People Before Profit blog

EDITORIAL: The auto strike

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:21:00 +0000

As we go to press, the United Auto Workers has called a time out in its strike against General Motors pending membership ratification of a new contract. It’s expected that the contract will be ratified quickly. While we do not yet know the full terms of the contract, it most likely contains concessions. In today’s political climate, and in the face of capitalist globalization, the balance of class forces often makes it a victory if unions can just hold on.

What may be most important about this first nationwide strike against GM in over 30 years is the quick solidarity it generated from millions of workers around the country. The Teamsters, who haul parts and finished cars for the auto industry, immediately stopped at the picket lines. Teamster solidarity instantly led to parts shortages and plant shutdowns in both Mexico and Canada, where workers also expressed solidarity with U.S. workers. The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win unions at once pledged full support. Spontaneously, around the country workers, unions and even whole communities jumped in with refreshments and solidarity on the picket lines.

This response is a great modern day illustration of a critical idea in the Communist Manifesto: “Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. [emphasis added]”

The instant solidarity went beyond simply trade union unity. It was a much higher level of class solidarity. All the messages of support stressed stopping the corporate attack on working men and women.

Corporate class warfare was most apparent in this strike. Wall Street gloated over the strike with fierce calls on GM to “finally” take the UAW on and smash it. But the autoworkers stood their ground and were even a bit surprised that so much of labor stood ready to fight with them. This GM strike is a hint of the changing mood of the working class.

No matter the contract details, the strike illustrates key points in an emerging political action program for labor: national health care and retirement security; a demand that giant corporations reinvest in manufacturing to preserve jobs and a sustainable economy in the U.S.; workers’ rights and organizing rights. Thirty years of economic and political attacks on labor have taken their toll, but the sleeping giant is awakening.

U. Minn. workers to vote on contract

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:55:00 +0000

As union leaders emphasized that the struggle will continue, the AFSCME negotiating committee at the University of Minnesota decided last week to call off the union’s strike and submit the administration’s contract offer to the membership without a “yes” recommendation.

Members of four AFSCME locals representing some 3,500 university technical, clerical and health care workers struck Sept. 5 over pay issues.

Strike supporters said that after a marathon 15-hour session Sept. 20, the university refused to alter its previous offer, though the strikers had earlier soundly rejected it.

The administration’s proposed two-year contract includes cost-of-living increases of 2.25-2.5 percent, plus steps and a $300 lump sum payment in each year.

The negotiating committee acted as the loss of wages and the impending loss of health coverage were placing severe economic stress on many strikers. AFSCME members will vote next month whether to accept the offer or “reject and strike,” which would authorize a new walkout 10 or more days after the vote.

Conn. AFL-CIO stresses worker unity

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:53:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Defending immigrant rights, ending the war in Iraq, winning quality health care and organizing the unorganized topped the agenda of the 50th anniversary convention of the Connecticut AFL-CIO here last week.

The convention took a stand for immigrant rights through a special resolution, several speeches and a workshop with extended discussion so delegates could bring the message back to their members. The state federation also joined New Haven leaders in a press conference to tell Congress that “immigrant rights are human rights.”

Welcoming the convention to New Haven, Mayor John DeStefano urged the labor movement to organize immigrant workers “who want to work hard, play fair, and see their children do better.” New Haven has been under attack by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and anti-immigrant, white supremacist groups since offering a municipal ID to residents regardless of age or immigration status.

“As a movement, we are the only thing standing in between the multinationals and the people,” said Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olsen. “We can’t let our nation become fascist where agents kick doors in and take people away. We have to talk so we won’t let them use hate to manipulate our fears.”

Addressing both the convention and the workshop, AFL-CIO representative Eddie Acosta told of his experiences bringing day laborers’ worker centers closer to unions to raise standards for all workers.

“The multinational corporations are driving trade policy and labor policy to maximize profits. They will search for labor anywhere in the world to make that money,” said Acosta. “These are the same forces that are driving immigration policy, and that want to cut taxes on the wealthy and privatize public services.”

Two Carpenters union members who are recent immigrants told of extreme employer abuse before they joined the union. “I had no overtime after 40 hours, and no benefits. With the union I have training, a pension and safety on the job,” one declared.

A member of Justice for Janitors SEIU 32BJ told how he was forced to leave his family in Colombia because of violence and economic hardship. After working in Hartford for 10 years he became a citizen, “and I vote,” he exclaimed to applause.

“Our union is diverse, Polish, African American, white and Latino,” the worker said. “Thanks to the union we have health care, economic stability and respect. We support immigration reform and universal health care so we all can have a better future for ourselves and for America. Immigrant doesn’t mean criminal.”

Following the workshop, participants joined a press conference hosted by the Connecticut Center for a New Economy (CCNE) to present a statement to Congress signed by 140 clergy, elected officials, labor and community leaders.

The statement, “Immigrant Rights are Human Rights,” calls for a moratorium on raids and outlines the principles upon which Congress should carry out comprehensive immigration reform.

The six principles, read by African American, Latino and white signers of the statement, include protecting family unity and the well-being and safety of all children, immigrant and U.S. citizen; protecting and expanding labor rights and working conditions of U.S. and immigrant workers; strengthening due process for immigrants; providing a way for undocumented immigrants contributing to society through labor and taxes to legalize their status and gain citizenship; creating a fair and responsive system of legal immigration; and revising international trade policies contributing to undocumented immigration.

“This is an historic day for the city of New Haven,” said Fatima Rojas of CCNE. Kica Matos, representing Mayor DeStefano, responded, “New Haven City Hall fully embraces this eloquent statement which recognizes the right to be free of fear and want.”

“The Connecticut AFL-CIO signs onto this statement,” said President John Olsen. “We commit ourselves to work with the New Haven community and every community for workers’ rights.”

