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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 2 January 9, 2017
(front page)
Momentive strikers in NY: ‘Solidarity keeps us strong!’
Daily Gazette/Marc Schultz
Strikers stay warm at Dec. 15 picket line at Momentive in Waterford, New
York. Company has hired strikebreakers. Area workers donate food, kids’
holiday gifts and firewood to strikers.
BY JACOB PERASSO
“They thought we’d break going into the holidays, but we’ve only gotten
stronger every day,” striker Kevin Alderman told a WRBG-TV reporter as
workers maintained round-the-clock pickets at entrances to the sprawling
Momentive Performance Materials chemical plant in Waterford, New York.
Some 700 members of International Union of Electrical
Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 81359, who struck Nov. 2
after voting down several concession contract proposals, continue to
receive solidarity. Area unions are donating firewood.
“‘Operation Keep Them Warm’ is led by strikers’ wives,” Local 81359
President Dominick Patrignani told the Militant. Hundreds of gifts have
been donated for Momentive families to pick up at the American Legion
Post in Mechanicville, a town just north of the plant where many
strikers live.
Six days before Christmas no more gifts were needed and the union is now
requesting warm clothes for children instead. “We continue to receive
plenty of food donations, including homemade soups and chilis,” said
Patrignani.
Four strikers spoke at a Christmas party meeting of International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 236 in Albany Dec. 6. A motion
to contribute $3,000 to the strikers’ cause, amended to $5,000 from the
floor, passed enthusiastically.
Strikers told the electricians they were getting support from a wide
variety of area groups. Just before coming to their meeting, striker
Michael Leonard said, they got a donation of food from the Capital
District Coalition Against Islamophobia. “This was a bit of a surprise,”
he said. “We’re getting culturally diverse — it’s a growing, big circle
of friends.”
Strikers also got support from Faith on the Line, a group of Christian
clergy that held a solidarity service outside the plant Dec. 22.
Momentive has hired strikebreakers and has refused to back down on
demands to increase medical costs for working union members and retirees
and cut 401(k) contributions.
“The company has agreed to begin negotiations again in January,”
Patrignani told the Militant.
Donations may be sent to IUE-CWA Strike Defense Fund, P.O. Box 339,
Waterford, NY 12188.
Ray Parsons from Delmar, New York, contributed to this article.
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
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