PHOTO/JAMES FASSINGER
DETROIT, MI — Nearly one year ago, Occupy Century Aluminum retirees were standing on this very spot, the median on Route 2 just outside of town, breaking down their winter encampment at the entrance to Century’s aluminum smelter in Ravenswood, West Virginia. Back then, as they packed up camp, they were celebrating a great victory in the fight for the return of their retiree health care benefits, cancelled by Century after the facility closed in 2009.
Today, Century has yet to fulfill their end of the bargain and return those benefits. Refusing to wait any longer, the retirees are back out here, again taking up the fight against the company. This 24-hour protest was just the start of new efforts to pressure the aluminum giant to honor the agreement reached with them on March 1, 2012.
In 2010 Karen Gorrell, wife of Century retiree Mike Gorrell, decided to take up the fight against the company after meeting Bryce Turner, also a retiree, and his wife at a local union meeting. Turner had just been diagnosed with leukemia and was uncertain how he was going to manage without health care. “They knew they worked in extremely hazardous conditions, so they knew that when they got older, they were desperately going to need their health care,” says Gorrell. It was then, she says, that she realized something had to be done, although taking on Century seemed impossible.
After seeing the Occupy movement take to the streets of cities across America in the fall of 2011, the retirees decided to occupy the entrance to the Century facility, camping out for 75 days straight during that winter. Eventually, Century came to the bargaining table.
Century, with the help of the retirees, then managed to negotiate new favorable tax legislation with West Virginia lawmakers, in addition to a deal with the Public Service Commission of West Virginia (PSC) that would potentially save the company over half a billion dollars in energy costs at the plant over the next decade.
Even after receiving promises of discount rates from the PSC, Century walked away from the deal in October.
The retirees are hopeful for a settlement but the reality of the plant’s reopening slips further away while Century continues to hold out on returning the health care it promised to give back. Now one year on, Occupy Century Retirees are tired of waiting.
“The retiree committee stands ready to commence negotiations necessary to put a new settlement into place which would restore retiree benefits, settle the litigation and get the plant up and running again,” said Gorrell.“It is now in Century’s hands.
Bryce Turner, the man who inspired Karen and the others to stand up against Century when this struggle began, died before he ever had his benefits returned. And now, with the clock ticking for all of them, Gorrell and the others continue their struggle once again to fight for their lives, in his honor.
