Borax lockout leaves some Barstow residents out of work

BARSTOW • Robert Sheldon arrived at the U.S. Borax facility in Boron about 15 minutes before his shift as a heavy equipment mechanic was scheduled to start Jan. 31, but he didn’t pass the main entrance.

Following the advice of his union representative, Sheldon had his wife Amber and his children, 2-year-old Micah and 1-year-old Kaelyn, in the car. Riot gear-clad police officers stood near the main entrance, he said. A private security company escorted Sheldon’s car and about 200 others off the property. Sheldon, who has lived in Barstow all his life, and hundreds of other U.S. Borax employees were locked out.

“I kind of expected it the day before,” Sheldon said Friday. “(U.S. Borax) told us if our contract wasn’t ratified by that day we would be locked out. Our union wanted to show that this affects our family. They encouraged us to bring our family with us.”

Sheldon, a member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30, is one of about 25 U.S. Borax employees that live in the Barstow area who are affected by the lockout. About 560 employees total were affected by the lockout, according to Susan Keefe, a spokesperson for U.S. Borax, which is owned by Rio Tinto, a company based in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The lockout stems from a labor dispute over a contract that was supposed to take effect when the old contract expired Nov. 4. According to Keefe, company officials have met with attorneys representing the union for the past five months; however, the attorneys have been unwilling to meet for more than two days a week. The company offered twice to extend the old contract to prevent a strike, but Keefe said officials weren’t “getting anywhere.”

“That would have prevented a strike or a lockout,” she said. “The old contract expired Nov. 4. We weren’t getting anywhere. We didn’t have a willing partner at the table.”

According to the company’s Web site, the new contract included a 2 percent annual wage increase, an annual performance bonus, a $4,000 signing bonus and 80 percent coverage of health insurance costs.

However, Craig Merrilees, ILWU spokesperson, said the contract would also cause employees to give up their right to go to court if the company discriminated based on rage, sex, age, disability, military status or religion. Instead, the company would require employees to file claims through a private arbitrator, which it would pick, Merrilees said.

“It’s a kangaroo court with the judge chosen half the time by a foreign corporation that takes away the rights of American workers,” he said.

Keefe, however, said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people working under contracts can resolve a dispute through arbitration.

“It doesn’t take anybody’s right to a fair hearing away,” she said.

Keefe said even though company officials hope to resolve the dispute quickly, its prepared for the long term. Currently replacement workers, including miners and other contractors, from other U.S. Borox facilities are filling in for the employees who have been locked out.

Even though he was also locked out, Hinkley resident Allen Bruhn, a mechanic, said it hasn’t been too bad on him yet. A former job at Fort Irwin has been made available to him, and he said he doesn’t have a mortgage payment to worry about. But he is worried about younger workers like Sheldon, who have to pay more for health care through unemployment.

“Being unemployed and having higher insurance (costs), it’s going to be really tough on these younger kids,” he said.

Sheldon said he’s been living off unemployment and any side jobs he can get. He and Amber Sheldon are filling out paperwork to get their children enrolled in Medi-Cal. Sheldon spends much of his time searching for another job. Even Amber Sheldon, who was able to stay at home to raise her children, is looking for work.

“It’s kind of frustrating trying to figure out where we stand,” she said, adding she was a floral designer. “Where we have to cut finance-wise. I’m trying to find a part-time job. But there’s nobody buying flowers right now.”

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com