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Vol. 80/No. 16 April 25, 2016
SWP: Workers control needed for nuclear safety
Militant/Steve Warshell
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Two hundred people showed up March 31 for a meeting
here on safety at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant after weeks of
reports about radioactive tritium leaking into Biscayne Bay. Among those
attending were members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, some of whom work at the reactor.
Florida Power and Light bosses and officials from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission tried to prevent the “open house” from becoming a forum,
angering many.
Cynthia Jaquith, above, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S.
Senate, and supporters distributed a campaign statement pointing out
that one-third of the world’s population has no access to modern energy.
“Today, working people can only fight to close that gap through nuclear
power. But that doesn’t mean we have to accept dangerous conditions,”
Jaquith said.
The fight for safety at Turkey Point is linked to the fight for $15 an
hour and a union, against police brutality and for women’s access to
abortion. “In each of these battles we are up against not only our
bosses but the two parties they control, the Democrats and Republicans,
and the regulatory bodies they appoint,” she said. The Socialist Workers
Party calls for “a labor party based on the unions that champions the
fight for safety as part of organizing working people to take power out
of the hands of the capitalists who poison our water, air and land and
to replace their system of exploitation with one that guarantees working
people safe conditions of life and work and energy to meet human needs.”
Workers should control safety conditions and should shut down any
facility found to be operating unsafely until the problem is solved,
Jaquith said.
Many union members liked this approach. “If I am told to do something
unsafe, I am expected to report it. That’s why I like the union,” IBEW
apprentice and construction worker Mario Garcia told Jaquith.
— STEVE WARSHELL
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