• Copper workers in Arizona and Texas, organized by several unions, kept up a solid front against Asarco, the copper mining giant, and pushed back the company’s concession demands.
• At Lakeside Packers, Canada’s largest slaughterhouse, pickets held firm in face of company-organized violence and directed their appeal at the entire workforce, succeeding in winning line-crossers over to the strike. The scab-herding Tyson bosses were forced to sign their first contract since the union was decertified in the 1980s.
• In California, after a year-long campaign that included picket lines, street protests, and labor outreach, the nurses’ association forced the governor and hospital bosses to drop their effort to roll back the patient-nurse ratio established in a 1999 law.

The Wall Street Journal, a faithful voice of the employers, took note, with concern, of an increase in strikes this year.

Labor solidarity is not the banner of all working-class battles, however. Since August 19, striking mechanics, custodians, and cleaners organized by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association at Northwest Airlines have held the breach against the company’s drive to tear up union contracts, lay off thousands, and force the rest to work faster and with slashed wages and benefits.

The stakes in this battle couldn’t be higher for all airline workers and the entire labor movement.

A number of Machinists and flight attendants have set an example by honoring the picket lines of their fellow workers. The top officialdom of the Machinists and other unions at Northwest, however, has told their members not to honor the picket lines. Now the Northwest bosses have blood in their mouth. They are targeting Machinists, flight attendants, and every other section of the workforce for sweeping cuts in jobs, wages, and benefits.

The entire working class needs to stand with the strikers at Northwest. Join their picket lines. Don’t fly Northwest. Donate to the strike and get the word around about it. This battle is living proof for all labor that an injury to one is, indeed, an injury to all.
 
 
Related articles:
Copper workers in Southwest push back company concessions
Return to work confident after four-month strike
Northwest Airlines targets Machinists union as striking mechanics hold firm  
 
 
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