In other business, the convention passed resolutions expressing solidarity with Big Three autoworkers calling on labor bodies to participate in the Oct. 27 regional demonstrations to end the Iraq war, and pledging to become active with the NAACP and others in support of the Jena Six.

joelle.fishman @pobox.com

Mexico City poised to adopt jobless insurance

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:46:00 +0000

MEXICO CITY — The Federal District (DF), the area that encompasses Mexico City, continues to be in the forefront of progressive social change in Mexico, as the district’s left-wing government has announced plans to set up an unemployment insurance program. And its passage in the Legislative Assembly here seems likely.

Currently, there are no income support programs for unemployed workers in Mexico, as exist in most developed countries such as Canada, the United States and France. In a country where unemployment is high and jobs scarce, those who lose their jobs face destitution and hunger.

Marcelo Ebrard, who heads the DF’s Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) government, said his administration will pay those who lose their jobs 1,500 pesos (US$140) per month for up to six months. Applicants will have to undergo job retraining programs, provided free of charge by the DF government, to qualify for the benefit.

Ebrard said his government will use funds it saved from a recent deal signed with big banks that restructured the DF’s long-term debt to finance the unemployment insurance program.

La Jornada, the popular daily newspaper, said, “The realization of this project would mark, without doubt, a social milestone in the country’s history.”

The DF’s Legislative Assembly will vote on a bill establishing unemployment insurance in December. Given that the PRD and its allies hold a majority of seats, the bill will likely pass.

The far-right National Action Party, in both the DF’s Legislative Assembly and at the national level, is opposing the Ebrard government’s unemployment insurance scheme on grounds that it will increase unemployment. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, a PAN leader, said recently that the DF’s government should be investing in new waterworks projects instead of in measures to help the unemployed.

Ebrard responded by saying that he is following the recommendations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), of which Mexico is a member. The OECD proposes that governments implement unemployment insurance programs, which, it said, can “yield high social returns.”

Alluding to critics, Miron Lince, the DF’s labor minister, said that when it comes to support for big business, such as subsidies or tax write-offs, no one says anything. “When we outline directing resources to the poor, we enter into uncertainty until alerts about risks of the city going bankrupt, as happened with the program for older adults [the universal pension system that the previous administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador set up for those over 70],” he said.

Already, the DF’s government provides a broad range of social programs, from pensions and economic support for single mothers and poor students to free medical care for the poor. Outside the DF, Mexico is nearly devoid of social programs to combat poverty.

Ebrard took over from Lopez Obrador and Alejandro Encinas. Apart from adding to social programs established by Lopez Obrador and Encinas, Ebrard’s government has implemented other progressive measures since his election in July 2006. It championed allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions and supported the legalization of abortion, taking on Mexico’s powerful Catholic and evangelical churches. Both opposed the two changes, especially the legalization of abortion, organizing street demonstrations and threatening acts of civil disobedience.

The Ebrard government is also undertaking or contemplating other far-reaching measures. It plans to strengthen laws protecting women. It is also considering the legalization of euthanasia, allowing those suffering from painful, terminal illnesses to end their lives in a humane manner.

In a bid to improve air quality and lower greenhouse gases responsible for global warming in one of the world’s most polluted and car congested cities, Ebrard has stopped building roads and is focusing instead on providing more public transportation and promoting bicycle use. Once a month all government ministers, including Ebrard, must ride their bikes to work. Next year, city residents will not be able to drive their cars downtown 10 Saturdays a year.

tpelzer @shaw.ca

Solidarity and Mexican truckers

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:52:00 +0000

The U.S. Senate voted 75-23 Sept. 11 to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. highways. The vote rejected a Bush administration program that would allow Mexican truck drivers to operate beyond commercial zones near the Mexican border.

The Teamsters Union had gone to court in San Francisco Aug. 30, demanding that the judge ban the Bush-run Transportation Department’s “pilot program,” which would let trucks from 38 selected Mexican firms roll unhampered over all U.S. highways.

Included on the list of those in the Senate who supported the Mexican truck ban are Democratic presidential candidates Biden, Clinton, Dodd and Obama and many other Democrats with good labor records, including Barbara Boxer, Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Harry Reid and Edward Kennedy.

The Senate deserves to be applauded for this move. The real issue here is the North America Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA allows corporations to go to Mexico, exploit cheap labor and create intolerable conditions that force workers to emigrate. At the same time, NAFTA creates joblessness, lower wages and worse working conditions in the United States. NAFTA hurts workers in both Mexico and the U.S.

Currently, Mexican trucks are restricted to zones within 20 miles of the U.S. border. NAFTA contains a provision that says these trucks should be able to travel throughout the U.S., provided they pass U.S. safety standards. U.S. standards include minimum safety requirements and drug tests for drivers.

The Bush administration had picked 38 Mexican companies to be the first to be allowed to operate trucks throughout the U.S., falsely claiming that it selected those companies because they met the standards.

In fact, the companies did not meet the standards, and they pay their workers very low wages and provide few, if any, benefits. They are either subsidiaries of U.S. firms or connected to U.S. firms looking to find ways of evading responsibility to pay good wages and benefits to workers in the U.S. and Mexico. Opening U.S. highways to these companies would only keep the standards low in Mexico and put downward pressure on wages and working conditions in the United States.

It should be noted, however, that some of those who supported the ban on Mexican trucks did so in ways that are wrong and even dangerous. They resorted to anti-Mexican fear-mongering which, in the end, can only backfire against trade union and progressive forces here in the U.S.

Some, for example, made “drug testing” of Mexican truck drivers the big issue. Their concern about drug use evaporates, however, when it really counts. Many U.S. truck drivers who work for nonunion companies in a deregulated industry are forced to work 14-hour shifts to meet delivery deadlines. Some have taken drugs to stay awake. Most truck drivers, U.S. and Mexican, would choose good salaries, humane working conditions and reasonable hours instead of long hauls and drug-assisted attempts to stay awake.

Some who fought for the ban supported anti-Mexican attitudes in general, claiming U.S. workers should have nothing to do with Mexican truck drivers or immigrant workers, period. If this idea prevails, the fight for justice for U.S. workers will never be won.

The approach to Mexican workers or any immigrant workers on the job in the United States must be one of fighting for union rights and union wages for these workers, and for paths to citizenship for immigrants, if citizenship is what they want. This approach will result in an upward pressure on the wages and working conditions of all U.S. workers, the opposite of what would happen if the Mexican trucks rolled on all U.S. highways.

