Vol. 80/No. 40      October 24, 2016

 

25, 50, and 75 Years Ago

 

October 25, 1991

OTTUMWA, Iowa — Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 230 marched to the Excel Corporation’s plant gate here before daybreak October 10, demanding the company reverse the suspension of large numbers of workers and sign a new contract with the union.

Management at the packinghouse suspended the unionists after they refused to work in unsafe conditions.

Workers rejected Excel’s contract proposal October 6 by a vote of 767 to 19. Local 230’s membership voted 770 to 8 to strike the plant, but the local’s leadership convinced them to work day by day without a contract while an attempt was made to negotiate improvements.

The issue most workers find hardest to swallow is the company proposal to go from a Monday through Friday schedule to one of Tuesday through Saturday.

October 24, 1966

Nov. 4 has been set as the date for review of the constitutional issues involved in the “Bloomington Case” — the case of the three Indiana University students who were indicted under a state anti-communist act in 1963 for their membership in the Young Socialist Alliance.

The review involves a request by the three defendants for a federal injunction to stop proceedings. They point out that the indictments against them are a direct violation of the rights of free speech and free assembly and that the proceedings have interfered with their abilities to conduct normal lives. Unusual harassment, financial difficulties, including great problems in finding jobs, all flow from the witchhunt effort.

Importantly, this is not denied by the local Indiana prosecution itself, which admits to the unusually severe repercussions of the indictments.

October 25, 1941

Segregation and maltreatment of Negro soldiers in the United States Army were sharply condemned by the regional conference of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (CIO), meeting in Gary, Indiana, October 5.

The conference of 550 delegates, representing 53 SWOC locals in the Chicago area, unanimously passed a resolution demanding that Roosevelt take immediate action to end the vicious army Jim Crow system. The resolution also called on all CIO unions to organize action against discriminatory treatment of the Negroes in the army.

This action is an example of the progressive efforts of the CIO unions, in contrast with the AFL, to fight for the rights of the Negro workers, both in industry and the army. There would be no Jim Crowism in military training if that training were under the control of the trade unions.  
 
 
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