MINNEAPOLIS — Rachele Fruit, the SWP candidate for president, brought solidarity to striking park workers here, members of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, at Minnehaha Falls park July 21.
The strike is in its third week as the city’s Parks and Recreation Board refuses to negotiate. Stagnant wages and skyrocketing insurance costs are at the center of the workers strike, along with opposing the bosses’ union-busting attitude. The board calls the workers’ demands “unreasonable.”
The strikers aren’t trying to shut down the public parks. Instead, they hold rallies in the picnic areas and organize walks through the parks. They talk to park patrons, distribute a fact sheet on their strike and ask for support. On this day strikers were asking people to sign a petition saying they have no confidence in the Park Board’s management.
Park keeper Kyle Matuseski, above left, welcomed Fruit and asked about her campaign. “I’ll be spreading news about your strike wherever I go,” the SWP candidate told him.
Fruit said the SWP program calls for breaking with all the bosses’ parties and building a party of labor. She also explained the party opposes all forms of Jew-hatred and defends Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews.
Matuseski said he would gladly sign to put the SWP on the ballot and did. He said, “I’d have a hard time voting for either of the two major party’s candidates.”
Those wishing to donate to the union’s hardship fund can go to https://workingpartnerships.betterworld.org/campaigns/local-363.