Some of the individuals who opposed the ban on Mexican trucks claimed they did so because they opposed discrimination against Mexico and Mexicans. In the Senate, these crusaders against “discrimination” included Republicans Cochran, Domenici, Lott, Lugar and Sununu, all with right-wing, anti-labor and anti-immigrant records.

If this crowd was serious about fighting discrimination against Mexicans, they would support citizenship rights for all immigrants and union rights and wages for all workers. Fat chance!

Allowing 38 Mexican companies favored by Bush because of how thoroughly they exploit their workers to operate with impunity all over the U.S. is not the way to fight discrimination against Mexico, Mexicans or anyone else.

What is especially needed at this time is labor solidarity. U.S. workers must join hands with Mexican workers in this fight for justice for all of us.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney put it this way recently: “American labor is as concerned about the rights of workers all over the world as it is about the rights of workers here in America. The two cannot be separated.”

John Wojcik (jwocik @pww.org) is People’s Weekly World labor editor.

Striking loggers, environmentalists unite

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:56:00 +0000

Urge shoppers: Don’t buy Western Forest products

PITTSBURGH — In front of 100 Home Depot stores in Canada and the United States, members of the United Steelworkers and environmental activists from the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Network will be distributing flyers, Sept. 29, asking shoppers not to buy wood products with Western Forest Products, Interfor and Weyerhaeuser (Cedar One) logos. More than 7,000 loggers and sawmill workers from five local unions affiliated with USW have been on strike in the Canadian northwest since July 21. Their goal is to win an ironclad contract which lessens the hours of work and protects their health and safety.

Workers’ lives are on the line, says British Columbia-based USW Director Steve Hunt, a former miner. “Since 2005, 65 loggers, sawmill workers and truck drivers have been killed at work,” he said in a telephone interview, amid a din of activity at the union hall. “We believe the fatigue factor plays a fatal role. Tree harvest is dangerous work in remote locations. In 2004, the companies, backed by the provincial government, changed the laws governing hours at work. Now, drivers or workers in the forests or sawmills can be on the job 16 hours a day, with alternating shifts. It is dangerous, deadly. We had enough.”

A 2006 coroner’s jury investigating the deaths of forest workers concluded that long hours of work and the corporations’ practice of contracting out jobs proved a fatal combination.

Forest workers are on the road long before the sun comes up and after it sets. Moving logs from the forests to sawmills and other processing facilities means drivers spend hours behind the wheel, hauling heavy loads on mountainous roads. Falling trees, irregular terrain, miserable weather and heavy equipment create a work environment that is perilous for the untrained or tired.

“We are not angry with Home Depot,” Hunt said. “We just want to show the companies that they can not hide injustice in the remote forests of Western Canada. Picket lines are important, but reaching out is more important to compel them to come back to the [bargaining] table.”

Forest workers and environmentalists sat down and hammered out a working coalition. Recently, they stopped a logging shipment destined for processing in the U.S.

“We make a powerful team,” says Hunt. “We stopped them from moving product. To do that it takes a big, dedicated group. We got to know each other when we were trying to stop the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Now, we are standing together for dignity.”

When the Home Depot informational campaign began last month in Canada, the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Network joined forest workers in front of the stores. Now they have joined forces to cover stores in both countries.

Since NAFTA lifted tariffs on Canadian wood products coming into the U.S., coupled with the housing boom, corporations are making a killing. While the trade agreement protects and promotes corporate profits, it is dangerous to workers and all residents in North America because it does not provide health and safety standards or environmental regulation.

dwinebr696 @aol.com

Meatpackers union sues on immigration raids

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:04:00 +0000

Mike Graves, a 21-year veteran at the Swift & Co. plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, stood in front of a crowd of reporters in Washington, D.C., Sept. 12 and held a pair of handcuffs high over his head. Graves is a U.S. citizen who moved from his home in Mississippi 22 years ago and went to work as a meatpacker in Iowa.

“I was arrested last Dec. 12 for doing my job,” he told the World in a phone interview. “They took 400 of us into the cafeteria where they searched and handcuffed us. Then they started to interrogate us one by one. They told me that if I was really from Mississippi I should be able to give them driving directions to Mississippi from Iowa. They kept us in there with no access to lawyers, no food or water, and did not even allow us to use the bathroom for 12 hours.”

After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was finished with the 400 workers in Marshalltown, its agents continued the terror by rounding up 11,600 additional union workers at Swift plants in Hyrum, Utah, Cactus, Texas, Greeley, Colo., Grand Island, Neb., and Worthington, Minn. Every single union member arrested was found to be either a permanent resident or a U.S. citizen, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers, the union that represents the workers.

Without warrants, the Bush administration had arrested all 12,000 on suspicion of being “illegal immigrants.”

Nine months later, the workers and their union held the Sept. 12 press conference to begin their fightback. The UFCW sued federal immigration authorities that day, alleging agents violated the workers’ rights.

The union and eight workers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit seek not only unspecified

damages but also an order to stop ICE from conducting what the UFCW says are illegal raids. The suit says that 12,000 workers suffered false imprisonment and abuse during the raids.

A spokesman for Swift, which is not involved in the lawsuit, says the company lost $50 million because of the raids.

UFCW President Joseph Hansen told the World, “What happened to the Swift workers is something that should never, ever happen in America. This is absolutely an outrage.”

Hansen said, “These are men and women, hard workers, who were taken and handcuffed. Then they were held for many hours and denied access to telephones, bathrooms, legal counseling and their families.”

Sergio Rodriguez, a union worker arrested in the Greeley, Texas, raid, told reporters, “I am a U.S. citizen and I was held all day in handcuffs with no water and not allowed to go to the bathroom. They [the agents] kept firing rifles into the air to scare the people.”

Adding insult to injury, ICE agents returned to the same plants in July and arrested 20 more people, including a human resources manager and a union representative, on charges of recruiting and harboring illegal immigrants. The latter two cases are still pending.

