This column is devoted to reporting the resistance by working people to the employers' assault on their living standards, working conditions, and unions.

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.

After 13 months of working without a contract, 3,600 members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada struck Saskatchewan Telephone (SaskTel) April 10. "Many of us have never been on strike before," said Mary Lou Jones, a long-distance operator. "We're novices, but morale on the line is good."

The walkout is the first full-fledged walkout against this provincial phone company. A 68 percent majority voted to take strike action.

SaskTel workers, who are paid less than their counterparts in other regions of Canada, are demanding parity. The company is offering a wage increase it claims is 3 percent. Strikers dispute that figure, pointing out that part of the "raise" has already been lost since the workers have been without a contract.

Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow has been quoted in the local press telling strikers not to be greedy. City workers, on the other hand, are bringing coffee and donuts to the picket lines to support the telephone strikers, who are pulling 20 hours' picket duty a week. Strikers suspect the company of hiring students prior to the strike as "managers." Managers are receiving $50 per hour for overtime in addition to their salaries and cab fare. SaskTel claims no replacements are being used.

The union is organizing a strike solidarity rally April 23 in the provincial capital of Regina.

Kenworth strikers vow to fight threatened closing
STE.-THERESE, QUEBEC - Striking members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union at the Kenworth truck plant here have stepped up their protest activities following the April 9 announcement by the owners that the plant will be mothballed.

Hundreds of workers joined rallies in Quebec City, Ottawa, and Montreal demanding government action to keep the plant open. One such protest was held April 17 outside the U.S. consulate. Kenworth is owned by Paccar Inc. of Seattle. Some 850 members of CAW Local 728 have been walking picket lines for eight months.

On April 10, workers blocked a major highway beside the plant for an hour. Strikers carried a banner reading "Kenworth: 1967 - 1996 Unacceptable."

Striker Robert Desmeules called the company's announcement "a new way to negotiate. You threaten to close and then the governments intervene."

The Quebec provincial government has pledged to keep the plant open by calling on the union to make fresh concessions while offering a $15 million modernization loan.

Steelworkers march for Bridgestone boycott
DES MOINES, Iowa - More than 300 supporters of the fight by the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) at Bridgestone/Firestone rallied April 13 at the state capitol here.

After a 10-month walkout against the company, United Rubber Workers (URW) union officials instructed workers to take down picket lines in May 1995. The URW has merged with the USWA.

Local unionists have since stepped up their campaign calling for a boycott of Bridgestone/Firestone products. Workers have leafleted outside local stores and distributed signs reading "Boycott Bridgestone/Firestone."

Following the rally, participants marched to a meeting of the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association to present them with a letter asking them not to sell cars with Bridgestone/Firestone tires, a request the association said it would take "under advisement."

Monica Jones, member of Canadian Auto Workers Local 728 on strike at Kenworth in Ste.-The'rese, Quebec; and Shirley Peņa, member of United Auto Workers Local 997 in Des Moines, Iowa contributed to this column.  
 
 
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