Forging a Common Bond: Labor and Environmental Activism during the BASF Lockout.

Forging a Common Bond: Labor and Environmental Activism during the BASF Lockout. By Timothy J. Minchin. Foreword by John David Smith. New Perspectives on the History of the South. (Gainesville and other cities: University Press of Florida, 2003. Pp. xii, 233. $55.00, ISBN 0-8130-2580-X.)

Timothy J. Minchin relays a stripped-down and straightforward account of a significant victory for the labor movement of the 1980s. Beginning in 1984 and not fully resolved until 1989, Badiche Anilin and Soda-Fabrik Corporation (BASF) locked out Local 4-620 of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW) at their plant near Geismar, Louisiana, and hired replacement workers. The environmental activism of the union and its new community allies formed the most critical and unique tactic that pressured BASF to seek a resolution. To make this account concise and readable, Minchin made certain choices that more often raise questions than offer answers. Nevertheless, this is a significant work, revealing the potential linkages between labor and environmentalism.

In 1970 German-based BASF acquired a complex of chemical plants in Ascension Parish. Companies received generous tax exemptions and a free hand with regard to the environment. Through extensive oral interviews, Minchin paints a picture of happy and harmonious labor-management relations until a new BASF-North America CEO took over in 1979 and the Reagan administration established a hostile climate for unions. While management consistently claimed they only sought more flexibility and cost effectiveness in initiating the 1984 lockout, Minchin presents solid evidence that they were simply playing hardball to break the union, expecting little resistance in the South.

After a flawed swipe at stirring local patriotic support by highlighting the German company' s Nazi past, OCAW leadership realized that the lockout was a make-or-break showdown. They charted a new course and deftly directed a multifaceted campaign to link the union's struggles to corporate irresponsibility with pollutants that jeopardized the health and safety of the workers and the community. The most critical aspect of the campaign involved inspiring local environmental activism. The union helped start and then partnered with a local African American, grassroots organization to issue reports on air and water quality and petition the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regarding potential violations. They connected with the local Sierra Club and helped spawn a tax exemption watchdog group, a tactic that cost BASF $75 million in lost exemptions. The most effective and infamous tactic involved union members erecting several memorable billboard messages along Interstate 10 that highlighted the health and safety issues related to BASF.

The persistent campaign eventually wore down BASF's American management, who felt pressure to settle from their parent company and other chemical manufacturers in the area who disliked the growing exposure of the industry. The lockout ended for plant operators in 1987 but was not wholly resolved until 1989, after Governor Buddy Roemer unleashed a revitalized DEQ on the chemical industry in 1988.

The strength of this book is the narrative, emanating in part from the excellent oral interviews. Minchin interviewed dozens of union members, OCAW leaders, local activists, and politicians. He also sat down with key managers, especially former plant officials, who offered vital and candid perspectives regarding the purpose of the lockout and the pressures that ultimately prevailed upon BASF to end the lockout on favorable terms with the OCAW.

The weaknesses of the study also derive from Minchin's choice to focus on the story and the key players. He offers no traditional discussion of historiography. His background reading on environmental history seems particularly weak. He asserts that the lockout and the environmental activism are significant for the 1980s but offers little discussion even in the footnotes. With a little research one quickly learns that he is absolutely correct for the 1980s but that such alliances were not unprecedented. And although he does give some attention to racial issues, one senses that Minchin--who won an award for a study exploring race and unions in the South--consciously chose not to explore tantalizing tangents involving race too far. Similarly, while Minchin notes how the distinctive Cajun culture of the workers helped account for their amazing solidarity, he neglects analyzing any labor-management animosity stemming from regional origins--most managers being Yankees. Nevertheless, with a scholar of Minchin's caliber, one must trust the author's reasoning.

Minchin has made a major contribution to scholarship on the South and labor history simply by exploring the successful alliance between (at first) reluctant workers and environmental activists and causes, a bright spot during a decade of waning union strength. Ultimately, however, the tale highlights the need for more vigilance--old-fashioned, progressive-style concern and activism that we all should undertake.

DANIEL A. CLARK

Indiana State University