BY BOB FINKELSTEIN  
PERKINS TWP.--Eva Braiman, a write-in candidate for governor of Ohio and a member of the Socialist Workers Party, hopes the path to the governor’s mansion runs through the cutting floor of a Margaretta Township meatpacker.

Braiman, 32, has spent the last six months commuting from her home in Cleveland to work at JH Routh Packing Co. on 4413 W. Bogart Road, to learn about the kind of workers she wants to represent.

Routh is the third meatpacker she’s worked for since moving to Ohio four years ago, including packing plants in Cleveland and Medina.

"Meatpacking houses are one of the places where you’re starting to see the beginning of a fight in the political future of the United States," Braiman said.

Braiman, whose shift starts at 11 p.m., works on an assembly line making cuts to pork shoulders in a slaughterhouse that processes about 4,000 hogs a day.

Meatpackers have grown frustrated by the demands placed on them as they kill thousands of animals a day and trim the meat, she said.

Companies seeking to be more productive expect employees to work at faster speeds--which causes more injuries--while benefits such as vacation and health care are cut, she said.

Braiman said she believes the frustrations of meatpackers are shared by workers in a range of industries being squeezed by the drive for productivity, including family farmers.

She said if elected, she would work toward providing free education and health care.

"We need to organize society based on the needs of the majority as opposed to the profits of a few," she said.

Braiman said she would also seek to put an end to police brutality, increase access to abortion facilities, end the death penalty and seek to block banks from foreclosing on property owned by farmers who can’t repay money they’ve borrowed.

The Socialist Workers Party has been in existence since 1928. Only 6 members belong to the Cleveland chapter. Throughout the nation, the party has fielded 46 candidates in 19 states for statewide and federal offices.

Braiman, who is running for the office with Michael Fitzsimmons, a 42-year-old garment worker, said she chose to run as a write-in candidate because of the difficulty collecting the 5,000 signatures required to appear on Ohio’s official ballot. To have write-in votes counted, candidates must register with Ohio’s Secretary of State.

Braiman was raised in New York City and joined the Socialist Workers Party while studying at the State University of New York in Binghamton. Braiman said she became interested in fighting to represent workers after being exposed to strikes at nearby coal mines and Eastern Airlines in the early 1990s.

Her campaign, which began in August, has consisted of passing out pamphlets about her positions to workers that have been on strike in Ohio and some college campuses, she said.

Although she has little hope of winning the election for governor against Republican incumbent Bob Taft or Democratic challenger Tim Hagan, Braiman said she isn’t concerned.

"When the campaign is over, I’m going to continue doing the same thing," Braiman said. "The focus of my life is struggle."  
 
 
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