>
>On April 26, National Labor Relations Board General
>Counsel Leonard Page informed Kaiser Aluminum Corp. that he
>would charge the company with violating U.S. labor law. In
>a letter to Kaiser, Page said he would also order the
>company to reinstate all employees with full back pay and
>benefits retroactive to Jan. 14, 1999. That was the day
>Kaiser locked out some 3,000 members of the Steel Workers
>union after they ended a four-month strike.
>
>Page sent his letter to Kaiser one day after Kaiser
>executives walked out of a negotiating session with the
>union. Steel Workers Negotiating Committee Chair David
>Foster commented: "I find it incredible that Kaiser has
>chosen to spurn a negotiated settlement while it continues
>its illegal lockout of 2,900 USW members. ... Kaiser has
>made very clear that its real agenda in its war on its
>workers is destruction of their union and an absolute right
>to cut off all health insurance for 9,000 retirees and
>their spouses."
>
>TENTATIVE NWA CONTRACT
>
>Leaders of Teamsters Local 2000 announced April 20 that
>they had reached a tentative contract settlement at
>Northwest Airlines. It is the latest development in a long
>struggle by 11,000 NWA flight attendants to win wage and
>benefit improvements--after 10 years without a negotiated
>pay raise. Last summer, the rank and file rejected an
>earlier settlement by a three-to-one vote, sending
>negotiators back to the table. Now Local 2000 President
>Billie Davenport says the union got more. "The strongest
>part of this agreement is the retirement benefit, which is
>what our members told us to work on," she told reporters.
>That benefit nearly doubles in the tentative contract. The
>union also won slightly better pay raises than in the
>earlier settlement, the addition of a July 4 paid holiday,
>domestic-partner health benefits for same-sex couples, and
>some strengthened job-security language. However, the pact
>does not catch NWA workers up with flight attendants at
>other airlines, especially in terms of work rules and
>scheduling. And the provision for retroactive pay to 1996,
>which was seen as key, is considerably skimpier than what
>many had demanded.
>
>WAL-MART UNION YES!
>
>It will be a long struggle. The Walton family--the
>country's richest--will fight it all along the way. But the
>struggle will not stop. And ultimately the workers will
>win. The entire Wal-Mart chain will be unionized. For now,
>the steps are small. The latest came April 24, when an NLRB
>hearing officer in Dallas upheld the workers' side and
>dismissed Wal-Mart's appeal of a union vote by meat cutters
>in nearby Jacksonville, Texas. The tiny group of workers--
>10 of them--had voted in the Food and Commercial Workers in
>February. After the vote, Wal-Mart announced it would
>eliminate the entire butchering operation at 179 stores in
>six states, selling prepackaged meat rather than deal with
>unionized butchers.
>
>Meanwhile, meat and seafood workers at Wal-Mart stores in
>Palestine and Abilene, Texas, Normal, Ill., and Ocala,
>Fla., have petitioned for union-representation votes.
>Organizing efforts are under way at some 20 other sites
>around the country.
>
>WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
>
>On April 28, 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Health
>and Safety Act. Thirty years later, on April 28, 2000,
>workers around the country took part in rallies,
>demonstrations and other actions on Workers Memorial Day to
>call attention to the continuing scandal of on-the-job
>injury, illness and death in this country. The AFL-CIO
>released an annual report titled "Death on the Job: The
>Toll of Neglect." According to the report, some 6,000 U.S.
>workers died from on-the-job injuries last year. Fifty
>thousand died from occupational diseases. How many people
>were injured at work? An astonishing 5.9 million. One in 17
>workers suffered a work-related injury or illness.
>
>It's hard to say which is the most dangerous job. Mining
>is an obvious candidate. Construction work is deadly, too.
>Farm labor is lethal. So is truck driving. Yet there's
>nothing inevitable about dying on the job. The culprit is
>capitalism. If workers' safety replaced owners' profit as
>paramount, there would be a steep drop in occupational
>illness, injury and death.
>
>Occupational health and safety experts say the biggest
>non-fatal job safety problem in the United States today is
>repetitive strain injuries. Supermarket cashiers suffer
>from them. So do meat packers, auto assembly-line workers,
>and secretaries. Yet for 11 years Congress has refused to
>allow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to
>institute a new ergonomics standard that would force
>employers to address the working conditions that give rise
>to repetitive strain injuries. The labor movement is
>currently making a big push to win passage of the new
>ergonomics standard.
