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.

WINNIPEG-Hundreds of unionists in at least four separate union locals are walking picket lines here. This is on top of the 900 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) who struck Boeing Canada, Winnepeg Division, July 11 over seniority rights.

"Welcome to the summer of the strike!" said picketers outside the Club Regent casino. Six hundred members of the Manitoba Government Employees Union (MGEU) have been on strike against the government-run casinos and entertainment centers since June 25.

The workers are demanding a raise, better job security, and improved pension provisions. Starting wages may be as low as $6.20 per hour, many positions are part-time and casual, and casino workers do not receive the same benefits as other MGEU members. Many workers are young. For most this is their first strike.

"They want us to work on Christmas, Easter and Remembrance Day," said picketer Marilyn Moschenross. "And then you hear complaints about the breakdown of the family unit! Those are pretty basic holidays." Jason Sykes said many strikers are skeptical about government promises to funnel casino profits back into health care. They suspect funds have gone into general revenues instead.

"This is the only way we're going to get respect, to stand as one, like we've been doing for four weeks," said another striker.

In addition, hundreds of nursing home workers are currently picketing 10 homes around the province.

At the Tache Nursing Centre in St. Boniface, Joe Laivey, a resident of the home, was on the picket line in his wheelchair. "I'm supporting them. They've been out for five weeks. We're getting fed up with the Conservative government. Something has to be done. When the strike first started, I didn't have a bath for two weeks."

The government is proposing a 2 percent wage rollback and is refusing to implement previously agreed-to pay equity provisions, which would raise the hourly rate on some job classifications by $0.65. The raise would primarily benefit women workers . "It's been too many years that the government's been doing this. People are tired of it," said Amelita, a nurse's aide.

This walkout comes on the heels of a province-wide strike by 3,000 home-care workers in April and May, which forced the government to put off privatization plans for a year.

Sandra Chartrand, a non-union home care support worker described a union action at a March 21 town-hall meeting featuring Premier Gary Filmon at a local university. "It was quite a night. The university staircases and everything were packed. I believe he [Filmon] got quite a jolt when we stood up and said we're not losing our jobs like that. We're not that stupid." Home care support workers are currently signing union cards.

MGEU staffer Anne Gregory reported there had been such a large demand for lawn signs to support the home-care strike that printers ran out of cardboard.

At the same time, 150 members of Local 469 of the Retail and Wholesale Workers Union, a division the United Steelworkers of America, are on strike at three locations since mid-April against Westfair Corporation.

Strikers and other unionists have brought solidarity to the picket lines. Bob Phillip, area chairperson of CAW local 550 at CN rail, said CAW members from his local helped picket a nursing home. Casino picketers reported that four striking grocery workers brought copies of their strike bulletin to the casino workers' picket line. On July 23, hundreds of nursing home and casino strikers attended a joint fund-raising benefit at the Winnipeg Convention Center.

Kmart workers ratify first contract
GREENSBORO - "It's great we got the union in the door," said Sheila Craddock, a second shift worker at the Kmart distribution center here, and a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) Local 2603. After three and a half years of fighting, workers voted July 25 to accept a three-year contract. The union held a celebration picnic August 3, which drew a few hundred workers, friends, community supporters, and local politicians.

The contract includes two more paid holidays, eight more paid hours off after one year of employment, and wage raises of $.50, $.75, and $.75 over the next three years. The starting wage is now $7.75. When the distribution center opened in April 1992 the starting wage was $5.75. The company agreed to continue medical and dental insurance with no payroll deductions.

The contract fight was characterized by workers organizing marches, break room protests, brief work stoppages and prayer meetings inside the warehouse. They had numerous plant gate rallies. In November 1994, the union struck for a week. A year later, the union launched a public boycott of Kmart stores that was supported by the Pulpit Forum, an African-American ministers coalition, students, and other organizations in Greensboro.

"I think we're a little stronger now since the contract was passed," remarked John DeBerry who has worked at Kmart for four years, and was part of the original union organizing drive. "I voted for it. I thought we fought long enough. I thought we should take what we won now and build on it. It was a victory for the union to win this contract. The three-year fight was not so much worth it to me as to those coming behind me. Now they don't have to go through what I did."

The union's campaign had centered around the demand for basic wage parity, particularly the top wage, compared to the other 12 distribution centers, and the same number of holidays and paid time off as the others. The Greensboro facility had been the lowest paid of all, and the union argued this was due to discrimination against a largely Black, Latino and Asian workforce.

The ranks turned back three separate company organized decertification petitioning drives. In the last decertification effort, the company pushed newly hired immigrant workers, mostly Mexicans, to sign against the union, but most refused.

The victory brings the first union contract at a Kmart "hard line" warehouse. In September 1993, 550 workers voted two-to-one to be represented by UNITE. The company refused to negotiate seriously after the vote, trying instead to destroy the union. The "soft line," or clothing distribution centers, are largely covered by contracts with UNITE.

Some workers voiced opposition to the contract, objecting to the ban on work stoppages, on protests inside the facility, and on strikes during the life of the agreement.

"I voted no," said Mike Thompson, a union activist who participated in the numerous civil disobedience actions at the Kmart stores. "After the Presbyterian national convention announced they were going to support our boycott of Kmart and would discuss withdrawing their 200,000 shares of Kmart stock, I thought now was a good time to go out and hit the stores hard for another month. But it was the people's vote and I got over it. Now we should just move forward with all the brothers and sisters, and not sit down. The company will continue to attack us on the job. Now we can also participate in helping others, whether it's here in the community or in other labor struggles."

Union escalates postal dispute in UK
The executive committee of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) in the United Kingdom announced August 6 a decision to call five 24-hour strikes. CWU general secretary Alan Johnson, said Royal Mail had refused negotiation talks during the weekend of August 2-4.

Richard Dykes, Royal Mail's managing director, told London's Financial Times he would pressure the union officialdom by appealing directly to the 140,000 postal workers. London is seeking to privatize the Post Office, change working conditions and impose job cuts.

Katy Le Roux and Bob Cantrick in Toronto; and M.J. Rahn and L Paltrineri, members of UNITE Local 2603 in Greenboro, North Carolina, contributed to this column.  
 
 
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