Vol.63/No.44 December 13, 1999
Build solidarity with Overnite truckers strike
{editorial}
Reports from Memphis, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Twin Cities, and several other cities indicate that Teamsters union members on strike at Overnite Transportation, the largest nonunion trucking company in the United States, are holding their own in the battle. Their strike, now in its fifth week, has been successful in highlighting the struggle to unionize Overnite on a national level, and has won broader support in the labor movement than at any time before in their two-decade-long fight.
It is a testimony to the breadth and depth of the resistance of working people today that these strikers—a minority among the workers at Overnite and even at some of the struck terminals—have stood solid for more than a month. The determination of the strikers is evident from reports at every picket line. The Teamsters have continued to organize support rallies, push back against the company-inspired court injunctions limiting picketing, and win a hearing among Overnite workers not yet on the picket line.
These fighters have experience in taking on the Overnite bosses and know they face a hard and uphill battle. They have made an impact on the trucking company's operations, as is evident in Memphis and elsewhere, and look to winning more workers there to support the union and join the strike.
"Hope lies in the united strength of our unions," one striker said at a Militant Labor Forum in Atlanta. "UNITE, Teamsters, UAW, and others. We need to act as one body," he said. This assessment of the future of the fight is central in the coming weeks. Rail unions too, have a special stake in this fight, since rail giant Union Pacific owns nonunion Overnite. The more the bosses see members of the Teamsters union who work at other trucking firms walking the picket line, the more other unions make a visible presence in front of Overnite terminals along with strikers, and the more the labor movement acts as one body to back the strike action, the greater the potential to deepen the fight and press for union recognition.
Puerto Rican activists seeking to expel the U.S. Navy from Vieques, students involved in battles against education cuts, and those involved with other social struggles have a direct interest in coming out to the picket lines to support Teamsters strikers. A blow against Overnite bosses weakens oppressor class, the common enemy.
For the struggle of today and the sharper battles of tomorrow, fighters from one struggle meeting those who have been through another is the only way the union of all workers is advanced and a leadership tested in such class conflicts is forged.
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