BY DEAN PEOPLES
SEATTLE - Members of the United Steelworkers of America
(USWA) fighting a union-busting drive by Kaiser Aluminum
marched about 250 strong to Boeing corporate offices here for
a Steelworker Solidarity Rally and March August 5. Workers
from the Kaiser plant in Tacoma, Washington, were joined by
three busloads of strikers and their supporters from two
struck Kaiser plants near Spokane. They have been locked out
since January, following a strike that began Sept. 30, 1998.
Representatives of the USWA explained that as part of their fight against the attempt of Kaiser to break the union, they have been campaigning to get Kaiser's main corporate customers to quit buying aluminum from the struck plants.
Also speaking were Washington State AFL-CIO representative Bob Gorman, Washington State Labor Council representative Robbie Stern, King County Labor Council President Ron Judd, and others.
Following the rally the strikers and their supporters then boarded buses and headed down to the Kaiser plant in Tacoma where an expanded picket line was held to greet scabs and company security thugs coming in for the afternoon shift.
Dean Peoples is a member of International Association of Machinists (IAM) District 751 in Seattle.