Back when I was attempting, with others, to organize the Bartmann and
Bixer drapery factory, we called "Temporary Workers" by a more
descriptive name. Scabs! Another name was, "Union Busters".
When the AFL and the CIO joined forces, I believed the day had come
when Labor was gaining the upper hand. But they lacked one important
ingredient. Member Participation. Too many workers left the running
of their labor union to "professionals". Between pressure from the
Boss, and self serving union leaders, the labor movement began to rot
from its own core. Eliminating corruption and Greed can only be done
through hands-on, eternal vigilance.
In the late 40's I watched as Dave Beck and his corrupt Teamsters went
about the Land, writing "Sweetheart Contracts", selling their own
Teamster members down the river. When the Teamsters attempted to
muscle into Boeing, in 1948, undermining the existing strike by the
Aeromachinists, it was the Boeing Workers who suffered. Boeing
managed to become an "open shop", allowing workers to choose whether
they would join the union or not.
Strikers, gathered at Boeing's gates, were deliberately run into by
Teamster drivers. Nothing warms the Bosses hearts more than seeing
Labor fighting Labor. A couple of my dad's buddies who were
Aeromachinests, had their lives threatened, as well as the lives of
their families. One man, a Union Shop Steward, had his windows busted
out in his house and car. He put huge flood lights at all corners of
his house so he could expose anyone attempting to sneak up to the
doors. Thanks to Dave Beck and his Goons, it was a big day for
Boeing's management.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/8/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8119/811901.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 19 May 15, 2017
(lead article)
Socialist Workers Party: ‘Amnesty now!’
John Rothwell
Thousands march in Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 1. Marches, rallies and
work stoppages took place in over 200 towns and cities, reflecting
growing unity of workers against deportations.
BY SETH GALINSKY
In more than 200 U.S. towns and cities small and large, tens of
thousands joined marches, rallies and strikes protesting deportations of
immigrant workers May 1 and standing up to attempts to pit native-born
and foreign-born workers against each other. Many also protested against
attacks by the bosses on wages and working conditions and government
assaults on the rights of unions and workers.
Several thousand workers marched down the Las Vegas Strip led by
Culinary Union Local 226. They were joined by contingents from the
Teamsters and Service Employees International Union; university
students; Jewish, Muslim and Christian clergy; the NAACP; the National
Organization for Women; and others.
“The Culinary Union is not only Nevada’s largest union,” Local 226
spokesperson Bethany Khan told the Militant by phone May 2. “We are the
largest immigrant organization in the state. We represent 57,000 workers
from 167 countries who speak 40 different languages. We wanted to
celebrate International Workers’ Day bringing together immigrants and
the native-born.”
“With workers at more than 90 percent of the restaurants and casinos in
the union, we’re truly a union town,” Khan said, “but we have to fight
every day to preserve the gains we made. Presidents and other elected
officials come and go, but the union is here to stay.”
Members of the Socialist Workers Party built and joined the actions,
distributing a statement by Mary Martin, SWP candidate for mayor in
Seattle. “No to deportations! Amnesty for all immigrants in the U.S.!
Join the fight to unify the working class and build our unions,” Martin
said. “Working people don’t like deportations and raids. Over decades
they’ve gotten to know their immigrant co-workers, some with and others
without papers.”
“I think that’s right,” Marcelos Torres said at the May Day protest in
Reading, Pennsylvania. “I don’t think the majority of people in this
country are against immigrants. Everyone needs a job.”
Some 4,000 marched in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a city of less than
200,000. Nearly one-quarter of students stayed home from public schools.
“We’re the foundation because we are the ones picking the produce. We
are the ones working in restaurants,” Gema Lowe, a member of Cosecha
Grand Rapids, one of the groups organizing the march, told Channel 13
TV. “We are already part of the fabric.”
Lorena Cruz, a student, told Channel 13 that she was glad to have
received a work permit under DACA — a government program that put a
moratorium on deportations for many immigrant youth — but that all the
undocumented should be free from fear of being thrown out of the
country. “We are here to stay and here to make a change,” she said.
Some of the protests were spearheaded by farmworkers, including in
Yakima, Washington, where many of the 500 marchers were farmworkers or
fruit processing plant workers. The United Farm Workers had a contingent
of over 50 people, including workers from the Chateau St. Michelle winery.
“Stop Clarke” and “No 287g” were slogans on many signs and T-shirts at a
march of thousands in Milwaukee, referring to notoriously anti-immigrant
County Sheriff David Clarke. In March, Clarke requested authorization to
join the federal 287g program — which authorizes local cops to function
as immigration agents. It was adopted as part of the 1996 Illegal
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act signed into law by
President Bill Clinton.
Some 160 businesses closed for the day, according to Voces de la
Frontera, which organized the demonstration. Miguel Villegas told the
Militant the muffler shop where he works shut down, and he and his
co-workers attended the march.
“I work with immigrants every day,” Sharon Scott, a house cleaner who is
African-American, told the Militant at a rally of 250 in Atlanta,
organized by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. “They work
very hard. Whenever I hear about a protest for immigrants I will be there.”
Jason Miller, 20, a student at Georgia State University, said, “It’s
great that there are all kinds of people here, Latinos, Blacks and whites.”
Chanting “Si se puede,” contingents of SEIU Local 32BJ airport workers,
janitors and others joined the march of 3,000 in Washington, D.C., which
was organized by Casa Maryland.
“Workers with papers must fight for those without them to organize
unions,” said Santos Carranza, a union carpenter. Over 100 of his
co-workers skipped work, he added with a smile.
Some two dozen Metro workers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local
689, brought solidarity. “Immigrants have a right to be here,” said
Jackie Jeter, Local 689 president. This was the first year the ATU
joined a May Day action.
One of the largest actions was in Los Angeles, where tens of thousands
marched, many with signs saying, “No human being is illegal.” Unionized
janitors, health care workers and hotel workers had sizeable contingents
in the march.
“That some people have been here all their lives and are threatened with
being sent back is appalling,” said Sharlene Ruvalcaba, a Kaiser worker
and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770.
There were also International Workers Day protests around the world,
from Puerto Rico to Kurdistan in Iraq to Ukraine. In Turkey workers
faced cop attacks when they tried to march in Istanbul to demand better
pay and working conditions.
In Berlin 14,000 marched, calling for restricting the use of temporary
workers. Thousands of members of the Korean Confederation of Trade
Unions rallied in Seoul with similar demands.
Edwin Fruit from Yakima, Washington; Naomi Craine from Milwaukee; Sam
Manuel from Chicago; Arlene Rubinstein from Washington, D.C.; Janet Post
from Reading, Pennsylvania; and Deborah Liatos from Los Angeles
contributed to this article.
Related articles:
May Day march shows support for Cuba’s socialist revolution
Puerto Rico: Tens of thousands join strike, march on May Day
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