The union lawsuit, filed in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, names as defendants Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Assistant Secretary Julie Meyers, the Homeland Security Department, ICE and unnamed federal agents who conducted the raids.

Peter Schey, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights and Consitutional Law, is the lead counsel in the UFCW lawsuit.

“What they have done here is a constitutional no-no,” he said. “The Department of Homeland Security violates the Constitution and federal law when it conducts workplace raids by engaging in mass detentions of all workers without any basis for believing they have all violated any laws. Such mass detentions have long been considered unlawful by the U.S. courts. … If Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff is unwilling or unable to stop the unconstitutional conduct of his agents, then we are sure the federal courts will step in to do so.”

Hansen said, “Our purpose is to protect all workers in all industries and to protect all Americans. Workers in the United States don’t expect that just by going to work they can have their constitutional rights violated and that government agents will storm their workplaces in riot gear and with guns drawn.” He added, “Workers don’t expect such conduct because this is America and there is a constitution to protect their rights.”

The UFCW, Hansen said, will also press Congress to hold hearings on the issue.

jwojcik@pww.org

Panel OKs bill overturning Kentucky River/NLRB decisions

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:56:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI)--By a 26-20 party-line vote 11 months after the rulings were issued, the Democratic-run House Education and Labor Committee voted Sept. 19 to overturn the National Labor Relations Board’s “workers are supervisors” decisions.

If approved by Congress and signed by anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush—an unlikely prospect—the legislation would bar companies from arbitrarily declaring 8 million-34 million workers are “supervisors,” unprotected by labor law and open to harassment, firing, arbitrary management decisions and even forced participation in anti-union campaigns.

The Bush-named GOP majority on the NLRB, in what are called the Kentucky River decisions, named for the nursing home that first claimed its nurses are supervisors, said nurses could be supervisors if they undertook supervisory duties as little as 10 percent-15 percent of the time.

And any one of 12 duties, including hiring, firing, evaluation, ordering a lower-ranking staffer to do something, and so on, could make a worker a supervisor.

But Kentucky River didn’t cover just nurses. Analysis of federal occupational data by the Economic Policy Institute showed 8 million workers could be arbitrarily declared “supervisors.” The highest percentage of “supervisors” would be among physicians’ assistants. But other professions—construction workers, newspaper reporters, kindergarten teachers and various aides—could be “supervisors,” too.

And the dissenting Democrats on the NLRB said the Kentucky River rulings could make up to 34 million workers supervisors.

The legislation, HR 1644 by Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) says any worker who “assigns” another worker to do something for short periods of time—such as charge nurses assigning aides or construction workers teaching apprentices—or “has a responsibility to direct” another worker is not a supervisor. HR 1644 also says a person has to be a supervisor a majority of his or her working time to be considered a supervisor, unprotected by labor law.

Andrews said his bill “will overturn the misguided decision of the NLRB in the Kentucky River trilogy and restore the law back to Congress’ original intent. The affirmative vote of all of my Democratic colleagues will protect the right to organize and collectively bargain for millions of American workers.”

Right Wing Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), the panel’s top Republican, called the legislation “a transparent attempt by Big Labor to increase the ranks of dues-paying union members.”

EDITORIAL: Age of anxiety

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:43:00 +0000

Saying that the 130 million workers in the U.S. are worried about the economy is like saying Barry Bonds can hit home runs or Peyton Manning can throw a football.

The stock market gyrations have grabbed headlines, but the worry among working families, which helped propel Democrats into Congress last fall, is the canary in the mine, sounding a warning. Even business reporters in the corporate media are hesitating in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis and the dramatic decline in home buying.

For the first time since 2003, the Labor Department reported a net job loss in August. They put the number at 4,000. It doesn’t sound like that much, but it’s serious because our economy needs to add 120,000-140,000 new jobs each month to absorb the new workers looking for work.

The mortgage crisis got the attention of the Bush administration, which moved swiftly to pump taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars into financial institutions to stave off their collapse, with crumbs for some borrowers. Many Americans wonder when the government will step in to help working families. Just ask folks from New Orleans. Working families create all the wealth that is the hallmark of this country, yet when they are in trouble, the federal vaults are locked.

While economic gurus debate whether a recession is on the horizon, one thing is clear: Bush’s “ownership society” is phony through and through. Some say the Bush far-right program is really a “you’re on your own” society — with working people, the poor, the elderly, racial and ethnic minorities, women and youth all “on our own” at the mercy of uncontrolled capitalist scavengers.

Rugged individualism is not the answer. Our solutions lie in unity and collective action.

The first steps are reaching out to help neighbors facing foreclosure, and joining with co-workers to see how working together can organize a union or dump the local Republicans.

And lets bury, deep beneath our pile of bills, the worn out cliché that the “government can’t do anything.” Only a government elected and pushed by the people to serve all the people can deliver solutions to capitalism run amok.

Students and teachers back university strike

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:41:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS — Members of four locals of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) representing 3,500 clerical, technical and health care workers at the University of Minnesota walked out Sept. 5 over pay issues. The university has offered wage increases of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent, which the union points out do not keep up with projected inflation rates of 3.5 percent. Strikers are encouraged by the stronger support the strike is getting compared to a similar one in 2003.

Amid cheering workers, students and faculty at a strike rally on Sept. 6, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, spoke in support of U of M strikers. She said she and her husband support unions across the country including the workers here.

In order not to cross picket lines, Sen. Barack Obama, also a presidential candidate, cancelled his scheduled campus appearance on Sept. 15.

Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, pledged the support of tens of thousands of AFSCME members in Minnesota. Additional messages of solidarity were received from other unions.

U of M Regent Steven Hunter urged the university to negotiate. After protesters shut down a Board of Regents meeting Sept. 6, demanding that the regents end the strike by offering AFSCME workers a just wage increase, Hunter, who is also secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, said the university should get back to the bargaining table. No talks had taken place since the previous week.

The regents were forced to adjourn their meeting. Five protesters were arrested for blocking the door.

