Louisiana: teachers rally for raise
Some 5,000 teachers skipped classes May 3 and marched on the state capital in Baton Rouge to press their demand for a pay raise. Among the many signs present was one carried by Jennifer Seery-Christian, a kindergarten teacher from East Baton Rouge, saying, "Teach + er = poor." "It's called the new math," she said. As Governor Michael Foster prepared to addressed the crowd, protesters booed and loudly chanted, "No more promises. Pay raise now."

GE workers rally for union
Three hundred workers rallied May 7 in front of the General Electric plant in Ravenna, Ohio, in support of an organizing drive by the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) at the plant. The action was part of a series of rallies leading up to the June 25 expiration of the company's contract with 14 national unions.

One of the workers' main demands is increased pensions. After 40 years of working for GE, some retirees receive less than $600 a month. Recently, the IUE won the right to represent workers at the GE plants in Winston, Virginia, and Jefferson, Indiana.

Turkish rubber workers strike
Some 3,000 rubber workers in Turkey went on strike at the end of April in the first labor challenge to a government austerity program demanded by the International Monetary Fund in that country. The strikers were forced to return to work May 8 when the government decreed a 60-day strike postponement in the name of "national security."

Worried about the repercussions of the strike, Tire manufacturers Goodyear, Pirelli, and Brisa took out a joint newspaper ad denouncing the rubber workers for rejecting a 26.5 percent pay raise. Officials of the rubber workers union, Lastik-Is, pointed out that their demand for a 35 percent raise was modest compared to the rate of inflation, which last year was 60 percent.  
 
 
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