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Vol. 78/No. 7      February 24, 2014

On the Picket Line
 
Boston school bus drivers rally
demands ‘hire back 4 unionists’
BOSTON — Some 200 school bus drivers and their supporters marched to the main office of Veolia Transportation Feb. 1, demanding the bosses hire back four unionists fired for participating in actions to defend their contract. The company, which buses some 30,000 students daily, took over the drivers’ contract with the city last July.

The rally marked growing support for the drivers’ fight. Both the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Greater Boston Labor Council joined the protest. Speakers included Rich Rogers, executive secretary treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council; Paul Kilduff, president of Boston Metro Local 100 of the American Postal Workers Union; and Andrew Slipp, staff representative for United Steelworkers District 4.

“We have to stick together,” driver Marc Girault told the Militant. “If we don’t stand together we’ll never win.”

The firings, on a charge of instigating an illegal strike, came out of an Oct. 8 protest where drivers tried to get the bosses to address the nearly 300 grievances over pay shortages and other contract violations. The company locked the gates and threatened drivers with arrest if they didn’t leave.

Veolia issued 864 letters of reprimand to workers and fired four union officials.

“Veolia doesn’t care about children’s safety at all. They want us to speed up, cutting our hours,” driver Tomas Waka said. “We used to have 15 minutes to check the bus — now they don’t want to give us time for that. They’ve been firing drivers. They want to bust our union.”

— Sarah Ullman

Coca-Cola workers in Spain
strike over plant closures
Workers at Coca-Cola in Spain have launched protest strikes against company plans to close four of 11 bottling plants in the country, affecting 1,250 workers.

On Jan. 31, workers at the plant in Fuenlabrada, a working-class suburb of Madrid, walked out, shuttering the plant.

Two days later some 2,000 workers, family members and other union supporters marched more than 15 miles from the plant in Fuenlabrada to Puerta del Sol in the city center of Madrid, chanting “No to the closures.”

Starting Feb. 3 workers in Alicante and Feb. 4 in Palma de Mallorca began two-hour strikes on various days, with plans to expand the actions.

In 2012, the Spanish government changed the labor laws, making it easier and cheaper for bosses to fire workers, cut severance pay substantially and allowed bosses to sidestep bargaining with unions during “times of crisis.”

Official unemployment in Spain is more than 25 percent and over 50 percent for youth 15 to 24 years old. Sixty percent of young people who actually have a job are on temporary contracts.

— Emma Johnson

 
 
 
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