Vol. 72/No. 45      November 17, 2008

The plant was raided by immigration cops in March 2007 when it was known as Michael Bianco, Inc. More than 300 workers were detained at the time.

The rally was held at the afternoon shift change. Participants chanted, “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” in English and Spanish as workers came out of the plant. While many waved and some joined the rally, at least two workers held up handmade signs saying, “UNITE is danger” and “Go Home.” Volunteers from the rally also canvassed the neighborhood on New Bedford’s South End to get out news of the struggle and to build support.

Two workers who are part of the organizing drive, Elisa Ríos and Connie Cardosa, told the Militant that the company just moved its biggest production line to Puerto Rico. They also said that union activists are facing stepped-up harassment from the bosses.

Cardosa and others said that the health insurance offered by the company is too expensive for most workers, starting at $80 a month for single coverage and going up to $250 for a family. Only 32 of the 350 workers in the plant have signed up for the coverage. Workers also said that there are only four paid holidays a year.

Scott Carver, Eagle Industries vice president of operations, tried to answer the workers’ charges, telling the New Bedford Standard-Times that Eagle raised the hourly wage by 50 cents over the state’s minimum wage of $8.

He sought to blame young female workers for the high cost of health insurance. According to the Standard-Times, “Health-care costs are expensive for the company—and thus the workers—because most of the workers are female and of childbearing age, Mr. Carver said.”

On August 1 workers stopped work for 20 minutes to protest the firing of a coworker for allegedly using his cell phone in the lavatory during working hours to contact his ailing mother. The worker was escorted from the factory by police.

Following that 2007 raid some 700 people attended a rally in support of the arrested workers. Six workers filed a class-action lawsuit in May 2007 against Bianco for cheating employees out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in wages over a three-year period.

According to the Standard-Times, Eagle Industries has maintained a contract Bianco had with the Department of Defense to make backpacks for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  
 
 
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