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CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - "We will barricade ourselves behind iron doors. We will get behind the bulkheads of the engine rooms," Artur Udovenko, chief officer on the Orlovka, one of five Russian fishing ships tied up in the Christchurch seaport of Lyttelton, told the Christchurch Press.

Eighty-nine Russian sailors have been staying on the boats since December 1997 when Abel Fisheries, the New Zealand company that had chartered the boats, went into receivership after being convicted of fraud. The sailors are refusing to leave until they receive NZ$1 million (NZ$1 = US$.55) in wages that is owed to them. Udovenko was speaking in response to threats from the New Zealand government departments of fisheries and immigration to evict and deport the sailors.

Many in Lyttelton have rallied to their side. Fifteen people picketed on the Gladstone Pier April 23, carrying placards such as "No Wages, No Justification, No Resolution." Val McClimont of the Lyttelton Residents' Association, which organized the picket, said the Russian sailors "should be treated with dignity. Is that a great deal to ask?"

On the same day as the protest, the sailors gained a victory as the Immigration Service agreed before the High Court in Christchurch that they would not take any action before June 1. Udovenko said that of the NZ$16,000 he was owed for eight months work, he had received only NZ$350. In an interview with the Militant, Udovenko, the ship's captain Petrishcha Vasilily, and Serbaev Adam, repair engineer on the Osha, went into more detail. Adam said he was owed NZ$14,700 for 10 months' work. Some sailors on the boats who had been employed for five months were owed $4,000, they added.

They emphasized that these wages are a life and death question for the seafarers. Interpreter Victoria Mostert told the Militant, "There is no unemployment benefit in Russia."

"These ships are our money," Udovenko told the Press. "We worked for a New Zealand company and catch New Zealand fish." Abel Fisheries had used the ships for most of 1997. After Abel's receivership, the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries seized the boats, which were owned by the Russian company Karelrybflot.

Abel contends it is owed NZ$2 million by Karelrybflot, which is based in Murmansk, the home town of many of the sailors. According to the Press, 30 percent of this company is owned by the Russian government, and 70 percent is owned by private interests. The media has regularly reported the dispute, including the difficult living conditions on the ships. After the sailors complained of cockroaches, the ships were fumigated. Diesel fuel supplied by the Ministry of Fisheries for the ships' generators has run out. Three ships are now powered from the shore, but the other two are without electricity.

The ministry cut off its supplies of food to the ships in early April, asking the Salvation Army charity to fill the gap. In contrast to the government's hostile attitude, many working people in Christchurch have donated food and other supplies. Among those organizing collections have been the Seafarers' Union and the Lyttelton Seafarers Centre, along with churches and businesses.

The sailors' claim for outstanding wages will be heard in the High Court in Christchurch on July 27. Udovenko emphasized their determination, explaining that in World War II the people of Leningrad had withstood a siege by the German army for three years. "So a month for us will be no trouble."

Hundreds protest hospital layoffs in N.Y.
NEW YORK - Hundreds of workers and others rallied April 15 and 16 in front of Harlem Hospital and at City Hall in New York City protesting the city's announced layoffs for 900 hospital workers citywide, with some 272 of these from Harlem Hospital.

With New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani contending that New York public hospitals are overstaffed, 900 hospital workers are to be laid off by in April and another 600 by the summer. The layoffs will include nurses, nurses' aides, housekeepers, and cooks.

At the April 15 rally in front of Harlem Hospital, members of the Municipal Hospital Workers Union Local 420 were joined by residents and other activists chanting "Save Harlem Hospital," and "What do we want? JOBS!" Mark Torres, a caseworker and union representative at Harlem hospital, expressed a common sentiment that the city plans to close the hospital.

Reneé Davis, a nurse's aide, told the Militant she had worked at Harlem Hospital for three years under the city's so-called Work Experience Program (WEP), receiving nothing but her welfare check as pay. After little more than a year as a union worker, with starting wages of $20,000 per year, she expects to be laid off. "It's not right," Davis said, "Workfare is just another form of slavery."

