PROVIDENCE RI - When the USWA workers at Union Paper went on strike in
February, local IWW (Industrial Workers of the World - a labor union)
members immediately leapt up to lend a hand to our fellow workers in
need. Acting on the belief that an injury to one is an injury to all,
several wobs showed up on the picket line when their schedule allowed.
The third night of the strike the entire General Membership Branch came
out to deliver hot coffee and solidarity.
One of our members works at a non-union shop that uses Union Paper. This
wob berated the delivery driver for scabbing on his fellow workers and
refused to receive their shipments. These actions led not to the wobbly
being fired but to the employer agreeing to cancel their orders from
Union Paper.
The wob who's spent the most time on the picket line is a young fellow
worker named Alex. He's gone to more of his fair share of the brutal 3-5
a.m. shifts on the picket line. On Monday, March 3rd he braved
subfreezing temperatures to show his solidarity with the strikers. From
3:00 a.m. until 4:30 a.m. the strikers mainly stayed huddled in a
makeshift shelter constructed with 2x4s and tarp. At 4:30 the scabs
arrived and the steelworkers threw up their picket line.
The owner of Union Paper, Harley Frank, saw that someone who was not one
of his employees was walking the picket line. He became enraged at this
show of community support and screamed that he was going to have Alex
arrested. "Get out of the way! Who are you? You're trespassing! Take
his picture! I want him arrested! Now! I'm going to arrest you! What's
your name?" he yelled. Alex merely replied that his name was
"Joe Hill" and kept walking.
The police, for some reason obeying the orders of a business owner who
has not paid his city taxes, followed Alex and arrested him as he was
walking home. The cop started asking Alex questions and Alex refused to
answer without a lawyer. He was told he was being a "smartass"
and denied a lawyer because he wasn't under arrest - just being detained
in the back of a police car. He asked if that meant he was free to go and
he was told he wasn't free to go because he wouldn't tell the cop his
name or answer his questions. The police became angry that Alex was
asserting his constitutional right to remain silent, and finally cuffed
and illegally searched him. Alex stated that he did not consent to the
search and asked to see a warrant and the cop told him he didn't care.
The police took his wallet and chortled when they found his ID, telling
him "now we know your name." They gave Alex his wallet back and
he would later find that they had stolen his money, his ATM cards, and
his state ID. This was their way of punishing him for wanting a lawyer
when he was wrongfully arrested.
The cop drove around with Alex in the back of the car talking to
headquarters trying to figure out if there was anything they could charge
him with. Unfortunately for the police, "solidarity" is not a
crime. When the officer came to the conclusion that Alex had not done
anything illegal, he decided he would commit the wob for psychological
examination instead.
Our fellow worker was driven to the hospital and held for four hours in
the emergency room until his doctor's office opened. There was, of
course, nothing wrong with Alex aside from a mild subservience deficiency
and an inflamed desire for social justice. But to a cop angry because he
can't throw you in jail without reason, I guess those things look like
insanity.
Link:
http://davidgrenie.com/journal/146
