On the picket line

Support grows for Mott’s strikers

On Aug. 18 Grammy winner Steve Earle vowed to stop drinking diet Dr. Pepper — he’s been drinking it since he was 10 — until the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group offers 305 Mott’s applesauce workers a fair contract. (www.ufcw.blogspot.com)

The workers, represented by Local 220 of the Department Store union, a division of the Food and Commercial Workers union (RWDSU-UFCW), have been on strike in upstate New York for more than 100 days after they turned down a horrendous contract. DPS wanted the highly productive workers to take a $1.50 an hour pay cut and a pension freeze — even though Mott’s is highly profitable and the DPS stockholders’ dividend increased by 67 percent in May.

The same day that Earle encouraged people to join his DPS boycott, the New York Times ran a long article on the strike, noting “its unusual nature: a highly profitable company ... taking the rare and bold step of demanding large-scale concessions.” (Aug. 17) Local 220 President Mike LeBerth told the Times: “Corporate America is making tons of money. ... So why do they want to drive down our wages and hurt our community? This whole economy is driven by consumer spending, so how are we supposed to keep the economy going when they take away money from the people who are doing the spending?”

Exactly. That’s why all working and oppressed people need to rally to defend the proud, righteous Mott’s workers as they fight a critical battle that must be won. To sign a petition supporting the strikers, visit www.ufcw.ca.

Calif. nurses act on Women’s Equality Day

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United has called for a rally and march in the state capital of Sacramento on Aug. 26 — the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, known as Women’s Equality Day — “to protest Meg Whitman’s bid to buy the governorship.”

Billionaire Whitman, a conservative Republican, has said she will cut the state payroll by 40,000 jobs, radically reduce public employee pensions, deregulate industry and cut the social safety net. The protest is endorsed by more than a dozen major labor groups, including the California Labor Federation.

Given that nurses were in the forefront of the suffrage movement, as they fought for public health services for all and improved workplace and economic standards for nurses, it’s only fitting that they’re in the forefront of the same struggles today! (blog.aflcio.org, Aug. 13)

Steelworkers defend locked-out nuclear workers

More than 3,000 members of the Steelworkers union and their families converged on Metropolis, Ill., from four surrounding states on Aug. 7 to defend the jobs of more than 225 nuclear fuel workers who were locked out by Honeywell Corp. on June 28.

Steelworkers Local 7-669 members had agreed to work and keep negotiating after their contract expired, but Honeywell slammed the door in their faces after the local turned down a contract that would have cut 45 jobs, seniority rights, overtime pay, pensions and retiree benefits.

District 7 Director Jim Robinson stated that Honeywell’s attempt to break the local is “part of a larger fight going on in this country.” Calling the struggle an “old fight,” Robinson noted, “Corporate greed is in the Bible. When the pharaoh was too greedy to pay the Israelites, they organized and walked out.” (blog.aflcio.org, Aug. 12)

Casino dealers ratify historic contract

For the first time in Atlantic City, casino dealers began working under a union contract on Aug. 19. The five-year contract, negotiated by the Technical, Office and Professional Department of the United Auto Workers, includes an 18 percent pay raise for more than 700 dealers at the Tropicana Casino and Resort.

Though dealers at Ceasars, Trump Plaza and Bally’s also voted to form unions in 2007, the casino operators have refused to bargain or stalled negotiations. The UAW represents more than 8,800 gaming employees in five states. (uaw.org)

Calif. state workers ratify contracts

Despite threats of draconian cutbacks, two groups of state workers in California ratified contracts the week of Aug. 9 — the more than 11,000 members of Operating Engineers State Unit 12 and 6,500 postdoctoral researchers at the University of California. The AFL-CIO blog noted that the latter contract “could potentially impact researchers at college campuses across the country who are fighting for respect and dignity.” (Aug. 17)

Rally in defense of Bangladesh labor leaders

Trade union and labor activists from the AFL-CIO, the International Labor Rights Forum and United Students Against Sweatshops, among others, picketed the Embassy of Bangladesh on Aug. 19 in Washington, D.C., to protest the imprisonment of two leaders of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity. The arrests followed recent BCWS protests demanding a raise in the minimum wage in the ready-made garment industry. “At 20 cents per hour, garment workers’ wages are by far the lowest of any major apparel-producing country. Often workers are not even paid. They also face hazardous working conditions, and several lost their lives recently in major factory fires,” noted the AFL-CIO blog. (Aug. 19)