Labor Party Press - Convention: Workplace Rights

Solidarity
Hour
Speakers

1. Han Young workers in Mexico are trying to win a first contract for their new independent union. Contact: Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers, 4535 30th St., #209, San Diego, CA 92116; email: scmw@juno.com. Phone: (619) 283-7713.

2. Workers at the Mt. Olive Pickle Company are trying to organize with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. Contact: FLOC, 507 W. St. Clair St., Toledo, OH 43602; (419) 243-3456.

3. Over 1000 Steelworkers at CF&I Steel in Pueblo, CO, were locked out in December 1997. Contact: USWA CF&I Emergency Fund , USWA, 1414 Evans Ave., Pueblo, CO 81004; (719) 564-8600.

4. Coal miners at the Freeman United Coal Company have been on strike for healthcare since September 1998. Contact: Relief Fund, c/o UMWA Local 12 Strike Headquarters, P.O. Box 107, Farmersville, IL, 63533; (217) 227-3233.

5. OCAW members have been locked out by Crown Central Petroleum in Texas since 1996. Contact: Crown Boycott Fund, OCAW Local 4-227, 2306 Broadway, Houston, TX, 77012; (713) 847-0202.

6. UNITE workers at the Central Mills / Freeze Co. have been trying to win a first contract since September 1998 (and finally won it Dec. 1). Contact: Bill Lee, Manager, UNITE/NY-NJ Regional Joint Board, 4810 Kennedy Blvd., Union City, NJ 07087; (201) 866-8281.

7. Liverpool dockers ended their long struggle in January 1998. The legal fallout took longer: At the convention, ILWU’s Robert Eminger announced that the lawsuit brought against him for blocking scab cargo in solidarity with the Liverpool dockers had just been dropped.

8. Nabisco is closing down its profitable plant in Pittsburgh, laying off 350 workers, members of the Bakery Workers and Operating Engineers. Contact: East End Neighborhood Forum Nabisco Planning Committee, 4806 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224; (412) 621-0644.

9. After a long struggle,1400 Detroit newspaper workers remain locked out of their jobs at the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. Contact: Metro Council of Newspaper Unions, Attn: Skip Freeman, c/o GCIU Local 13, 3300 Book Building, Detroit, MI 48226.

At a "solidarity hour" on Saturday morning, nine groups of striking and locked out workers testified movingly to the state of workers’ rights in this country. Among them was Allen Gallegos from Pueblo, Colorado, who told how his 1000 fellow Steelworkers Union members went on strike against CFI/Oregon Steel in 1997, after the company refused to sign a contract. They’ve been locked out ever since.

"Three times we’ve offered to return to work unconditionally, and each time they refused," he said. Instead, the company has refinanced its loans with the Wells Fargo Bank, enabling it to continue its war on workers. The USWA is calling on all unions to pull their money from Wells Fargo.

Gallegos himself was fired two weeks before the strike began. "I worked at the plant 24 years and never missed a day’s work," he said. "But just before the strike I missed one day, and they fired me. I will never go back to work for this company without a contract. And nobody should be fired for going to their son’s graduation or have to bring in an obituary to prove they were at a funeral of a relative."

Before the day was out, CNA announced it was pulling over a million dollars in assets from Wells Fargo. A friendly bidding war between the OCAW, UE, CNA and others, and a passing of the hat around the delegations produced a total of $17,400 to support the workers who had spoken during the solidarity hour. Among the contributions was a $1000 gift from Tom Verdone, a rank-and-file Carpenters Union member from Illinois.

The Labor Party’s platform calls for a "comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s labor laws" to outlaw such employer behavior. On Friday, delegates to the Pittsburgh convention resolved to launch a national campaign to "bring the bill of rights into the workplace."

Joe Uehlein, former secretary - treasurer of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department, read the campaign resolution, which calls for laws guaranteeing all workers — including contingent workers, public employees, and those who are not U.S. citizens — the "actual right to concerted activity, free from employer involvement or interference." Further, "any number of interested workers in a workplace must be free to form a union and bargain with their employer."

Under the resolution, the Labor Party will select certain states and localities in which to develop local campaigns for labor law overhaul. The Labor Party also commits itself to helping the labor movement "rethink what we mean by workplace rights," and to learn about rights workers in other parts of the world have gained.

Mine Workers president Cecil Roberts spoke to the resolution. "There isn’t a day goes by where our members aren’t out there fighting on these issues," he told the convention. The UMWA’s 65-member delegation cheered — including striking members of the Freeman United Coal Company, who wore camouflage as a symbol of their war with a company that is denying pensioners healthcare coverage.

Delegates accepted two amendments to the motion from the floor — one that calls on the Labor Party to support the formation of committees of fired workers, and another to add "workfare workers" to the list of those who should be entitled to full workplace rights.