Chevron refinery workers in Richmond California are on strike.
In fact, you probably don't know this,
it's their seventh week of striking and they are demanding better wages,
better working conditions and it's not like Chevron can't afford it.
But of course, they are fighting their own workers pretty aggressively.
Before we get to those details though, let's take a look.
I think they look at us as bodies and they don't respect us as people and
they don't value our skills that we've built up over time.
>> You're unable to do the things that you want to do with your family,
make these sacrifices to take care of your family and come work at Chevron.
And when you add into that understaffing and forced overtime and
standby periods, your life basically begins to revolve around being in here or
waiting to get called to be in here and your home life suffers.
>> They didn't want to hear us.
They dismissed our health and safety concerns within the proposals.
Some of the protections in our contract and that's what brings us out here.
>> It's gotten to the point where we don't feel it's
safe in there to operate right now,
especially with the long hours, force outs, force standbys,
you essentially have no time for your family or personal life.
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>> With the high cost of living in the Bay Area, it's rough for
any blue collar worker.
And a lot of times these corporations will have these windfall profits but
refused to take care of their workers.
So what we've seen in the past few years is the raised-.
>> So please check out the perfect union twitter page where they post a lot of
these videos, also their website, they do great work and provide a voice for
people who typically get ignored by the corporate media for obvious reasons.
But negotiating in bad faith, Chevron proposed to contracts to
the Unified Steelworkers Union without addressing the workers main concern,
which is the cost of living in the Bay Area, which is where many of them live.
They're working for one of the most profitable corporations in the world and
they are not made whole by their employers so
they can afford to live in the area they need to work in.
And so the talks stalled.
Chevron has decided to ramp up its police presence at the facility to intimidate
the workers on strike.
They're not even trying to hide it.
So in the weeks before the walkout, the group of Richmond police officers were put
on standby in case they were needed at the refinery.
During the first week of April, Chevron paid the San Pablo Police Department
to put officers at the facilities gates.
Chevron agreed to pay overtime to both departments to make officers available.
>> So they can raise wages in theory?
>> Yeah, they can shell out the cash to crush their workers, but
they can't shell out the cash to make sure their workers can afford to put a roof
over their heads as they work for their company.
That's what's happening right now.
And by the way, it's amazing how much love there actually is for unions in this
country, because while I have my issues with policing in America, no question,
a lot of these cops were like and about this, I don't really want to do this.
I'll get to those details.
>> [CROSSTALK] love,
there's other reasons they might not wanna be take part than just love.
And apparently some did.
>> Yeah, some of them do, like, they're protected by a union.
I mean, I think the police union is devastating in certain ways and
we've talked about that on the show.
It protects a lot of terrible brutal force that's carried out by cops.
But no, the point I'm trying to make is support for unions and I'm not talking
about politicians, talking about normal people is actually pretty high, right?
Which is why the one time Ben Shapiro made the mistake of saying negative things
about unions, his own audience turned against him.
I think that should be a teachable moment for all of us.
>> Yeah, well that's why the right wing media generally avoids the difficult topic
by just never ever talk about any of these actions whatsoever.
>> Yeah, they gotta talk about Mr. Potato head and Dr. Seuss.
>> Exactly, yeah, Ben Shapiro is not gonna do a segment on Chevron and
why the union is wrong, of course.
Well he's not gonna do it, that they're right,
obviously because he doesn't support them.
So he's just not gonna talk about it at all.
And that's why it's always so weird when like Tucker Carlson, who's obviously,
as you all know, he is a warrior, a champion for the common man.
Has he shot up in any of these has Ingram or Shapiro is trump going there.
Any of the politicians, literally, anyone who's right of Nancy Pelosi has,
have, they showed up to a single one of these?
I don't know, maybe they don't, maybe it's California.
They don't want to go to California.
Okay, East Coast, the coal mine workers.
Do they go hang with them?
No, they don't care about any of them.
They're not interested in all of it.
And so you're left this situation that feels like weirdly
old school like oil company pays goons to break up strike.
That headline could have been in a newspaper 100 years ago.
