A FB comment about someone's experience with USW/WOA

This was a Facebook comment on a post about our union drive- its well worth the read.

"This is a long winded post but a worthwhile read about Unions and Prudhoe bay from someone who was directly involved in the 1994 Union vote on the WOA. After reading all the pro’s and cons on this thread I’ll give you my $.02 worth: I grew up in Fairbanks and got hired by Sohio/BP in 1979 as a Millwright/Machinist apprentice. Life couldn’t have been better, I loved my job and the people I worked with. There were 2 drives to unionize during this time. I was doing great and believed in my employer so I voted no on both those union drives. In the early 1990’s with BP posting record profits, CEO John Browne made the statement “I’m going to turn BP into a super major that will compete with Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon-Mobile. A VERY aggressive cost cutting program started, managers asked employees for suggestions to cut costs…and they got a lot of participation and great ideas. BP didn’t listen to, or implement any of them but instead started cutting the benefits and wages of their employees. When we voiced our concerns to management the reply was “too bad, you have 2 options: get on board or hit the road and kick rocks…..remember record profits were being made. Fortunately there were a couple employees that decided we had a 3rd choice and were quietly working with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) we quietly signed a petition for union representation, which was signed by close to 100% of the WOA hourly employees. This petition was presented to Barney Dotson in his office in Anchorage. Of course BP claimed that the union had coerced employees into signing this petition and requested a NLRB sanctioned vote. An employer in this position will demand the largest amount of time they can get before the vote. What ensued was a “full court press” by BP to get its employees to cower and vote no. It got so bad that BP had a professional video made that they sent to our homes timed so that our families recieved it when we were at work. It was the sleaziest scare tactic I have ever seen in my life…..which had the exact opposite effect for employees, it pissed off enough of the “no votes” that they changed their minds to voting yes. We had the NLRB vote which we won. I voted yes this time because I felt that the workforce needed a REAL voice with BP. Workers on the ARCO, EOA said we were crazy and cutting our own throats, more on this later. But the easy part was over, now we had to get a contract ratified. I’m not going to lie, it was an epic struggle but we ALL stuck together and ratified our first contract in 1995. All the cuts and bullshit stopped immediately, all the take-away’s that BP implemented were reversed. EVERY year from 1995 until I retired in 2018 we recieved an average of a 3% annual benefit bearing wage increase….and so did every ARCO and ConocoPhillips employee! These employees used our union like a gun, every time ARCO or CP would do something its employee’s didn’t like they’d pull out their “Union Gun” and threaten them, and it would work…..but the threat of a union will only work for so long and eventually you’ll have to stop freeloading and pull the trigger. For all you CP and EOA Hillcorp employees this is where you’re at now, you gonna drive the car or ride in the trunk? In closing I can honestly say that forming our union, now the United Steelworkers (USW) was the best thing I could have ever done for my family. If any of you have any questions you’d like an honest answer for, shoot me a PM."

If you'd like to contact him, his name is Fritz Guenther