Nassco Workers Protest Wage Cut : Cost-of-Living Adjustment Lowers Pay by 6 Cents an Hour

Workers at National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (Nassco) gathered Thursday afternoon to denounce a 6-cent-an-hour wage cut imposed by the company Jan. 6.

About a dozen labor union organizers marched with picket signs outside the company’s main gate on Harbor Drive, and they managed to persuade about 50 workers to stop and join the protest as they left their jobs for the day.

“There’s a minimum wage in our contract--the average of $12.34--and the contract says they can’t go below that,” said Remigio Gonzales, business agent for the iron workers’ union.

Gonzales’ union and five others at the plant have filed grievances over the pay cut. Those grievances are expected to be joined as one and heard by an arbitrator.

The company, of course, sees the issue in a different light. Joseph Flynn, vice president for industrial relations, said the contract called for a cost-of-living “adjustment” on Jan. 1, 1986. That adjustment was to be based on the change in the federal Consumer Price Index since August, 1984, just before the workers’ current contract was signed.

Flynn said that when he calculated the wage adjustment due Jan. 1, he found that the formula called for less money than they were already making.

Flynn argues that the adjustment the contract calls for could be either a raise or a pay cut. In this case, he said, inflation has been lower than anticipated and therefore the company is within its rights in reducing wages for the 3,700 workers in the bargaining unit.

Flynn and other Nassco officials said they could not remember another across-the-board wage cut in the company’s history.

Thursday’s protest was organized by Gonzales, the iron workers’ business agent. Gonzales’ three-year term is about to end, and he and his fellow union officers face an election Feb. 1. Some workers who watched the rally suggested that it was organized in part to aid Gonzales’ reelection effort.

“This is the first time we’ve seen any media down here since Gonzales was elected,” said Doug Ballis, an iron worker who is running for president of the union.