—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

AT&T Mobility workers fight company
concession demands

NEW YORK — “The most important issue to me is health care,” Mike Williams, a cell tower technician for AT&T Mobility, told Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor in New York, when he joined some 100 Communications Workers of America members and others protesting outside an AT&T store in midtown Manhattan Feb. 10. The contract for the 21,000 wireless workers nationwide at AT&T Mobility expired the next day. Other protests took place across the country.

“I’m already paying $230 a month for insurance for myself, my wife and our two kids,” Williams said. AT&T wants to steeply increase premiums.

To avoid paying union wages and benefits, the company has been selling more phones and wireless service through “third-party stores,” CWA Local 1101 business agent Heather Trainor told the Militant.

Workers inside the store gave thumbs up to the protesters and one held up his computer tablet which read “CWA.” The unionists marched to another store on Sixth Avenue. As we passed a group of construction workers, they joined in chanting, “Every job, a union job.”

— Seth Galinsky

After 1-week strike, autoworkers in Wisconsin approve contract

OSHKOSH, Wis. — After a week on the picket line, the 60 members of United Auto Workers Local 291 won a new contract with AxleTech International here. Local members Feb. 12 voted overwhelming to approve the agreement.

AxleTech, owned by the Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.,-based private equity outfit, had demanded a steep increase in workers’ health care costs.

A solidarity rally planned for Feb. 11 was canceled after the tentative agreement was reached the day before.

“I think the planned rally had an effect on the company’s willingness to give us an acceptable contract,” Bob Mitchell, the local president, told the Militant. Mitchell is an assembler in the plant, which makes axles, vehicle parts and military vehicles.

The company, a major contractor for truck maker Oshkosh Corp., has laid off workers as orders for its Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles fell when the Barack Obama administration wound down the scope of Washington’s ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bosses dropped 122 workers in 2013-14.

“Everyday we got more support. When it rained, rail workers brought us umbrellas,” Mitchell said. “The AFSCME local from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh brought us food.

“UAW members at Kohler walked the picket lines with us and firemen brought us sandwiches,” he said. “None of our members crossed the picket line.”

“We got an OK deal,” said Russ Remter, a stockroom worker. “The medical premiums increased a little. And we took a hit on the attendance policy, which is now more strict.”

— Dan Fein

B&H workers fight for union contract as boss moves warehouse

NEW YORK — B&H Photo and Electronics warehouse workers and their supporters rallied outside the company’s store here Feb. 12 to promote the fight for a first union contract.

B&H informed the United Steelworkers union Jan. 12 that it will soon move its operations from two warehouses in Brooklyn to one central location in Florence Township, New Jersey, 75 miles away. Taking public transport to get there would take hours, workers say.

After a yearlong fight, the warehouse workers in November 2015 voted 200-88 to join the USW. Since then, the company has been stalling in negotiations.

Moving the warehouses is aimed to “break the union,” said Miguel, who has worked at B&H for 12 years. “They should sign a contract for union wages and pay moving costs.”

— Willie Cotton

 
 
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