Knitwear workers from the Community union, who have been striking two days each week since September 28 against the Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) in nearby Mackinnon, joined the march in Stirling. The strikes by 110 workers for a 2.5 percent pay raise there have affected sales at an on-site retail shop owned by EWM. The Mackinnon workers held an impromptu protest outside an EWM shop in Stirling as they marched in support of the Remploy workers.

Meanwhile, 400 workers in nearby Uddingston struck the Tunnocks biscuit factory on November 3 and 6. The members of the Transport and General Workers Union, who currently get paid £6.25 an hour (£1 = US$1.90), are demanding an increase to £7 an hour. “Everyone’s stood together,” reported union steward Ann McLoughlan November 6, as they mounted pickets on the plant's three entrances. Further strike action is planned for November 14.

—Peter Clifford  
 
Machinists strike
Arizona Raytheon plant
TUCSON, Arizona—Nearly 2,000 workers at a Raytheon Missile Systems plant here went on strike November 6 against company takeback demands. The day before, the workers, represented by the International Association of Machinists Local 933, voted to reject Raytheon’s contract proposal by a margin of 1,018 to 111.

The main issue in the strike is the company’s demand that workers increase the amount they pay for medical coverage from $1,400 a year to nearly $2,800 annually over the three years of the proposed contract.

According to Anna Vidal, who has worked at the missile plant for seven years, Raytheon expects hourly workers to pay for benefits at the same rate of salaried employees. “They keep taking something away. They just take, take, take,” she said. “All we are asking for is a fair contract. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

—Eric Austin  
 
Workers picket Pittsburgh
seafood plant
PITTSBURGH—Workers at Benkovitz Seafood here are picketing the company daily, with many working people honking their horns as they pass by. Most of the workers are represented by Local 23 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, and a few drivers, by the Teamsters.

According to workers, the fight began when R.J. McSorely, president of Benkovitz's parent company Nordic Holdings LLP, refused to allow workers from the wholesale department into work October 15. Workers say that with no notice whatsoever, he told them they no longer had jobs because he had sold the building housing the wholesale operation.

Among the locked-out wholesale department workers is Teddy Stolp, who worked as a skinner and packer. With 23 years of seniority, Stolp was only making $10.50 an hour. The union is providing financial assistance, he said, but he now has no health insurance.

—Cindy Jaquith
 
 
Related articles:
Strikers at Goodyear firm in fight against takebacks  
 
 
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