From Minneapolis to Houston, socialist candidates called for supporting the striking unionists.

Martín Koppel, Socialist Workers candidate for New York mayor, brought solidarity to the strikers on an August 21 visit to LaGuardia. “We support your fight against Northwest and the concessions they’re trying to impose on you,” he said. The picketing mechanics, members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, told the team of socialist campaigners about the company’s effort to slash jobs and wages and deal a crippling blow to the airline unions.

“The airline bosses will push more and more until we stand up to them and use the one effective weapon we have—union power,” Koppel said. “We urge other unions and working people to join with you.”

Workers on the picket line were eager to discuss their fight. “A few days before the strike, the company told us to clean out our lockers,” said striking mechanic Eric Yudin, who has worked 14 years at Northwest. That was a clear signal of the company’s determination to eliminate jobs and replace many of the striking mechanics, he noted.

Kevin McCarthy, an American Airlines mechanic and member of Transport Workers Union Local 562, was on the line to show his support. “If other companies see what Northwest can get away with, they will do the same,” said McCarthy, who was on strike against Eastern Airlines during the 1989-91 walkout there.

The previous day Dan Fein, SWP candidate for city comptroller, joined the picket line with a team of campaigners. Strikers there were interested in hearing from Fein, a union meat packer, about an ongoing strike in Farmingdale, New York, by fellow members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, over back pay and the firing of nine union members.

On August 18, Koppel, Fein, and Arrin Hawkins, SWP candidate for Manhattan borough president, filed with the New York City Board of Elections to qualify the socialist ticket for ballot status. They turned in 20,200 signatures—more than two and a half times the 7,500 signatures required—for the offices of mayor and comptroller, and 8,600 signatures for borough president, more than double the requirement for that post.

After filing, the socialist candidates met a number of women and men on their way inside City Hall for a conference on the conditions facing African women in New York.

Bosede Akande, who is originally from Nigeria, told the socialist candidates that in the morning conference session, “we talked about women who get divorces because their husbands did not want them to work. You should come and participate in this meeting,” she told Hawkins and Koppel, who gladly accepted her invitation.

Many at the conference were pleasantly surprised to learn that the socialist campaign addressed the conditions facing working people worldwide. “We champion the efforts by semicolonial nations to expand access to electrification as a basic condition for social and economic advances,” Hawkins said. It’s needed to forge an alliance of working people worldwide to be able to fight and overthrow imperialist rule—from West Africa to the United States. That’s what our campaign is about.”
 
 
Related articles:
Solidarity with Northwest strike!
Fight against union-busting assault is cause of all labor
Northwest Airlines workers resist job, wage cuts
Minnesota socialist candidate fights firing  
 
 
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