Students, unionists march in France against antilabor law that targets youth Militant/Jean-Louis Salfati PARIS—At the call of college and high school student organizations and all major union federations, more than 1 million youth and workers demonstrated in 160 towns across France March 18, including in Paris (shown above). They demanded the government withdraw the antilabor law just adopted that creates a “First Job Contract.” The law establishes a two-year trial period in which bosses who hire workers below 26 years of age can fire them without giving any justification. The French government has so far refused to back down. Student organizations and union federations have called for a new national day of protest March 28, including work stoppages. Two-thirds of university campuses are on strike, and many have been shut down completely. —JEAN-LOUIS SALFATI

“I don’t have a regular position, because I’ve only been here three years,” said Maria Marin. “But those with 10 years’ seniority had regular jobs, and now they’re being moved all over as a form of pressure,” including being put on the harder, dirtier jobs. In a phone interview, Lucia Lopez, a member of the union negotiating committee, said that contract talks are continuing. She said the company is harassing some workers, trying to get them to quit. “But we aren’t giving up,” she added.

—Naomi Craine  
 
Minnesota Beef closes
packing plant ‘indefinitely’
BUFFALO LAKE, Minnesota—Workers at Minnesota Beef Industries here went to pick up their paychecks on February 24 after a two-day layoff and discovered that production was to be suspended for four to five months. According to the union contract, the company is required to give at least 30 days notice before shutting the plant. The bosses’ decision has left 125 workers jobless, most of them originally from Mexico, in a rural region where work is sparse. Workers at Minnesota Beef had gone through a long struggle to win union representation and then a contract with the company. In September 2004 they voted in United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789. A six-hour work stoppage helped to keep the pressure on the company to sign a contract, which was won in November 2005.

—David McConnell
and Rebecca Williamson  
 
Two construction unions leave
AFL-CIO Trades Department
The Laborers International Union and the Operating Engineers announced in mid-February that they are leaving the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. They plan to join the newly formed National Construction Alliance, which will also include the carpenters, bricklayers, iron workers, and Teamsters. With 1.5 million members, they’ve set their priority at winning more construction workers to the unions. Currently 13 percent of these workers are unionized, down from 40 percent in 1973.

—Brian Williams  
 
Peabody Coal closes
Black Mesa mine in Arizona
KAYENTA, Arizona—Peabody Western Coal closed the Black Mesa mine here December 31 after Southern California Edison shut down the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada. The more than 200 Black Mesa workers, 95 of whom are Native-American, are members of United Mine Workers of America Local 1620. The coal was delivered by a 270-mile slurry that used 3 million gallons of water a day taken from wells drilled deep into the Navajo Aquifer, the sole source of water for the Navajo and Hopi nations.

The Mohave Generating Station is under a 1999 consent decree stemming from a lawsuit brought by environmental groups. The decree allowed the power station to continue operating only if it installed scrubbers to reduce the amount of toxins released into the air. Edison will earn about $20 million in pollution credits for shutting down Mohave. Environmental groups are demanding that the company turn over the funds to the Navajo and Hopi peoples.

—Jeff Powers  
 
 
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