Kmart workers walk out
The Kmart distribution center where I work, where there's
been an almost two-year fight for a union contract, was
abuzz the afternoon of September 15. The story was filtering
around of how Mexican contract workers, who rebuild pallets
Kmart uses and work outside year-round for $6 an hour, had
struck the other day at 2:00 in the afternoon for the rest
of the day. They were back at work the next day. They had
demanded of their contract boss a raise of 25 cents an hour,
and 50 cents for their leadwoman, by 2:00, or they were
stopping work. The boss said he had no money for a raise,
and the workers made good on their promise.
New contract bosses were there the next day, but the Mexican workers were back at their same jobs. They didn't get their raise, but they didn't lose their jobs either. They have no union. They are the second group of immigrant workers in the area-the others were Guatemalans in Morganton-to strike without a union.
The Guatemalans recently voted to affiliate with the Laborers International Union after a week-long strike in May at a poultry processing factory.
People inside the warehouse were impressed by the Mexican workers taking immediate action on their demands, and having the guts to strike without a union. Billy Key, a maintenance worker who told me the week before that the government's immigration laws should be more strictly enforced, exclaimed the day after the strike, "Boy, talk about union organization. The Mexicans know how to do it!"
M.J. Rahn
Greensboro, North Carolina
Rally for Abu-Jamal
Members of the Western Pennsylvania Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal organized an emergency protest on Saturday, September 16 on the University of Pittsburgh campus in response to the news that Judge Albert Sabo had denied Abu- Jamal's appeal to have his conviction overturned and obtain a new trial. Overnight, through phone calls, close to 100 people gathered to express their outrage at Judge Sabo's recent decision. Speakers at the rally included Dennis Brutus, formerly imprisoned and exiled South African poet and anti-apartheid activist; Billy Jordan of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU); and Tim Stevens, President of the Pittsburgh branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Stevens told the crowd that his branch is requesting that all NAACP branches send letters to the state Supreme Court asking for a new trial. "All of us are not free until each one of us is free," he said.
After the rally the protesters marched down Fifth Avenue, a major thoroughfare, carrying signs and chanting. Several march participants carried signs that urged passing traffic to honk for a new trial for Abu-Jamal.
Lorraine Starsky
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Native Americans protest
On August 21 over 300 people came to a demonstration
organized by the Lummi Nation in front of the Federal
Building here. The demonstration, as well as other protests
organized in Bellingham and Portland the next day, was
organized in response to a bill passed by the U.S. Senate
that cuts federal funding for programs for Native Americans
by $200 million.
Funding for the Lummi Nation in particular would be cut if they take any action restricting access to groundwater by non-Indian homeowners on their land. Native Americans and their supporters carried signs saying, "No more broken treaties!" "Take back your promises, give back our land!" "Protect Native children!" and "1492...1996 - American Holocaust." About twenty young people marched around the perimeter of the demonstration, chanting "Native pride - is alive!" and waving to the many cars that honked their horns in solidarity.
Jeff Hamill
Seattle, Washington
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