Vol. 79/No. 24 July 13, 2015
Above, Militant/Josefina Otero
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This column is dedicated to spreading the truth about the labor resistance that is unfolding today, to give voice to those engaged in battle and help build solidarity. National steel and auto contracts are expiring this summer and fall. I invite workers involved in fights against concessions to contact me at 306 W. 37th St., 13th Floor, New York, NY 10018; or (212) 244-4899; or themilitant@mac.com. We’ll work together to ensure your story is told.
“Five of us clean the Target store. None of us went to work last night,” Ivonne Garduno, a janitor who works for an agency contracted to supply cleaners for the downtown store, told the Militant. “Some co-workers from first and second shift are here at the picket line too.”
The janitors and supporters next picketed the Best Buy shareholders meeting at the company’s corporate headquarters in nearby Richfield. While janitors at Best Buy headquarters are organized by Service Employees International Union, the workers in the stores are not.
Paul Bassett, a janitor at Sears in Coon Rapids, makes $8.50 an hour working for a contractor. “I am not on strike, but I’m here to support my fellow cleaners,” he said. “Our wages are not fair. We want a union. With more people, more numbers, we can make a difference.”
The actions were organized by Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (Center of Workers United in Struggle).
Steelworkers gathered in front of the Jessop Credit Union and marched to ATI corporate offices in front of the steel mill during afternoon shift changes.
“It’s an attempt to break the union,” Marc Scott, a storeroom clerk at the mill, told the Washington Observer-Reporter.
“This is about my family’s future,” Brent Allen, who works at the new hybrid anneal line in the mill, told the Militant. “We should be able to work to live, not live to work.”
Similar rallies were held at all 11 ATI flat-rolled plants in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Ohio.
The actions take place as the Steelworkers enter negotiations for some 30,000 workers at U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal whose contracts expire Sept. 1.
ATI has hired two strikebreaking outfits to supply scab workers and security and guard service, reports a USW fact sheet.
ATI wants big changes to health care for active, retired and future workers; cuts to the pension agreements for current and future workers; and reduced wages and overtime pay, the union fact sheet states, as well as changes in contract language that would allow management to increase use of contractors.
“If we accepted their 145 items on language, the company could do whatever they want,” said Glen (Skip) Langdon, president of the local here.