—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

NY dairy farmworkers fight firings, unsafe job conditions

PENN YAN, N.Y. — “We work 12 to 14 hours a day, and then if we get injured they fire us,” Víctor Hernández, a dairy worker fired after he was injured on the job, said during a special program at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church here Nov. 8. “They treat us like we are a machine, not a human being.”

Hernández was one of several dairy workers who spoke at a daylong event to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of farmworker Marco Antonio Ortiz Perez in the heart of the state’s milk-producing Finger Lakes region.

Ortiz was killed when he was cleaning a silo and an auger — a large rotating screw conveyor — tore off his arm and shoulder.

“Farmworkers shouldn’t have to work in unsafe conditions,” Gilberto Reyes, who works at a nearby vineyard, told the Militant.

In addition to the farmworkers, organizers of the event included the St. Mark’s Church, Worker Justice Center of New York, Unitarian Universalist Congregations of Rochester and Canandaigua, Rural and Migrant Ministries, and the Workers’ Center of Central New York.

— Maggie Trowe and Seth Galinsky

New Zealand health workers protest understaffing, 2-tier pay

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Chanting “Underfunded, overworked!” 300 health workers struck for two hours and rallied near North Shore Hospital here Nov. 10 against understaffing and two-tier wages, the first of a series of two-hour strikes and rallies at Auckland’s public hospitals.

Some 3,000 members of the Public Service Association — laboratory technicians, physiotherapists, social workers, pharmacists, dieticians and others — are involved.

They are protesting plans by the city’s three district health boards to extend some services from five to seven days a week with no increase in staff and to pay new hires less. Placards and chants at the actions condemned cuts in hospital funding, increasing workloads, staff shortages and the undermining of patient care.

— Mike Tucker

Pa. Steelworkers hold expanded picket, rally against ATI

LATROBE, Pa. — Some 200 people, including a broad representation of unionists and family members, joined locked-out members of United Steelworkers Local 1138-6 in a picket and rally at the main gate of Allegheny Technologies Inc. here Nov. 18.

ATI locked out 2,200 Steelworkers at 12 plants in six states Aug. 15. The company seeks to slash health care, institute 12-hour shifts, cut pensions, reduce wages and overtime pay and contract out more work.

In addition to Steelworkers, other unions participating included the United Mine Workers of America, United Food and Commercial Workers and United Auto Workers.

Members of the Greater Westmoreland Central Labor Council and USW District 10 Director Bobby “Mac” McAuliffe were there.

Local 1138 member Alan Braden led chanting with a bullhorn. A few vehicles slowly made way through the crowd and into the plant. The crowd made it clear the action would be remembered and not forgiven. Donations of firewood and money were dropped off during the rally. As the day’s light began to fade, the unionists projected “Fair Contract Now” onto a billboard-sized ATI sign.

Local 1138-6 President Lou Chillinsky commended his co-workers for standing united, and said he was amazed at the amount of community and labor support extended throughout the lockout.

The ATI workers “will get through this and will be stronger for it!” Chillinsky said at a dinner afterwards. There was plenty of food provided by members and local businesses. Two tables were loaded with canned and packaged food, and monetary and gift cards were also donated. Greater Westmoreland Central Labor Council gave $500.

The company is ending health care coverage of the locked-workers at the end of this month.

— Vonie Long, USW Local 1165 president at ArcelorMittal mill in Coatesville, Pennsylvania