http://themilitant.com/2016/8007/800751.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 7 February 22, 2016
‘Workers need control on job to ensure safety’
Militant/Seth Galinsky
NEW YORK — Alyson Kennedy, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for
U.S. president, campaigned at construction sites on the West Side of
Manhattan Feb. 9. Kennedy and her supporters spoke with workers on their
lunch break about the fatal collapse of a 565-foot crane in Lower
Manhattan four days earlier that crushed cars parked on the street and
killed a pedestrian. A construction worker fell to his death at an East
Harlem site the day before the crane incident.
Several construction union members told her that the “union backs us up”
if they refuse to work under unsafe conditions. “I’ve walked off many
times,” Thomas Portelli, 38, right, said. “When it’s too windy and the
load is spinning around. I’m not going to allow that.”
While unionized workers get safety training, unorganized workers do not,
he said, but the bosses and government officials are trying to get rid
of the unions.
“That’s why we need to organize all workers into our unions,” Kennedy
said. “Workers need to control conditions on the job to guarantee safety.”
One ironworker said he thought we needed a businessman as president,
like Donald Trump, who could get things done. “Workers need our own
party, a labor party based on the unions,” Kennedy said.
“There is no ‘we,’” she said. “There are two main social classes — the
workers and the bosses. The Socialist Workers Party joins in actions
against employer and government attacks against us and helps to advance
class consciousness.”
— DEAN HAZLEWOOD
Related articles:
Join the Socialist Workers Party 2016 US presidential campaign!
Alyson Kennedy for president ❖ Osborne Hart for vice president
The SWP candidates
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
Sanders’ socialist reform program aims to save crises-ridden capitalism
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home