The administration claims that two-thirds of the workers have remained on the job. However, many university operations are shut down despite the university’s effort to shift the work to nonstriking employees. The facilities management emergency center is cleared of employees. Library operations are impeded by lack of clerical and technical workers. The bursar’s offices on two of the three Twin Cities campuses are closed. The student health service and the veterinary clinics are accepting only emergency patients. The multi-story School of Dentistry clinics are reduced to one floor of clinics. With police dispatchers on strike, it took 90 minutes for the university police to respond to a fender-bender accident. UPS delivery service drivers are refusing to cross the picket lines, forcing supervisors to make the deliveries.

Striking workers are getting support from many faculty and students who are also honoring the picket lines. Professor Paula Rabinowitz met 200 students in her English class in a church off campus. AFSCME reports helping find off-campus space for over 120 class sections, involving some 4,000 students. Other instructors have moved their classes to places like coffee shops on their own. Professor Lisa Norling gave her history class a choice, and the majority voted to relocate for at least one class session. These moves challenge university administration edicts to instructors to keep classes on campus or face disciplinary action.

Two theater arts instructors, Ananya Chatterjea and Cindy Garcia, joined forces with students to give a performance piece for striking workers. Chatterjea e-mailed other faculty urging: “Those of us working with our bodies have great power in publicizing the inequities and making public our non-alignment with the administration.”

Students at the university’s Humphrey Institute held an impromptu ice cream social for striking workers with four gallons of ice cream and toppings. A coffee cart is also being supplied to strikers in front of Humphrey.

Teach-ins are planned. Graduate students have organized a “people’s conference on rethinking the U of M within the moment of crisis,” in support of striking AFSCME workers and “all those struggling for a more democratic university.” Student and faculty support groups have formed. Graduate students from communications have set up a web page for instructors to upload assignments related to the strike.

For strike updates, see .

BP weighed costs of refinery blast

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:38:00 +0000

HOUSTON — In the ongoing litigation against BP following the March 2005 blast at the company’s Texas City oil refinery that killed 15 workers, a lawyer for some of the victims has produced an internal memo showing BP did a cost-benefit analysis that concluded it would be cheaper to not make structures blast-resistant than it would be to absorb the costs of a possible explosion.

The memo, disclosed by lawyer Brent Coon and reported in the Houston Chronicle, placed a price tag of $10 million on the life of each worker.

Meanwhile, former plant manager Don Parus testified that he was so concerned about three deaths that occurred at the plant in 2004 that he decided to investigate the history of similar incidents. He found that in the 30 years prior to the 2004 deaths, 22 workers had died in the plant. A 23rd was identified later.

Parus, who has been on paid leave since the 2005 explosion, also said a workplace safety study stated, “We have never seen a site where the notion of ‘I could die today’ was so real for so many hourly people.”

Parus said that even though the plant was yielding $100 million a month in profits, his superiors declined to fund upgrades to the physical operations and decided instead to cut his budget.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board found in their investigation that cuts in costs, training and personnel before the blast led to the tragedy.

phill1917 @comcast.net

Security officers march for a living wage

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:34:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — Security officers who protect downtown high-rise office buildings are telling this city’s corporate real estate giants they need real security, too, in the form of living wages, family health coverage, paid sick days and pensions. And if need be, they are prepared to strike to get it.

Hundreds of security officers and their supporters from other unions and the faith community held a spirited rush-hour march through the financial district Sept. 6 to kick off a weeklong Stand for Security campaign. The campaign aims to win a new master contract providing the largely African American and immigrant workforce with wages, benefits and job protections comparable to those already won by janitors, parking attendants and other building workers.

Along the way, a delegation delivered a letter to the San Francisco headquarters of real estate giant Morgan Stanley, calling on the company to stop the double standards.

Over 4,000 security officers in the Bay Area, members of SEIU Local 24/7, have been working without a contract for over two months. Bay Area security officers typically are paid about $23,500 a year, less than half the Economic Policy Institute’s self-sufficiency standard for a family of four.

As marchers gathered, the words of S.F. NAACP President Rev. Amos Brown rang out over Market Street: San Francisco’s corporate real estate giants, including Morgan Stanley, Hines, and Shorenstein, “are some of the richest corporations in the city and the country, if not the world. These landlords have built into their business model a practice of pushing the health care costs for tens of thousands of security officers and their families onto the taxpayers of California.”

In a statement read by Faith Coalition President Rev. Ted Frazier, Brown emphasized that only security officers have been left out of living wages and benefits now provided other building workers.

“You’re not living with the dignity that every San Franciscan deserves,” S.F. Supervisor Chris Daly told the crowd. “As the people who are protecting billions upon billions of dollars in property, you deserve better.”

Noting that the San Francisco Labor Council has granted strike sanction to the security workers, labor council head Tim Paulson pledged solidarity of the city’s labor movement.

In an interview before the march, Keith Ward, a security worker, said that at the same time that new office towers are rising in the city, increasing the need for 24-hour security services, the companies that contract with real estate moguls to provide those services are continuing to pay such low wages that security officers have to work two and three jobs to keep up.

“Thirty or 40 years ago, building owners hired a night watchman,” Ward said. “Now being a security officer has become a profession. We need computer skills and other special training to do our jobs.”

An additional problem has been the refusal of the big nationwide security contractors like Guardsmark, Allied Barton and Securitas to participate in the talks alongside local security firms, said Local 24/7 Communications Director Gina Bowers. Bowers said contract talks under way in other cities, including Seattle and Los Angeles, largely involve the same building owners.

Other events slated for the week include a press conference with representatives of San Francisco’s fire, police and emergency medical services, and a meeting with Mayor Gavin Newsom.

mbechtel @pww.org

Union retirees tool up one-two punch for 2008

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 06:54:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — Retired garment worker Elli Kuhns of Shamokin, Pa., knows hard times, recalls when women could not vote, remembers Franklin Delano Roosevelt, savors the stunning defeat of Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum in 2006 and, sitting amid a sea of recently retired baby boomers, has her walking shoes on for 2008.