"I think they want to privatize Harlem Hospital," Sharon Williams, an intravenous technician for eight years who expects to be laid off, explained. "Right now a lot of new workers here are WEP, and they want the nurses' aides to train them so they can push the nurses' aides out of their jobs."

District Council 37, the union for more than 120,000 municipal workers, filed a lawsuit against the city administration charging that the layoff plans were illegal because the city was using 1,000 workers on welfare to replace then. On April 23 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced that every WEP worker would be immediately pulled out of the hospitals, and insisted that the 900 layoffs of union members would go ahead as well.

"The Socialist Workers Campaign supports the fight to stop the layoffs and to keep Harlem Hospital open," Rose Ana Berbero told the rally. Berbero is the Socialist Workers candidate for governor of New York and a member of the International Association of Machinists. "These layoffs are more of the same attacks being carried out by the government against working people. I urge all here to also support the nurses on strike at Maimonides Medical Center and visit their picket line."

The nurses at Maimonides, a private hospital in Brooklyn, approved a contract April 21 ending their three- week strike. They pushed back an attempt to cut their health benefits, but management will impose changes it had demanded in work schedules.

Locked-out oil workers launch public defense
HOUSTON, Texas - "Stop the lies, drop the charges, end the lockout," declared Dennis Gotcher, a locked-out Crown Central Petroleum worker, as he solicited signatures at another Houston area refinery plant gate on April 20.

Gotcher was one of three locked-out workers and two supporters who came to the Lyondell-Citgo Refinery plant gate to ask fellow Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) members to sign an "Open Letter to the Chairman of Crown Central Petroleum." The Crown workers came to explain the latest stage in their two-year fight, the filing of a civil suit against 15 union members and the local union by Crown alleging sabotage and conspiracy to commit sabotage. They passed out flyers to the Lyondell-Citgo workers inviting them to participate in upcoming public activities against these frame-up charges and the lockout.

Nearly all the operations personnel coming in or leaving signed the open letter. "Many said they knew about the lawsuit," said Karen Sloan, another locked-out Crown worker who was part of the plant-gate team, "but others were hearing about it for the first time. Some had already signed the Open Letter at their last union meeting."

Gotcher, also a defendant in the suit, addressed that meeting last week. The Lyondell-Citgo unit is part of the same local as the Crown unit, OCAW Local 4-227.

"Few realized that we are maintaining our picket lines every single day of the week. I invited them to come join us on the lines," said Dean Cook, another defendant who was gathering signatures at the plant gate. "So far we've collected about 125 signatures from Lyondell-Citgo workers. We're planning to come back in a few days to hit two other shifts. Part of the reason for the great response we're getting may be that Lyondell-Citgo management is threatening to demand some of the same takebacks that Crown wants."

The Open Letter is the first step in the public defense that the locked-out workers have launched against Crown's lawsuit, which the company filed January 15. On April 16, a federal judge denied the union's motion to dismiss the suit, so the trial date is scheduled to be set on May 29.

In response, the unionists have been holding bi-weekly open meetings to discuss how best to defend its members from the latest attack by Crown. The Open Letter to the chairman of Crown Central, which was drafted by a committee of defendants and other union activists, is one aspect of this campaign.

"On February 5, 1996, you ordered 252 members of the OCAW escorted out of your refinery," the letter states. "Then, you locked the gates behind them.... Crown's excuse to justify the lockout - that workers committed acts of sabotage - is a lie.... This is nothing but another effort to break the union and the solidarity of these workers."

An Outreach Committee has been formed to arrange for more plant-gate signings at other refineries and plants, in the community and at political events. A Speakers Bureau has begun lining up speaking engagements before union meetings, at college campuses and high schools, and other events.

Patrick Brown in Christchurch; Ruth Nebbia, a member of the United Transportation Union, in New York; and Jerry Freiwirth, a member of OCAW Local 4-367 in Houston, contributed to this column.  
 
 
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