On Sun, 25 Jun 2000 16:27:02 +0100
"Keith Bennett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Please send again the other part (parts?) of this. I
> never received it.
>
> Thanks for all your good work!
>
> Keith
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 29, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
On the picket line
By Mary Owen
‘Parade of Rats’
A ferocious team of 10 giant, inflated pro-labor rats
spanned Union Square Park on June 15, standing guard over a
New York rally for the right to organize. The "Parade of
Rats" was part of the AFL-CIO's national "7 Days in June"
campaign. This campaign highlights workers' struggles to
gain what the AFL-CIO terms a "voice at work" by joining
unions.
"We're here at this big rat march to say to every rat out
there that if you try to jeopardize our jobs, we will step
on you," said Hector Figueroa of Service Employees Local
32B-32J, which represents building janitors and door
attendants. A delegation of janitors cheered as Figueroa
announced that the rally also coincided with "Justice for
Janitors Day."
The crowd represented a cross-section of labor struggles.
Workers from Time Warner Cable described their fight to join
the Communication Workers union. An African American band
from the Apollo Theater, which is trying to join Musicians
Local 802, belted out, "People around the world, join hands,
join a union, a union" to the tune of "Love Train."
Limousine drivers organizing with the Machinists union,
Longshore union members on strike at Domino Sugar, Mexican
grocery workers who have won victories with Local 169 of
UNITE, Museum of Modern Art strikers and New York University
graduate students fighting to be recognized as part of the
Auto Workers--all talked about the importance of solidarity
for their struggles.
Three years ago, New York had only one two-story inflated
rat, owned by the Building and Construction Trades. It
loomed outside non-union construction sites around the city.
A year later there were three or four union rats appearing
at scores of locations to draw attention to exploitative
bosses and help workers win their fight. Now, as organizing
has picked up, the inflated rat population has more than
doubled.
Most of the feisty rodents have a number of labor victories
to their credit, but their mission is far from complete. So
the crowd cheered when BCT President Ed Malloy promised, "If
any union has a problem with any employer or agency in the
city or the state, just call us up and we'll make sure our
rat is at your job!"
Strawberry pickers organize
Despite vicious efforts by strawberry bosses to thwart the
Farm Workers union, on May 4 the union gained the right to
represent more than 700 strawberry pickers in Oxnard, Calif.
A decision by the state's Agricultural Labor Relations Board
paved the way for Ventura County strawberry pickers to be
represented by the Farm Workers for the first time in two
decades.
However, the same ruling also contained a setback for straw
berry organizing. It allowed a bogus company union--Coastal
Berry of California Farm Workers Committee--to represent
about 1,200 pickers in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
The bosses in California's $600-million-a-year strawberry
industry have been dead set against the Farm Workers
representing any of the workers. While the AFL-CIO gave
unprecedented backing to the union's efforts to organize
more than 20,000 pickers, the bosses got busy undercutting
this campaign. The agribusiness giants organized the "Farm
Workers Committee" to counter the real union drive, and
fostered all kinds of intimidation and violence to deny
strawberry workers their right to genuine union
representation.
In this hostile climate, the boss-supported "Farm Workers
Committee" won a contested election last year. The Farm
Workers promptly filed over 200 objections, initiating a
lengthy hearing process. The union withdrew its objections
on May 3, a day before the labor board's decision. Union
leaders said they made this decision so bargaining could
move forward, and to avoid a long and bitter fight.
"Now our only objective is seeing strawberry pickers work to
produce genuine improvements in their lives through union
contracts," said Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.
The company union represents more workers. But the Farm
Workers union now represents pickers in Coastal Berry's
fastest-growing operation, along with another 40 workers at
Swanson Berry Farms, California's largest organic strawberry
farm. This constitutes a hard-won foothold for the Farm
Workers, given the vicious campaign the bosses have waged
against the union.
- END -
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