Kuhns joined over 600 delegates from 22 states here at a legislative conference of the Alliance of Retired Americans, Sept. 4-7. The delegates, representing unions from both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win federation, gathered at the Hilton hotel to map plans for next year’s presidential and congressional showdown.

“Getting rid of Santorum was a three-pair-of-shoe campaign plus an extra bottle of aspirin for the arthritis in my fingers from calling,” said Kuhns. “There’s been a lot of shoe sales this summer in our neck of the woods. Stocked up. I’ve been at this for a time and don’t depend on someone else to talk to people or the TV. This time we are going to finish the job.”

Marquis Sanchez, a longtime worker at the Hilton, said, “For a crowd of retirees, this group is loud, gets to the hall early, reads the meeting papers and makes me proud to be a union member.

“I’d hate to be a Republican or a dancing Democrat,” Sanchez continued. “These people mean it.”

“An angry senior is something to behold,” said George Kourpias, ARA president and former head of the Machinists Union, in welcoming the delegates. When the smoke cleared in 2006, he said, “we built a powerful, progressive, grassroots army of retirees who pulled out seniors to vote in record numbers” based on the bedrock issues of saving Social Security from privatization and defending Medicare.

“The underlying idea of the Bush administration’s ‘ownership society’ is, ‘You’re on your own, the yo-yo society,’” Kourpias continued, drawing laughter. With the Iraq war costing $220 million a day, the federal government cannot rebuild the Social Security trust fund or provide universal health care, he said, linking the domestic shortfalls to Bush’s failed military adventure.

Kourpias warned of storm clouds ahead, noting only 12 percent of seniors polled by the ARA say they believe their children will enjoy a better life than they do.

Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich addressed the conference, as did Elizabeth Edwards, who brought her husband’s campaign to the packed house.

Retired union members are not a sitting, listening-to-speeches type of crowd. On Sept. 6, after a rousing send-off by AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Rich Trumka, they loaded up buses and spent a half day lobbying on Capitol Hill, armed with the facts.

With appointments with their respective representatives and senators, teams of union members sat down with the lawmakers to convince them to preserve Social Security, to fully fund Medicare, and to reform the Medicare prescription drug program called Medicare Part D, including permitting the Medicare program to negotiate the cost of medicines with the big drug companies, as the Veterans Administration currently does.

Already, senior pressure has forced the administration to once again allow organized bus trips to Canada by U.S. residents to take advantage of the cheaper cost of prescription medications there.

The delegate-lobbyists reported back to the ARA conference, indicating most Democratic legislators support their agenda.

Retired UAW member Gene Lantz from Dallas summed up the reaction from Republican lawmakers, saying, “We met with Sen. John Cornyn. He danced around, not supporting any of our issues. But I am proud to report that not a single Texan in our group got up and slapped him.”Cornyn is a hardcore supporter of the Bush administration.

Several breakout sessions at the conference focused on the tactics of winning a national single-payer health care plan. The ARA has endorsed HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act, a single-payer plan introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).

The 3-million-member ARA has been an outspoken advocate for unity between seniors and children in the face of Republican efforts to pit them against each other, particularly on health care issues.

For more information about the ARA’s activities and its fact-based resources, visit .

dwinebr696@aol.com Bob Rossi contributed to this story.

Labor mourns 9/11 dead, fights for the living

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 06:49:00 +0000

NEW YORK — The city’s labor movement gathered near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, Sept. 8, in a combined Sept. 11, 2001, commemoration, Labor Day tribute and call for federal legislation to ensure health care for those suffering from 9/11-related illnesses.

The rally stage stood just a few hundred feet from the World Trade Center site, with the black-shrouded Deutsche Bank building in the background. Just two weeks ago, two firefighters were killed and other workers were injured after responding to a fire in the building, which was being demolished floor-by-floor due to damage in the Sept. 11 attacks six years ago. The latest incident was a tragic reminder of the continuing dangers at the site and the ongoing problems of managing the cleanup and rebuilding of the area.

Two days before the rally, plans were revealed for the remaining buildings in the rebuilding of the WTC complex, with construction to begin in January. Butconcerns persist about the ongoing health risk in the area.

The New York City Central Labor Council called the rally, along with the New York State AFL-CIO and New York Building and Construction Trades Council, in place of the traditional annual Labor Day parade held in the city since 1882.

Labor Council President Gary LaBarbera, who is also president of Teamsters Local 282, reminded the crowd that “Labor Day is more than a parade; more than a barbecue; more than a picnic. Labor Day began as a rally,” and continues to signify the fight for just working conditions and economic rights.

A major theme this Labor Day was the struggle for health care for the thousands affected by the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath. Fires that burned for months at Ground Zero and the toxic dust that settled everywhere affected local residents, first responders and other workers in the area.

In addition, hundreds of volunteers, many of them union members — iron workers, operating engineers, construction workers, first responders and others — flocked to the site from around the country to help with the rescue and recovery operation in the hours, days and weeks following 9/11.

Most of those who worked on or around the massive pile of debris and ash did so without respirators, in part because Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Bush environmental chief Christine Todd Whitman gave an all-clear on the air quality in the area. Now thousands of workers and residents are suffering from ailments resulting from that exposure.

Dr. Robin Herbert of Mount Sinai Hospital, who directs the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program, told the rally about the ongoing health problems experienced by these workers. “Four out of 10 of those treated have one or more lung problems such as asthma,” she said. “One in 10 have back problems or other musculoskeletal problems.” The monitoring program, which includes several medical centers in the New York area, performed examinations on 9,500 World Trade Center responders between July 2002 and April 2004.

Also among the speakers, New York’s Sen. Hillary Clinton vowed not to forget those who “launched and carried out the greatest rescue mission in history.” She declared, “We are going to rescue the rescuers.”

Congress did not pass federal funding for treatment of WTC-related medical treatment and tracking until December 2005, more than four years after the tragedy.

Every speaker at the rally hailed the new 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, introduced three days after the rally. The bill would guarantee ongoing funding for the treatment of all those across the country suffering from 9/11-related ailments, and would provide compensation to those who lost their jobs due to such illnesses. The bill would also reopen the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and make it available to those suffering from rescue and cleanup work at the WTC.

