I went to the UPS picket line in Somerville, MA early last Friday evening.
This is the site that has had the most arrests of any in the country.
There was a rally Friday afternoon (that I did not know about in advance)
which had just ended. People were leaving the area as I got there,
including a group of pilots in uniform - a nice touch. What I know about
the rally is from tv news and the Boston Globe. There were a lot of signs
in the crowd from Jobs with Justice, in English and Spanish, and some JwJ
people were still there when I got there. (The former head of Boston JwJ
works at IBT Hdqtrs and is one of their main press contact people.)
Also visible in the tv coverage were lots of American flags. The strike
in the Boston area is getting a lot of support from local politicians. US
Representatives Joe Kennedy and Ed Markey spoke at the rally as well as
our new Republican Acting Governor Paul Cellucci. A state senator was
there and the state Senate President walked the picket line earlier in the
week. The Mayor of Somerville, a blue collar city just north of Boston,
pledged $1000 to the strike fund and apologized for the arrests that have
taken place. (Whether they will stop busting people remains to be seen.)
At the entrance to the industrial park where this UPS site is located a
banner strung over the street says that Somerville supports all working
men and women with the mayor's name underneath. Also lots of security at
the Holiday Inn at the edge of the industrial park. As mentioned in one
of Michael Eisenscher's posts, a judge in Boston delayed acting on UPS
request for an injunction against blocking trucks until today (Monday).
The reason given on the news here was that UPS had not sufficiently
documented how much of its losses were due to illegal activity (blocking
trucks) separately from losses from the strike itself which is legal
activity.
There is also a lot of coverage here of the businesses which are hurting
from the strike - but that is a measure of the leverage the Teamsters have
in the situation. UPS is an old company, but its recent expansion is
linked to the current economy which is dependent on speedy and flexible
response and the integration of telecommunications and transportation.
---------Laurie
