backed the group from day one, taking a
stand for labor rarely seen among current politicians.
West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, on the other
hand, dragged his feet.

Last year, the governor promised to reopen the
Ravenswood plant without addressing the health care
issue. "We were furious. I wrote a letter to the editor
that night and laced him for dealing with the devil,"
Gorrell said. The retirees got a meeting with Tomblin
after threatening to picket his office indefinitely.
Later, the governor proved crucial in bringing Century
Aluminum to the negotiating table.

And on February 29, Century Aluminum, the USW, the
retirees and state political leadership reached an
agreement to restore health care benefits for the
retirees. The agreement, however, hinges on Century
Aluminum receiving tax breaks and other incentives from
West Virginia lawmakers to reopen the Ravenswood
aluminum smelting plant.

Century Aluminum did not respond to questions about the
impact the occupation had on bringing them back to the
negotiating table. Local newspapers credited the
support of politicians, including Senator Manchin, who
said that "this deal belongs to the workers and
retirees who made this happen."

USW spokesperson Jim McKay explained by email how the
retirees' occupation and USW helped bring Century to
the table: "The Occupy Century group protested in the
state capital and were responsible, together with the
USW, for defeating legislation the company sought in
2011." This, he wrote, "is one of the principal reasons
the company believed it needed to reach a negotiated
settlement."

The retirees' victory highlights what similar campaigns
across the country are now revealing, whether they are
activists occupying foreclosed homes or workers taking
over their Chicago factory for the second time in two
years: that taking space means taking power.

"We wanted our message to be clear. We felt we could
make a statement about the whole 99 percent and how
corporate America and greed overtook us and put us in
poverty," Gorrell said.

"I'm not a professional negotiator, I'm a grandma. But
by golly, what's right is what's right. Our fight was
to make the company give us what we paid for. What
better fighters than a bunch of senior citizens? We
have one foot in the grave but are kicking like hell
with the other."

This article appears through a collaboration with
Occupy.com and was jointly published there.

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