We invite you to contribute short items to this column
as a way for other fighting workers around the world to read
about and learn from these important struggles. Jot down a
few lines about what is happening in your union, at your
workplace, or other workplaces in your area, including
interesting political discussions.
UAW strike at MacLean Forge
One hundred members of the United Auto Workers (UAW)
have been on strike against MacLean Forge in Havana,
Illinois, 50 miles downriver from Peoria, since July 31.
MacLean Forge is the only manufacturer of sickle guards for
farm equipment in North America.
UAW Local 2030 members have rejected two contract proposals in as many weeks, both times by large margins. The strikers' main demand is to bring the wages of hourly workers up to the level of incentive workers, who are paid according to productivity.
Workers at MacLean Forge are determined to stay out as long as it takes to win a fair contract, despite articles in the Peoria Journal Star assuring readers that relations between the union and company in this strike are more harmonious than in the strike against Caterpillar.
"The company is spending $2 million on upgrades but they can't afford to give the workers anything? It's a slap in the face," said Bruce Deering as he walked the picket line.
"Some of the guys in the plant can't keep up with inflation as it is," Deering added. Because workers from the local power company have refused to cross the picket lines, MacLean Forge has been unable to take advantage of the downtime created by the strike to install new electric furnaces.
On August 28, the union will present a new proposal to the company. Strikers are hopeful of returning to work.
"But it's hard to say what the company's up to," said one picketer. "We may be out here for a long time."
Death of rail worker sparks anger over safety
Workers at Longsight maintenance depot in Manchester,
England, were shocked when they heard that a train driver
had been hit July 26 by a passing train outside the depot as
he was using a trackside phone to call the signal box. He
died later of his injuries.
Track workers said they had refused to guide trains through the blocked line at this place because there was insufficient room to stand safely. It was known there was not minimum clearance at that phone.
Two days earlier a driver had his leg amputated after his train was derailed near York.
Safety issues rank high among rail workers' concerns as the industry heads towards privatization. The national weekly paper The Mail on Sunday ran an article July 23 under the headline, "We want to kill only one or two workers a year."
The article quotes rail quality director Graham Eccles commenting in a safety training video on improvements since three years ago. "At that time we were killing about 12 people a year on the track, and the chairman wanted to reduce that to no more than one or two people a year," Eccles said. "So that's quite an improvement."
There was angry discussion at such blatant callousness. Many rail workers believe safety conditions will worsen in a privatized industry.
Unions reach accord with British Rail
The executive of the Associated Society of Locomotive
Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) called off plans for further
one-day strikes after reaching an agreement with British
Rail that moves up the date for negotiations on reducing the
workweek by two hours to 37 hours.
The train drivers had voted 5,101 to 4,370 to reject British Rail's offer of a 3 percent pay increase. The 16,000 drivers held two one-day strikes in July, which cost the company up to $30.8 million in lost revenue. British Rail did not increase the 3 percent offer under the settlement and has insisted on ending national pay bargaining, which the union leadership accepted.
Workers on the London Underground did hold a 24-hour strike over pay and working conditions August 25. The train drivers there voted by a 3-1 margin in favor of strike action. The London Underground bosses say they cannot increase the 3 percent offer but are expected to negotiate on working hours, rostering, and other conditions of service.
As British Rail has been facing strike action and negotiations with the trade unions, the debate over privatization has deepened. The latest blow to privatization has been "leaks" in the media about the lack of safety carried out by Railtrack.
Railtrack manager Jack Rose, who is responsible for maintenance safety, warned in a letter to management that unless the company improved its safety procedure, it risked a repeat of the 1988 Clapham disaster in which 35 people died. Rose said that Railtrack's safety procedures are so lax that another Clapham has been narrowly averted twice.
St. Paul unions support Detroit newspaper strike
Seventy-five workers picketed August 24 outside St.
Paul's Pioneer Press newspaper, protesting the company's
decision to send managers to scab against striking workers
in Detroit. Pioneer Press is owned by Knight-Ridder - the
same company that owns the Detroit Free Press.
Peter Ritter, a spokesperson for the Interplant Council of Newspaper Unions, sent a letter to Pioneer Press demanding the newspaper send the managers back. The company replied that it had the "absolute right to send managers to support the company the same way that you have the right to support the striking workers."
"Informational picket lines like this are being organized around the country," said Mike Sweeny, a member of Newspaper Guild Local 2.
"Tomorrow there is one in San Jose, California, and others are scheduled for Cincinnati, Ohio, and Des Moines, Iowa. The major issue is to let people know what is going on in Detroit," he said.
Other unions have joined the picket lines in St. Paul, including the Service Employees International Union, the International Association of Machinists, the Teamsters, Operating Engineers, the Typographical Union-CWA, and the Mailers union.
Steve Hanke, a member of Mailers Local 4, explained why members of his local were participating in the picket line. "We just wanted to show that we don't like the company sending managers to Detroit to bust the union."
David Marshall in Peoria, Illinois; Debbie Delange, member of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) in Manchester, England; Shellia Kennedy, member of the RMT in London; and Megan Arney and Amy Roberts, members of the Young Socialists in Twin Cities, Minnesota, contributed to this article.