We've come very little distance since then.
This is effectively like hiring the Pinkertons to crack some skulls and
break up a strike.
That's all it is.
>> You know what's also interesting is we're not talking about Alabama,
like we're talking specifically about California.
>> Where's Gavin Newsom?
>> Come on. >> He must be present.
>> Come on John.
>> He must be present.
>> Come on, pretty boy Newsom?
Yeah, he wants to be present.
>> Come on, you can wear a hard hat and
walk around there would be a great photo op.
>> I will go to war if if the Democratic Party decides to
promote him as a presidential nominee.
Honestly living in California under the leadership of Gavin Newsom.
I know firsthand how
terrible he is.
There is no way in hell I would support Gavin Newsom.
No way, no way, no way I wouldn't I don't care.
I don't care if satan himself is running against him.
>> He might be.
>> I mean yeah, that's true, that's true.
I'm not emboldening Gavin Newsom.
>> Yeah, no I'm glad that the that the workers are doing this.
In theory might be bolstered a bit by the fact that there is an environment
nationally that's more supportive of these sorts of things.
They need support though,
I mean they need coverage like you got from the more perfect union right there.
They in theory need politicians to to support them.
Obviously Gavin Newsom is not gonna do it.
But there there are good progressives in California that could head over their bay
area progressives by the way.
>> No, but the point that I'm trying to make is there are more labor protections
in California compared to other states?
>> Yeah, of course.
>> And so like why is chevron getting away with this?
Why is chevron allowed to bring police in to attempt to intimidate and
crack schools like of their workers.
Now four days after the strike began,
Chevron Security Director reached out to any and
all police departments willing to quash efforts to do the strike.
Anyone engaging in the strike.
In an email obtained by KQED Security Director,
Darrell Jackson said he understands the optics of bringing police in,
saying, quote, I was asked to reach out to you and any other police agencies
to see if there's any interest in providing on Chevron paid overtime,
uniformed officers to assist in keeping traffic flowing around the refinery.
Chevron understands the optics, but I've seen some very dangerous vehicle
opportunities and those optics have the opportunity to look bad as well.
He wrote, what does that mean?
>> I mean,
it could be a reference to the fact that in the aforementioned cole strikes,
like some of the brass or whatever was like running into the, the protesters.
What does keep the traffic flowing mean?
Well, you have to clear a path so that trucks can continue to get in, but
the workers are standing in the way.
So you're either hitting them with the trucks or
you're hitting them as the cops to get them out of the way.
That's what they're being hired to do.
Like that's the reason they have to choose cops in the first place,
is they're asking to do something that will be illegal, but
in theory they'll be protected by the fact that they're cops.
>> Yeah, Well, several hours later, the San Pablo police chief, his name
is Ron Raymond wrote back asking if anyone had taken Chevron up on its offer.
Crickets, Nothing, Nada, Jackson replied.
Wow, our rate would be close to $200 an officer per hour.
I can try to fill it, but it's kind of last minute.
>> That's a lot of money.
I would consider it, but-.
>> No, you wouldn't.
Not in a million years.
>> That's $200 an hour.
That's a lot of money [LAUGH]. >> It took them five days to take
the deal.
But, look at the end of the day, historically speaking,
policing in this country has been used to target black people, we know that.
And also protect property, protect corporate property, that's it.
I mean, we saw it happened in Zuccotti park in real time, It was disgusting.
One of the first things that Chase bank did as the protesters were
gathering in Zuccotti park in New York,
was provide a pretty sizable donation to the New York police department.
I wonder why?
>> It's cop enthusiasts, they just like him.
Yeah, I know, but this again, this is classic America.
If you look at some of like the biggest individual instances of police brutality,
effectively putting down of insurrections.
It's sending in law enforcement to absolutely brutalize and murder miners in
some areas, striking workers, there is a long, robust history in the United States.
And thankfully people are paying attention.
That's what makes it a little bit harder.
It's a little bit harder to get cops to sign on to break a bunch of people's
skulls if the video is gonna be on twitter the next day.