New York Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler and Republican Rep. Vito Fossella introduced the bill. Fossella, the only Republican in the city’s congressional delegation, portrays himself as a “fiscal conservative” and has voted against extending funding for Katrina relief. While he has been vocal in support of ongoing protection for WTC victims, Fossella is also a big supporter of Bush’s Iraq war policies.

Rally speakers linked the war and the lack of action to support the heroes of 9/11 at home. Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council, pointed out that it would cost $256 million per year for the health needs of 9/11 victims. “That’s one day in Iraq,” she noted, referring to the cost of the ongoing U.S. occupation. “Why can’t we find one day for 9/11 victims?” she asked.

Other speakers, including Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Ed Malloy, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, and New York State AFL-CIO President Dennis Hughes, noted that workers built this country, championed economic and social justice and have always made sacrifices for their neighbors and families.

ldellapiana @cpusa.org

Unions not welcome in Kid Nation

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:27:00 +0000

While it’s true that many parents would like to see their children become a bit more enthusiastic about household chores, they probably wouldn’t want to see them in the kind of world depicted in “Kid Nation,” the new CBS reality TV show. The show debuts Sept. 19.

For six weeks the children of “Kid Nation,” a 2007 version of William Golding’s 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies,” pulled wagonloads of wood, cooked all their meals from scratch and scrubbed outhouses, all to show that they could survive in a brave new adult-free world in front of TV cameras.

Actors’ unions have been describing reality shows as the “sweatshops of the entertainment industry,” because producers keep costs down by not having to pay writers and actors.

What CBS did in “Kid Nation” was create a nonunion subsidiary company, Magic Molehill Productions, which contracted with other nonunion production companies. CBS was thereby able to put out a whole new series, evade union standards and get away with an untarnished corporate image.

Jeff Hermanson, assistant executive director of the Writers Guild of America, wrote in his union’s newsletter that the networks don’t want to talk about these conditions, because they don’t want to address their legal or moral responsibilities.

Christopher Knight, who played Peter 30 years ago on “The Brady Bunch,” said on an MSNBC talk show, “All the TV [production] sets were union in those days. As a child actor I was completely protected by union regulations. My health and safety were paramount, and even as a child, I could not be pushed just to meet production demands.

“These children on ‘Kid Nation’ had none of those protections,” Knight continued.

A complaint charging “abuse and neglect” filed by the mother of a 12-year-old girl who was burned in the face was made public in August. New Mexico’s attorney general, Gary King, says he will investigate why producers kept state inspectors, who wanted to review work permits for the children, from visiting the site.

CBS lawyers claim that work permits were unnecessary because the children were “participating,” not “working.” It sounds almost like Wal-Mart calling its employees “associates” instead of “workers” in order to cheat them out of overtime. (Rather than working at Wal-Mart, they “associate” there!)

The children on the show were paid no more than what amateur contestants on game shows typically get. Each child received a $5,000 stipend for participating.

Tom Forman, the producer of “Kid Nation,” was asked by the Los Angeles Times why all the children on the show came from states with weak labor laws. There were none from California and New York, states with the strongest labor laws, for example.

Forman admitted, “There are labor issues in the big states, but the real problem is that too many kids in those states are into the entertainment business. We were looking for all-American kids our viewers could relate to.”

Union reps argue that “Kid Nation” and all the reality TV shows have writers and actors who should be compensated according to union guidelines and covered by collective bargaining agreements. Lawsuits are pending in California Superior Court on behalf of groups of writers and actors who are charging several nonunion production companies and networks with violations of labor law, including laws governing overtime, wages and meal periods.

“Kid Nation” and all reality show producers are not living up to any kind of tradition of documentary or television film art. They are not providing children, or anyone else for that matter, with opportunities to grow and learn about themselves, as they so often claim. They are exploiting cheap labor and they should be stopped.

jwojcik @pww.org

2007 Labor Day roundup: A sampling of Labor Day events from around the country.

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:07:00 +0000

Houston: Union members lined up their RVs and smokers and cooked up huge quantities of barbecue at the Harris County AFL-CIO’s Labor Day barbecue cook-off, a three-day bonanza of food and fun at the Pasadena Convention Center, Aug. 31 through Sept. 2.

Contests awarded prizes for the best barbecue brisket and beans and other dishes. Activities for kids featured a climbing wall and huge inflated slides and trampolines.

The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and other labor and progressive groups had booths.

The area was so large that some people rode on golf carts to get to their destinations. Mayor Bill White traveled around on one while visiting with union members.

Voter registrars were present, but most union members were already registered to vote. Many people expressed excitement about the Democrats’ prospects in 2008. Democrats here are aggressively campaigning to throw out the Republican judges who currently dominate Harris County courtrooms.

— Paul Hill

Indianapolis: Speakers and the rainbow of marchers at the annual Labor Day march, Sept. 1, reflected the racial and ethnic unity that is a backbone of labor’s strength: Black, brown and white united. Some union members wore T-shirts their locals had produced, sporting the slogan, 'United we bargain, divided we beg.' Rep. Julia Carson and Mayor Bart Peterson were there to lend support. Peterson said workers play a central role in building a strong Indianapolis.

Jim Robinson, Steelworkers union district director, declared, 'It’s time to end the race to the bottom that benefits only the rich around the world.' He called for workers to 'take our state back, our country back, and our world back.'

People’s Weekly World distributors stopped for breakfast before the parade and were given a warm welcome when they asked the restaurant owner if they could start leaving some PWWs there weekly. “They not only gave us permission but immediately cleared a prominent spot for us,” one participant reported.

— Eric Brooks

Los Angeles: At the annual Labor Day breakfast here Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary treasurer of the 840,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, unveiled a bold action plan for area unions to successfully face the economic and political challenges of 2008. Over 200,000 members of 25 area unions have their contracts up for negotiations in 2008, when key national, state and local elections also take place.

