UAW sets national priorities
DETROIT – “The only time I’m going backward is when I’m in my car backing out of a parking spot,” said United Auto Workers President Ron Gettlefinger at a press conference at the union’s Solidarity House, June 17.
Building community the union way
How do you fight diabetes by kissing a pig? Midge Collette, the president of Amalgamated United Auto Workers Local 292 in Kokomo, Ind., knows. After the members of her union, who build auto parts at the Delphi Delco plant, raised over $7,000 for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) last February, she was awarded the honor of kissing Mr. Wiggles, a large pot-bellied beast used by the ADA for the purpose.
Day laborers fight for justice
CHICAGO – The Workers’ Center was up in two hours. The work was done July 2 by about 25 Latino immigrant day laborers who took up a collection, bought some two-by-fours and plywood, and nailed them together. They were constructing a hiring site in an abandoned city bus turnaround in the Albany Park neighborhood.
Unemployment up, Black youth hardest hit
Nothing in the June unemployment report – unemployment up 0.3 percent to 6.4 percent with 11 million workers either unemployed, forced to work part-time or too “discouraged” to look for non-existent jobs, and two million workers out of work for 27 weeks or more – is cause for celebration.
Union solidarity gets the job done!
Workers’ correspondence Creative tactics on the part of 360 workers at Johanna Foods’ Flemington, N.J., plant, overcame a “take it or leave it” proposal by company president Robert Fascina that included a new 50 percent co-pay on healthcare and meager 5 cent per hour yearly raises.
Lorenzo and Anita Torrez honored at CPUSA meeting
In an emotional program that frequently brought audience members to their feet and provoked shouts of “Si, se puede!”, Anita and Lorenzo Torrez, two participants in the historic filming of Salt of the Earth, were honored at a special session of the CPUSA’s national committee on June 28.
Teamsters join Seamsters to clean up laundry
Forming a landmark partnership, two international unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) announced a joint effort to bring safe working conditions, dignity, and a decent standard of living to 17,000 workers at the nation’s largest industrial laundry.
Workers tell Bush: Hands off overtime
WASHINGTON – Hundreds of angry workers from across the nation picketed the U.S. Labor Department June 30 to protest a new Bush administration regulation that could terminate overtime pay for eight million workers.
Latin America fights neolibralism
When the Peruvian trade union movement organized demonstrations this month in support of the public school teachers’ strike and against the government-imposed State of Emergency, the demonstrations turned into protests against President Alejandro Toledo’s neoliberal economic policies as a whole and not just the trade union issues.
Starbucks hit for Cintas contract
Across the country last week, upscale coffee company Starbucks felt the heat for contracting with union-buster Cintas Corp. to launder aprons, mats and linens. Cintas has been cited repeatedly for breaking the law by discriminating, dumping untreated wastewater, and violating labor law.
