The Militant - October 26, 2009 -- Minnesota meat packers subscribe to paper company doesn’t want them to read

Vol. 73/No. 41 October 26, 2009

Minnesota meat packers subscribe to paper
company doesn’t want them to read

BY FRANK FORRESTAL
ST. PAUL, Minnesota—Since the opening of the fall subscription drive, the Militant newspaper has gotten a good response at the Dakota Premium meatpacking plant here. Twenty members of Local 789 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents workers in the slaughterhouse, have purchased subscriptions.

Several workers subscribed in the weeks after the company threatened to arrest supporters of the Militant newspaper who were distributing the paper this past August. For many years Dakota workers have picked up the paper at the plant gate. Distribution by the union of its material at the plant gate has also been an important part of building support for the union, including during the successful 2007-2008 struggle to beat back the company’s decertification effort.

By shutting down distribution of materials at the plant gate, the company was sending a clear message that they did not want Dakota workers to read the Militant. But this hasn’t stopped supporters from getting out the paper. The 20 workers who have picked up subscriptions during this campaign include more than half a dozen who resubscribed.

Recently, supporters of the paper organized a sale 100 feet from the plant gate and got a positive response—eight papers and a subscription were sold.

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Militant supporters at the American Apparel garment shop in Los Angeles have sold nine subscriptions to coworkers in the current subscription drive. This company has recently fired 1,500 undocumented workers. The new subscribers include both fired workers and new hires.

Related articles:
‘Militant’ supplement on new book aids subscription effort
‘Militant’: subscription drive: Week 4 (chart)

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