http://themilitant.com/2016/8015/801553.html
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Vol. 80/No. 15 April 18, 2016
Rail worker, others donate bosses’ bribes to build SWP
The Socialist Workers Party Capital Fund received a $3,500 check from
Jim Altenberg, a railroad conductor and member of the United
Transportation Union in Oakland, California. Amtrak makes an annual
payment to conductors hired before 2000 in exchange for eliminating the
second assistant conductor on long haul passenger trains. “Two now do
the work of three, and we all pay in injuries, speedup and increasingly
dangerous conditions on the trains,” Altenberg wrote.
The bedrock of the SWP Capital Fund, which helps finance the party’s
long-term work, is contributions like this of “blood money” — the
various “bonuses” that employers use to try to bribe workers to accept
worsening conditions.
Twenty-eight Walmart workers recently contributed profit-sharing bonuses
totaling $4,876.95. “This is the blood money my employer hopes will keep
us quiet. They will learn the hard way,” wrote one worker from
Philadelphia.
Rick Young from Chicago sent a check for $2,000 from a United Airlines
profit bonus, part of the company’s “campaign to convince workers of the
need for speedup and cost-cutting at the expense of safe working
conditions and jobs,” he said.
To contribute, contact a party branch near you, listed on page 8.
— ARLENE RUBINSTEIN
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