—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Rail and dockworkers join iron miners strike in Mauritania

Some 3,800 of the 4,000 workers at the National Industrial and Mining Company (SNIM) iron mines in Zouérate, a town in the West African country of Mauritania, have been on strike since Jan. 30. They were later joined by other miners, railroad workers and dockworkers in the port town of Nouadhibou. In retaliation SNIM has fired 304 strikers.

Following a two-day walkout in May 2014, SNIM signed an agreement with the unions to substantially raise wages starting in October. But the company now claims that a nearly 50 percent drop in the price of iron ore has made it impossible to honor the agreement.

“We went on strike when it became clear that the company would not negotiate with our representatives,” a union leader told the press.

Dockworkers and railroad workers, who also work for SNIM, the country’s largest employer after the government, have joined the strike. As a result, the train that takes iron ore to the port on the country’s only rail line isn’t running and no ships have been loaded with ore since March 6, a union representative said.

The General Confederation of Mauritanian Workers (CGTM) is the main union in the mines, but the strike has the support of a committee that includes the country’s other union confederations.

The government, which owns a 70 percent stake in SNIM, is putting pressure on workers to go back to work. Income from the mines provides more than 15 percent of government revenues and one-third of the country’s total production.

With all ore exports blocked, government representatives March 13 verbally proposed an agreement that included rehiring all workers fired during the strike, the payment of workers’ wages during the 45 days on strike and a special bonus of one month’s wages. SNIM representatives have said that they were not part of the negotiations. Union representatives rejected the government’s verbal proposal, insisting that any agreement be in writing and signed by SNIM management.

— Nat London

Space Needle workers rally for wage increase in Seattle

SEATTLE — Nearly 100 members and supporters of UNITE HERE Local 8, which includes elevator operators and servers, gathered at the Space Needle here March 18 holding placards reading “1,000 days without a raise.”

Space Needle bosses announced they would be hiring 200 workers for the tourist season and paying some of them from $15 to $25 an hour, more than veteran full-time workers make.

Workers told KIRO-TV that bosses gave them “live-on-less” webinars, suggesting they cook meals instead of going out and attend museums on free admission days. This inspired another placard that read, “I can’t ‘live on less.’”

Julia Dube was a server at the SkyCity Restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. “I worked there two and a half years and then was fired for union activity,” she told the Militant. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that she should be rehired and paid back wages, Dube said. “The Space Needle owners are appealing the decision, so I don’t have my job back yet.”

Abby Lawlor, a Local 8 researcher, said the union contract expired in 2011, and after a year the bosses terminated it. “At this point all we are trying to get is a wage increase for the workers,” she said.

Members of Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Government Employees, Teamsters and other unions attended the rally. The workers, along with two Seattle City Council members, went into corporate offices with a petition demanding a wage increase. They came out with a proposal from the company that a wage raise would be given if union activity was ended. Workers ripped up the company proposal and chanted “We’ll be back! We’ll be back!”

— Edward Foote