"It's very hard, especially for the ones with families, but nobody has gone back in. In fact, we've had some who have come out and joined the strike," Jesús Guzmán told the Militant. "Workers in other plants around Supremo Foods have told us if we win, they would organize a union too. We tell them they can count on our help." The workers have been on strike for 13 weeks now as part of their struggle to get Teamsters Local 703 recognized as their bargaining agent.

About a dozen strikers joined a meeting sponsored by the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition at which Ken Riley, president of International Longshoremen's Association Local 1422 in Charleston, spoke about the union's campaign to defend five local union members who face felony frame-up charges of inciting to riot. The charges stem from a cop attack on a mass picket line of dockworkers who were protesting the shipping company Nordana's use of a nonunion contractor to unload its ships. Twenty-seven other workers face a civil suit for "damages" that carry fines totaling $1.5 million .

On August 17 Riley addressed a meeting of about 200 at the union hall of Teamsters Local 705. "Uniting together we can make a difference," he said. Addressing the fight to defend the five dockworkers, Riley said, "The tide is turning, the truth is coming out, and now the prosecutors are saying it will be very difficult to find a jury to convict these men in South Carolina."
 
 
Related articles:
Unionists back longshore workers at Labor Day event in South Carolina
Chareston five win support in New Jersey
 
 
 
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