“These are dangerous times with good paying jobs, health care and pensions under attack, and the rights of immigrant workers, their very existence is under attack,” Durazo said. She told the crowd of over 500 labor activists, and political and community leaders that the local federation would hold its 2nd Delegate Congress in December with hundreds of workplace representatives planning how to “mobilize every resource, activist and ally in organizing and politics to make ourselves more relevant to the people we represent.” L.A. labor will have a big impact on the Democratic presidential primary set for Feb. 5 next year, she added.

She was joined on stage by rank and file activists of the 25 unions facing negotiations next year who spoke of what would be at stake for them in longshore, janitorial, community college, transport workers, building trade, UPS drivers, health care, farm workers and other fields.

— Rosalio Muñoz

Philadelphia: Thousands of union members and their families gathered for a rally and parade, winding up with a picnic on the Delaware River. Large contingents from the International Longshoremen of America, Unite Here, Laborers District Council, SEIU, Communication Workers of America, 1199C Health Care Workers Union, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Iraq Veterans Against the War, neighborhood drill teams, and hundreds more on floats and walking, paraded up Columbus Boulevard with colorful banners.

The colorful crowd represented the city’s racial and ethnic diversity.

Central Labor Council President Patrick Eiding opened the rally with a moment of silence for “all the brothers and sisters we are losing in this crazy war in Iraq.” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the rally’s keynote speaker, pledged to recruit millions of union workers to actively work for health care reform. With a record high 46.6 million uninsured in the U.S., Sweeney said, “Nobody should have to fear the consequences of getting sick and no company should have to go out of business because health care costs are out of control.” Eiding and other labor leaders focused on victory in the 2008 elections. Michael Nutter, Democratic candidate for mayor this November, marched in the parade.

Distribution of the People’s Weekly World drew an excellent response. A U.S. Labor Against the War flyer for the Oct. 27 antiwar demonstration was also well received.

— Rosita Johnson

Pittsburgh: Held high on the waves of teachers, carpenters, boilermakers, steelworkers, miners and nearly every of the 181 contingents marching through downtown were signs saying the best way to support the troops is to bring them home from Iraq, and demanding national health care. At the end of the two-and-a-half-hour parade, over 75,000 workers interspersed with high school bands and drill teams marched passed the reviewing stand.

Before the parade stepped off, the Steelworkers and Mine Workers unions hosted a rally to announce their endorsement of John Edwards for the Democratic nomination for president. His wife Elizabeth Edwards marched with the steelworkers.

Following the parade, steelworkers and local officials closed down one of the city's scores of bridges to rename it the Philip Murray Bridge. Murray was the founding president of the USW.

— Denise Winebrenner Edwards

Smithfield workers force company to the table

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:43:00 +0000

1,000 rally for union rights and end to immigration raids

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A thousand workers and activists demanding unionization of Smithfield’s Tar Heel, N.C., plant shook the walls of the Williamsburg Lodge Conference Center here Aug. 29 as they massed outside the annual meeting of the company’s shareholders, shouting slogans, chanting and blowing whistles.

Company executives inside agreed to a key union demand, the call for the two sides to meet. Meetings were taking place as the World went to press on Sept. 5, according to Leila McDowell, communications director of the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW). The union has been working for 14 years to organize the world’s largest hog slaughtering plant.

As the crowds roared outside the shareholders meeting, Terry Slaughter, a livestock worker at the Tar Heel plant, presented the hog bosses inside with a petition signed by thousands of workers — a majority at the plant — demanding that the company recognize the union.

“We are tired,” CEO C. Larry Pope told Slaughter and 10 co-workers who presented the petition. He agreed that employees need a union chapter at the plant but said that the company and the union remain at a standstill on how to create it.

McDowell told the World that union negotiators are seeking “an arrangement that insures complete neutrality on the part of the company and defined sanctions if the company violates that neutrality.”

“This could be done in a variety of ways,” she said, “including not only card check but perhaps a community-monitored election. Card check and elections are not enough — our key positions are company neutrality and sanctions.”

“Card check” means the company would recognize the union if a majority of workers sign cards indicating they want union representation. The company says it wants a “secret ballot election” run by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Keith Ludlum, fired 12 years ago for union organizing and reinstated recently with back pay, was at the demonstration here.

Asked to explain why he doesn’t want to go through another NLRB election, Ludlum told the World, “That was done in ’94 and ’97. Both times it was a farce. People were harassed, beaten up and fired. Supervisors dressed up as employees and were stuffing ballot boxes. They even shut off the lights and evacuated the building during the election.”

High injury rates at the plant are fueling support for the union. Seven hundred serious injuries were reported in the year 2006 alone. They included cuts, lacerations, fractured wrists, broken bones and amputations.

Immigration raids continue to be used to intimidate union supporters. Between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Aug. 23, federal agents raided homes in four North Carolina counties and entered the Tar Heel plant itself, arresting a total of 28 Smithfield workers, mainly from Mexico.

Organizers said the raids motivated even more people to turn out for the march. Melody Drnach, a National Organization for Women vice president from Washington, D.C., was at the demonstration. She deplored how “women are gathered up in the middle of the night, separated from their families and jailed. This action by the government, the shareholders and the management of Smithfield is despicable.”

Before the march the crowds packed the First Baptist Church, where they assembled. They cheered when it was announced that only a week earlier 70 stores in Boston had pulled Smithfield products from their shelves.

As they exited the church, they took posters, whistles and copies of chants distributed by Jobs with Justice and the Justice at Smithfield Campaign.

A handmade sign carried through the winding streets of the colonial town read, “When you see me, you see thousands in my union behind me.”

The chants and the whistles drew the attention of locals, students and tourists. One student, Bobby Muller, was moved to join the parade and spoke in support at the rally afterward.

Another speaker, Vanessa Reeves, worked for years on the plant’s kill floor, removing the spinal cords from hogs. “As the hogs come down the line, they bump up against you and sometimes fall on you,” she said.

“That’s what happened to me on May 29,” she said. “I went to the ER. I had a miscarriage. I lost my baby in the hospital, and they fired me for being off the job.”

“The only way these people will get help is to get them a union,” said Jim Lowther, president of UFCW Local 400.

John Wojcik contributed to this story.