BY ARLENE RUBINSTEIN
ATLANTA - In factories and other workplaces throughout Atlanta, people are discussing the clinic bombing. Some, like my co-worker Dorothy, a sewing machine operator at Wilen Manufacturing, a mop factory organized by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), heard about the attack on the clinic on the radio minutes after it occurred. "Suddenly the news broke in to report the clinic bombing," she said. "As they were talking about it, the second bomb went off. I was sitting there sewing - the whole thing really surprised me, especially the second bomb."

"After thinking it over," she continued, "I feel the target was the clinic. Remember, last year they killed a doctor who performed abortions. They carry on this time of year because it's near the anniversary when abortion was legalized."

Anthony Norwood, a forklift operator at the plant, disagreed. "A lot of people are walking around mad. Government buildings, abortion clinics, newspapers are all targets. It's sad."

Support for a woman's right to choose abortion is strong in the plant. Paul Cornish, 22, explained, "I absolutely, by all means think abortion is a woman's right, and her decision. It's absolutely up to her."

Cornish and Molden, a long-time worker at Wilen, had the same response concerning the federal government's inaction in protecting abortion clinics. "What is the government doing about it? Doesn't seem like much to me. They should be more supportive of our right to choose. It is the law, right?" stated Molden.

Arlene Rubinstein works at Wilen Manufacturing and is a member of UNITE.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home