The meeting, held in Spanish and Creole, included messages of support from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee; Jobs with Justice; the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farm worker group; and other garment workers from Miami.

Two days later more than 40 workers turned out in their red UNITE! T-shirts for the Miami Workers Rights Board hearing in downtown Miami. The event, sponsored by Jobs with Justice and the Institute for Policy Studies, was held in the auditorium of the United Teachers of Dade County. Whenever a speaker at the program sounded a militant tone in defense of workers’ rights, the workers from Point Blank jumped to their feet and chanted, "Si se puede!" and "Wi nou kapab!" (‘Yes we can!’ in Spanish and Creole). The Workers Rights Board that oversaw the program included civil rights and immigrant rights activists, elected officials, church leaders, and actor Danny Glover.

Isma described to the more than 300 people present at the July 27 meeting the harassment he has received from the company and the state. Point Blank had discharged Isma after accusing him of leading chants of "Si se puede" during work hours. He was arrested July 18 by Broward County sheriffs for "breach of the peace" while participating in a union support rally outside the plant.

Isma worked at the plant for two-and-a-half years and was receiving $6.75 per hour at the time he was fired and arrested. Point Blank estimates it will generate $350 million in sales from a contract to produce bulletproof vests for the U.S. armed forces, and local, state, and federal police. Customers include the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, federal marshals, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the New York Police Department.  
 
March backs hospital workers’ fight
The high point of the day was when workers marched to Mt. Sinai Hospital’s Miami Beach facilities. Workers from the Point Blank plant in their red union shirts mixed it up with dozens of nursing home workers in their purple Service Employees International Union (SEIU) T-shirts, as they marched and circled the hospital complex to support the Mt. Sinai workers’ fight for a union.

On February 28 nursing assistants and housekeeping, dietary, and laundry workers at the Mt. Sinai facility in Miami Shores voted 49-37 in favor of joining SEIU 1199 Florida. Management is now challenging the validity of the election, charging that half-filled glasses of water and pennies on the floor were voodoo tactics used by union supporters to intimidate other workers.

Prospere Eljust, a 32-year-old sewing machine operator with three years at Point Blank, told the Militant at the July 27 event that the company has ratcheted up production since September 11. "We start at 7 in the morning and sometimes don’t leave until 10 or 11 at night. The air-conditioning will stop, and as much as a week will go by with no water for us."

Workers at the plant have been discussing how to respond to these conditions for a long time, said Eljust, and several months ago the workers in his department "went to the supervisor and asked for a raise in pay. The supervisor signed a paper agreeing with the wage raise, but the manager said ‘no.’" Eljust pointed out that workers learned from this experience, and rather than relying on the supervisor to work it out, eight workers were chosen to go to the bosses on July 18 to argue that Point Blank should recognize the union and negotiate a contract for improved pay and conditions. "We all brought the paper to the office this time," he said, "and everyone chanted ‘Si se puede.’"

Each step of the way the owners of Point Blank have shown their surprise at the enthusiastic support among workers in the plant for joining UNITE. Union organizers report that a big majority of workers have signed union cards, and the company’s response to this success was the panicked decision to close the factory for half a day when the eight workers went to the office on July 18, and to call in the cops from the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Workers turned the short workday into an opportunity to rally and demonstrate their support for the union outside the plant.

"It was at the 9:45 a.m. break," said Eljust, "and we looked out the window and saw the police. Later we were all told to go home. But everyone stayed in the parking lot and continued to chant." He concluded that workers will continue the fight for a union because "they can fire us anytime they want and we can’t speak out against it. They don’t respect us--we need respect."

At an August 3 UNITE-sponsored party, held at the CWA hall in Pompano Beach, Govnier Jeune, a sewing machine operator at Point Blank, said the company is now threatening to send the work to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary factory, and to subcontractors in Miami. Jeune said that the bosses are now asking everybody, "Why do you support the union?" Like many others he is standing up to this company harassment and scare campaign, and talking back to the bosses.

Jeune responded to the supervisor’s bullying: "I support the union because I have worked here for three years and you don’t give me good money." Seventy workers, their families, and supporters turned out for the August 3 event.  
 
 
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