Vol. 78/No. 39      November 3, 2014

The “Stop Staples” rally was one of a series the American Postal Workers Union is organizing in the Philadelphia area this month, following the pattern of protests that began in California in January and took place in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Massachusetts in recent months.

The APWU, along with the three other postal unions — the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association — is organizing a national rally in Washington, D.C., Nov. 14.

Chants of “the U.S. mail is not for sale!” and “Whose post office? The people’s post office!” echoed through the area, as members of APWU Local 89 distributed informational leaflets on the union’s struggle against the privatization of postal work.

In 2013 the U.S. Postal Service, under the union-busting “Approved Shipper” outsourcing program, authorized Staples to open postal counters in more than 80 stores around the country.

Postal clerk Cynthia Heyward told the demonstrators that the Postal Service has been cutting union jobs and not replacing workers when they leave, at the same time they contract out postal work to businesses like Staples.

Union members from Communications Workers of America, American Federation of Government Employees, Carpenters union, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union, UNITE HERE and others were part of the crowd of more than 75.

“We need all the other unions to join us. It’s all one fight,” John Dennie, a retired member of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the Militant. “The retirees’ pension is the next target.” Dennie traveled from Staten Island, N.Y., to the protest.

— Osborne Hart

Montreal university staff strikes for wages, women’s equality
MONTREAL — Workers at the University of Quebec at Montreal carried out their second one-day strike Oct. 9 to demand a wage increase and a contract. The 2,000 members of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1294 — janitors, librarians, food service workers, laboratory assistants, office workers and others — have been working without a contract since May 31, 2012. The university administration declared a wage freeze that year. The last time the workers went on strike was in 1982.

Pickets arrived early to cover the 50 entrances to the campus. “Most professors, teaching assistants and students respected the picket lines,” Guillaume Chicoisne told the Militant as he picketed. “Many classes were canceled.”

One of the university’s demands is that the union withdraw a complaint about women’s wages filed under the Pay Equity Act, an Aug. 28 union press statement said. “Knowing that women make up more than 60% of the UQAM support staff, I find that the university should be setting an example,” said CUPE representative Martin Larose in the statement.

“The university’s counteroffer included a salary increase of only 1 percent per year for the next three years,” said Marie-Claire David, an office worker.

— Beverly Bernardo

Cabin cleaners strike Air Serv over safety, wages and dignity
NEW YORK — “Thirteen months ago we started fighting for the benefits we deserve,” said Rafael Mercedez, a striking airport worker speaking at a picket-line rally at LaGuardia Airport Oct. 9. “Air Serv sees us as muscle to do their work, but we have stomachs and brains too.” Night shift Air Serv workers, who clean passenger aircraft, refused to report to work to protest unsafe working conditions, inadequate pay, lack of respect and poor benefits.

“We want $17.40 an hour starting pay like other workers get doing similar work,” said Adelso Martinez. Workers had won a wage increase from $8 to $9 per hour in August, he said, but “many times I bring home about $1,000 per month. This is not enough for my family’s expenses.”

Wilmer Rojas, an organizer for SEIU Local 32BJ at LaGuardia, said Air Serv has been trying to make workers pay for the $1 per hour increase by running smaller crews and shorter hours with no reduction of the workload.

The striking workers protested unsafe working conditions, including exposure to blood and vomit without proper protective equipment and company vans with no seat belts.

The night shift workers returned for a 6 a.m. rally with day shift workers and other supporters that grew to more than 200.

During the day, as part of the 24-hour strike, a number of Air Serv workers attended “Ebola and infectious disease awareness” training organized by the union.

— Jacob Perasso

Bank workers strike, protest ‘flexible’ work hours
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Bank workers, members of First Union, carried out a one-day strike Oct. 10 against ANZ, one of the country’s largest banks.

More than 100 strikers marched up Queen Street here chanting, “When workers’ rights are under attack, stand up, fight back! When family time is under attack, stand up, fight back!”

Some 96 percent of the more than 1,300 union members voted in favor of strike action Oct. 6. They are fighting for higher pay and resisting the bank’s demands for “flexible” work and sales quotas for pushing loans, insurance and other bank products. ANZ made a profit of $3.2 billion in the first six months of the fiscal year. The company is offering workers a 2 to 3 percent pay increase.

“ANZ is proposing contracts where we would only know month-by-month which days, start and finish times we will be working,” said the flyer marchers handed out to passersby.

“The effect of flexible contracts is a casualized workforce,” said Isaac Hayes, a worker on the First Union Council, at the rally.

Mocking the bank’s marketing slogan, “We Live in Your World,” a popular placard called on the bank’s CEO to “Come and Live in Our World.”

— Annalucia Vermunt

Philadelphia teachers protest cancellation of contract
PHILADELPHIA — More than 3,000 teachers and their supporters rallied outside the school district headquarters here Oct. 16 to protest the district’s cancellation of its contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. This unilateral decision was made Oct. 6 during a morning meeting of the School Reform Commission, created in 2001 after the state took over the school district with power to sign the teachers’ union contract. Three years earlier an anti-labor state law was passed that enabled city and state officials to decertify the union if it called a strike.

Teachers and other workers found out that the contract was nulled in an email from District Superintendent William Hite. The union is challenging the move in court.

If the contract is broken, “this is just the beginning,” Megan McGlynn, a sixth grade teacher, told the Militant. “They will go after all kinds of things, not just in Philadelphia.”

“They say we’re not allowed to strike,” Charles Wolfsfeld, a retired teacher, said in an interview. “But I’m going to join with other retired teachers whenever the union protests.”

The 15,000 workers in the union include teachers, nurses, secretaries, cooks, social workers, cleaners, counselors, lab assistants, mail clerks and others.

The commission announced that it would stop payments into the union’s Health and Welfare Fund; that Philadelphia Federation of Teachers members would start paying for health benefits, amounting to as much as 5 to 13 percent of their wages; and that retired workers would lose all prescription, dental and vision benefits.

The cancellation of the contract comes after the layoff of 5,000 school workers and the closing of 30 schools.

Union officials, hoping to stave off the government’s union-busting attack, backed a regressive $2-per-pack city cigarette tax for school funding that went into effect in September.

On Oct. 8, hundreds of students at three high schools boycotted school and picketed outside in support of the teachers.

— Janet Post

Send in your On the Picket Line items, suggestions, or questions to Maggie Trowe at the Militant by postal mail, email or phone: 306 W. 37th St., 13th Floor, New York, NY 10018; themilitant@mac.com; or 212-244-4899.
 
 
Related articles:
UK workers march for pay increase in show of solidarity among unions
Health care workers in UK stop work to fight over pay
 
 
 
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