by Tony Mazzocchi, Labor Party National
Organizer
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
International Union member Karen Silkwood was killed 25 years ago on
November 13, 1974
In the winter of 1972, members of OCAW Local 5-283 saw their strike
broken by the Kerr McGee Company in Cimarron, Oklahoma. Out of 150
workers, only 20 remained in the union. Two years later, the company
instigated a decertification campaign. It seemed certain that the OCAW
local would be busted.
In August 1974, just months before the decert election was
scheduled, Karen Silkwood was elected to the union's three-person
bargaining committee, the first woman committee member in Kerr McGee's
history. Karen's assignment was health and safety. Although she had
only been at the company for two years, she was upset about what she
viewed as abusive and dangerous conditions in the plant.
That September, Karen and her fellow committee members flew to
Washington, D.C. where they met with me (then the union's legislative
director) to develop a plan to defeat the decert effort. Karen
described the company's appalling health and safety conditions. When I
explained the connection between plutonium exposure and cancer, it
took Karen by surprise. She was angered at how Kerr McGee was taking
workers' lives into its own hands. She herself had been in a
contaminated room without a respirator just two months before.
We decided we should make the company's health and safety record an
issue in the campaign, and to educate workers about the hazards of
plutonium.
The strategy worked: Although the union had begun with only 20
members, we beat back the decert effort by 80 to 61.
About a month later, November 13, Silkwood was on her way to meet
with my assistant, Steve Wodka, and a New York Times reporter
to deliver documents that proved her allegation that quality control
of fuel rods had been compromised. Her car ran off the road, and she
was killed. No documents were found in her car. Many of us believe her
car was forced off the road, causing her death.
Karen Silkwood was a union martyr. Her experience was not that
unusual in the trade union movement, except that she ultimately died
for her cause. We must remember her story, because it is a symbol of
the collective efforts and courage of the millions of trade unionists
who have fought, and still fight, to defend the health, safety, and
security of their fellow workers.
A poster commemorating Karen Silkwood is available for $10. Proceeds to benefit the
Labor Party. To order, call 718-369-2998.
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