The union accepted assurances that Ford will build a new vehicle at Halewood in 2000, and secure the future of that plant. In January, the company had threatened to close down the Halewood factory if the union did not accept layoffs, after production of its current Escort model ends in the year 2000.

An article in the February 8 Financial Times of London commented, "The company's greater willingness to back the project... appeared largely based on private assurances from the government that it would receive satisfactory subsidies."

Ford also promised it would build its next generation Fiesta small car at the Dagenham factory in London, rather than Cologne in Germany, and the Transit van at Southampton on the southern coast of England.

According to the Financial Times, "union leaders committed themselves to working together to strengthen Ford's role in car making in Britain. The agreement was reached after two days of talks between union leaders and Ford management headed by Jac Nasser, chairman of Ford of Europe. The company emerged as the clear winner, and many of the investment decisions, while not previously announced, were expected."

Schering-Plough workers
fight racist attacks

NEWARK, New Jersey - A ninth worker at Schering-Plough Corp. filed racist discrimination charges against the Madison-based pharmaceutical company on January 28. Norren Alvarez, a 10-year employee at the company's Kenilworth site, added her complaint to six others already filed with the state Division on Civil Rights.

Alvarez charged that she has been verbally abused and harassed by supervisors because her boyfriend is a Black man and she is white. "I have been called a whore and a nigger- lover off and on, on many different occasions, for the time I've worked for the company," Alvarez said. "Most of the people who did this have retired. One of them was a supervisor who retired last December. But another one, a woman supervisor, is still there, still harassing myself and my boyfriend."

Alvarez's boyfriend, Major Holmes, subsequently filed a discrimination complaint of his own. The workers who have filed the complaints have organized protests in front of the company's offices, a march to publicize their cases, and press conferences.

At a well attended press conference at Mount Teman AME Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on February 5, nine employees, former employees, and contractors represented by Salaam Ismial, a civil rights activist, announced they are calling for a boycott of five Schering-Plough products. The boycott list includes the allergy medication Claritin, Coppertone suntan products, and Proventhol asthma medicine.

"Schering-Plough has refused to address the question of racism," Ismial said. He introduced all the workers and told their stories. Besides Alvarez, the other six workers are: Eric Arnold, the first to file suit after a supervisor called him a "stupid nigger"; John D'Orazio, who witnessed the incident and backed up Arnold's story; and Douglas Curry, Henry Barbey, Thomas Parham, Thomas Harris, Donnell Brown, and Dwayne Ross. D'Orazio is white and the other five workers are Black.

Ismial announced that the boycott effort would begin the next day with a picket line in front of University Hospital in Newark to urge doctors to stop using the pharmaceutical firm's products.

Negotiations between Ismial and the company ended in late November after he demanded $20 million in damages for the workers and a hand in rewriting corporate policy against discrimination. The company said it intends to find and punish violators of its policy against discrimination but will not accede to the demands for compensation.

Ian Grant, a member of TGWU at Ford's Dagenham plant in London, England; and Martha Ressler, a sewing machine operator and member of the United Needletrades and Industrial Employees (UNITE) in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, contributed to this week's column.  
 
 
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