Protesters delay Philly schools takeover
PHILADELPHIA – Hours before the midnight deadline Nov. 30, Philadelphia Mayor John Street and Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker emerged from closed-door talks to announce that the threatened state takeover of Philadelphia’s public school system would be postponed for three weeks.
Community support for public workers
JEFFERSON, Ohio – A community rally of 300 people was held here Dec. 1 to support public workers on strike in Ashtabula County. Jefferson is the county seat and a main center of strike activity by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 14 and Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) Local 419.
Striking teachers opt for jail
FREEHOLD, N.J. – Contract talks between a striking teachers’ union and a school board broke off early Dec. 5 as 43 teachers spent their first night in jail for defying a judge’s back-to-work order.
GE workers fight closing
PHILADELPHIA – Families, members of the community, and Communications Workers of America-International Union of Electrical Workers members from western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Mississippi, Indiana, and Massachusetts rallied Nov. 17 in support of their brothers and sisters from General Electric’s Philadelphia plant.
Sharon provocations result in violence
TEL AVIV – The death least week of some 45 Israeli citizens was at least in part due to Sharon’s provocative steps on the eve of the visit of Bush’s envoys, Anthony Zinni and William Burns, and Sharon’s Dec. 2 meeting with Bush at the White House.
ACLU hits Bush, Ashcroft on civil liberties
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned Nov. 28 that the Bush administration has unleashed a “breathtakingly broad” assault on civil liberties in the past 10 weeks, violating a wide range of “due process” legal rights protected by the Constitution and jailing more than 1,200 people in the most massive preventive detention program since the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Pratt workers on strike to save jobs
NORTH HAVEN, Conn. – More than 5,000 Machinists Union members working at the Pratt and Whitney division of United Technologies Corporation, the largest manufacturer in Connecticut, voted by an overwhelming 84 percent Dec. 2 to reject the company’s final offer and go on strike.
Lawsuit demands info release
WASHINGTON – Citing the government’s continuing refusal to adequately respond to previous inquiries, a group of civil liberties, civil rights and human rights organizations filed Dec. 5 the first lawsuit requesting the disclosure of basic information about those individuals arrested and detained since Sept. 11.
AFL-CIO calls for adding a million members
LAS VEGAS – Just as these are no ordinary times, the AFL-CIO’s 24th Convention, held here Dec. 3-6, was no ordinary convention.
Steelworkers in life and death struggle
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Thousands of steelworkers poured into the street in front of the Federal Court House here Dec. 4.
