The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.28           August 16, 1999 
 
 
N.Y. Sugar Workers Win Support  

BY BETSY FARLEY AND DON MACKLE
BROOKLYN, New York - Strikers at the Domino Sugar refinery here are reaching out to win support for their fight to defend their union. Six weeks into their walkout, members of several unions, including Teamsters; Laborers locals 78 and 79; Electricians Local 3; the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE); the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW); Operating Engineers; rail workers; and Steamfitters have stopped by the picket line on the Brooklyn waterfront to express solidarity with the striking members of International Longshoremen Association (ILA).

On July 8 strikers were on the agenda of a monthly community meeting organized by State Assemblyman Vito Lopez in a church near the plant. Ten strikers were among the 80 people who heard ILA Local 1814 Vice President Joe Crimi ask for support against the company efforts to eliminate 100 jobs and break the union.

Earlier in the day Ismael Guadalupe, from the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, and Jorge Farinacci, from the Socialist Front of Puerto Rico, visited the Domino picket line. The Puerto Rican activists were in New York to testify on the colonial status of Puerto Rico before the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization. During the one-hour visit, strikers explained to the visitors the union-busting effort by the company, then got a report on the situation in Vieques by Guadalupe.

The union sent a team of strikers to set up informational pickets at the Domino plant in Baltimore, where the contract expires in December. Janet Dunbar, a forklift driver at the Brooklyn plant, spent a week on the team. "We are getting a lot of support from the union truck drivers and railroad workers," Dunbar noted.

Don Mackle is a member of UFCW Local 174. Betsy Farley is a member of UNITE Local 23-25.

 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home