>
>
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <00ff01bfb74c$8cc9dbe0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Cleveland labor joins youth in rally for Mumia
>Date: Sat, 6 May 2000 07:16:38 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 11, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>CLEVELAND LABOR JOINS YOUTH IN RALLY FOR MUMIA
>
>By Martha Grevatt
>Cleveland
>
>Labor unionists joined students and anti-war activists in
>a militant picket line and rally in downtown Cleveland on
>April 29. Called by the Labor Action Committee for Justice
>for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the demonstration drew a multinational
>crowd.
>
>Protesters expressed their solidarity with students at
>Kent State University and Antioch College, who have come
>under fire from the police and media for inviting Abu-Jamal
>to speak on their campuses. They chanted, "Kent State,
>Antioch, the people will hear Mumia talk."
>
>Justin Hons of Kent State Anti-Racist Action spoke of
>plans to include a taped message from Abu-Jamal in an
>upcoming commemoration of the murders on May 4, 1970, when
>the government shot down students at Kent and at Jackson
>State in Mississippi who were protesting the war in
>Southeast Asia.
>
>Virginia Robinson, secretary of the Cleveland Federation
>of Labor, and Farm Labor Organizing Committee President and
>Ohio AFL-CIO Vice President Baldemar Velasquez stressed the
>need for labor to get more involved in demanding a new
>trial for Mumia.
>
>Martha Grevatt, national secretary of Pride At Work, the
>lesbian/gay/bi/trans caucus AFL-CIO, voiced that
>organization's support for Abu-Jamal and condemned
>conservative gays who have "exploited the Matthew Shepard
>tragedy to bolster a pro-death-penalty position."
>Nationally known actor and activist Vinie Burrows called on
>everyone to "pack Madison Square Garden on May 7."
>
>Other speakers represented the Jericho Movement, Women
>Speak Out for Peace and Justice, May 7 Mobilization,
>Northeast Ohio Coalition for Justice for Mumia, and the
>sponsoring Labor Action Committee. The picket line was
>widely publicized on television and in the print media.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <010501bfb74c$ad99ab70$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Providence: Case against racist killer cops gathers steam
>Date: Sat, 6 May 2000 07:17:21 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 11, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>PROVIDENCE, R.I.:
>CASE AGAINST RACIST KILLER COPS GATHERS STEAM
>
>By Michael Shaw
>Providence, R.I.
>
>Hopes for a just resolution to the Cornel Young Jr.
>tragedy were revived on April 27 when lawyer Johnnie
>Cochran filed a $20 million wrongful-death and civil-rights
>claim on behalf of the slain Black police officer's estate
>and his mother Leisha Young.
>
>On Jan. 28, Young--who was off duty--was shot and killed
>by Officers Carlos Saraiva and Michael Solitro as he
>emerged from an all-night diner on Federal Hill to assist
>them in handling a disturbance outside the restaurant.
>
>The scene was well lit. Young was the son of the highest-
>ranking police officer of color on the Providence force.
>And Saraiva and Young were in the same graduating class at
>the Providence Police Academy.
>
>Yet both cops who fired on Young claim they didn't
>recognize their victim.
>
>Saraiva had remained on the force despite an incident a
>few months earlier in which he reportedly shot an unarmed
>person, Raphael Nunez, once in each leg after Nunez asked
>the officer for his badge number.
>
>Young's killing made nationwide news as a clear-cut
>example of police racism. Yet despite immediate public
>outcry, Rhode Island law-enforcement officials have done
>nothing to punish these killers in blue. On the contrary,
>they have arrogantly resisted the widespread demands for
>justice.
>
>As a result, the Coalition for Justice and Community
>Reconciliation was formed after Young's death. The group--
>made up of clergy and grassroots activists--organized a
>rousing march against racism and police bru tality that
>took place in Providence April 8.
>
>The coalition has also put forward demands, including the
>establishment of a civilian review board of the police and
>the resignations of Providence Mayor Vincent `Buddy' Cianci
>Jr., Police Chief Urbano Prignano Jr. and Public Safety
>Director John. J. Partington.
>
>Cochran is supporting local clergy and community leaders
>who maintain that the fact that Young was Black played a
>role in the shooting. These leaders have consistently
>charged that law enforcement's investigation of the Young
>case was incomplete and biased toward exonerating the white
>officers.
>
>The pending lawsuit will also have the legal help of
>lawyers Barry Sheck and Peter Neufeld. Neufeld said the
>lawyers would carry out a "full public" investigation. Up
>until this point, he continued, "all that happened was a
>secret, closed grand jury." Neufeld said the legal team
>would attempt to "make that whole process public."
>
>Clifford Monteiro, president of the Providence branch of
>the NAACP, said that "this will be the most investigated
>case in the history of Rhode Island."
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <010b01bfb74c$d9206680$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Interview with socialist candidate
>Date: Sat, 6 May 2000 07:18:46 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 11, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>INTERVIEW WITH SOCIALIST CANDIDATE:
>
>"SOLVE JUVENILE INJUSTICE CRISIS
>WITH JOBS AND SCHOOLS, NOT JAILS"
>
>By Workers World
>New York bureau
>
>[A major report entitled "And Justice for Some" was
>released at the end of April. Commissioned by the U.S.
>Justice Department, it studies the situation of youths
>caught up in the criminal justice system. WW interviewed
>Monica Moorehead, coordinator of the May 7 Day for Mumia
>and Workers World Party's candidate for president, about
>the report.]
>
>
>
>WORKERS WORLD: WHAT DOES THE REPORT SHOW?
>
>MONICA MOOREHEAD: It confirms what Black and Latino
>communities in the United States have known for many years-
>-that the most extreme forms of racism permeate the police,
>the courts and the prisons, especially in cases where
>youths of color are involved.
>
>For example, the report found that Black youths with clean
>records are nine times more likely to be jailed for a
>violent crime than white youths facing similar charges. In
>cases involving violent acts, white youths are jailed for
>193 days on average, African Americans for 254 days, and
>Latinos for 305 days.
>
>When drugs are involved, Black youths are 48 times more
>likely to be sentenced to juvenile prison than whites!
>
>And this is just the tip of the iceberg. African
>Americans, Latinos and other people of color make up a
>disproportionate number of the 2 million people in U.S.
>prisons and the 3,600 on death row.
>
>WW: WHY ARE BLACK AND LATIN YOUTHS BEING SINGLED OUT
>FOR REPRESSION?
>
>MM: Wall Street is making billions of dollars in profits
>from the expansion of the prison-industrial complex. The
>so-called corrections industry is now one of the largest in
>the United States.
>
>Keeping the working class divided by scapegoating youths
>of color to justify more prisons and stiffer sentences is
>good business for them.
>
>This is a crisis of capitalism. And it's an emergency
>situation for the oppressed communities.
>
>It's a crisis for the labor movement as well. At this
>rate, the next generation of workers will be in prisons,
>not in unions.
>
>Prison labor in the U.S. is essentially slave labor.
>Prisoners are paid pennies for their work, if anything. In
>the South it's not uncommon to see chain gangs of all Black
>prisoners working in the fields under the eyes of armed,
>white overseers.
>
>The prison-industrial complex is, as Mumia so well
>described it, "New-age slavery."
>
>Young people need jobs and schools, not more jails. They
>need to remain in their communities, not be sent to far-off
>prisons away from family and friends.
>
>WW: WHAT CAN POOR AND WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES DO
>TO END THE CRISIS?
>
>MM: My running mate, Gloria La Riva, and I are calling for
>independent mass meetings to be organized throughout the
>country, in every city, neighborhood, school and work
>place, to take up this crisis and to find people's
>solutions.
>
>As a first step, we are calling for the confiscation of
>prison industry profits. That money has been robbed from
>the very lives and labor of oppressed people in this
>country. It must be used to create decent jobs and better
>schools for our young people.
>
>We want to take away Wall Street's blood money. Take the
>profits from drug-laundering banks like Chase, BankAmerica
>and J.P. Morgan and put the money into on-demand drug
>treatment programs, hospitals and community centers.
>
>We also call for community control of the police. This
>means giving the community the power to hire, fire and
>discipline the cops.
>
>It means the community has the right to say to the
>government and police: "You are an occupying force and we
>don't want you here. Get out."
>
>Ultimately, we need to remove the racist profiteers from
>power by overthrowing the capitalist system. We need to
>build a socialist society based on public ownership and
>working-class solidarity, where every youth has the
>opportunity to reach her or his full potential.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
__________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki - Finland
+358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
___________________________________
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe/unsubscribe messages
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
___________________________________
