ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — “The fight to defend our class starts with building solidarity,” Dennis Richter, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. vice president, told striking Teamster member Jacinta Gamble as they walked the picket line in front of the truck yard at Ecology Services, a recycling and waste-collection company here. Over 70 Teamsters Local 570 members walked out Sept. 4.
Gamble, who is a driver, told Richter that for four years she worked as an over-the-road trucker. “You had to be out for three weeks a month, get a few days at home, and go right back out,” she said. “I was trying to make ends meet. I have three kids to raise, but I hardly got to see them. Here, I know every worker on this picket. I have worked with them on the job. I look out for them.”
“That’s very important,” Richter said. “When we are on strike, we see ourselves and each other in a new light. We see that we have common interests, and how fighting together we can change things. We recognize our worth.
“We need to realize all labor battles are political battles as well,” he said. “The bosses are driven from their class interests for profits, and their political parties — the Democrats and Republicans — defend those interests. The working class needs and can build our own political party, a party of labor.”
Gamble endorsed the SWP presidential ticket, subscribed to the Militant and picked up a copy of The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward.
The company offer is for a 38-cents-an-hour raise each year for four years. “No one wants to be on strike, but we have to pay bills,” Tia Davis, a Local 570 business agent, told Richter. “Just look at a supermarket receipt to see why we’re out here. Look at a receipt from five years ago and one today and you’ll see why we need higher wages.”
“I’ve been campaigning all over the country, wages are a big question everywhere,” Richter said. “With rising prices, we have to get higher wages. Millions of workers face this crisis.”
Davis introduced the SWP candidate to Mike Caperoon, a truck driver at Ecology Services for 14 years.
“Wages are a big thing we are fighting for, but it’s also our conditions. These trucks are run-down, with exposed springs coming out of the seats, and some don’t have working seat belts,” he told Richter. “Some have no AC, or inadequate AC. That’s hard on the drivers, but even harder on the throwers, because between each stop they don’t have a cold cab to come into to cool off.”
“If you get hurt they put you on ‘light duty’ and make you stand in the yard all day. They make you miserable so you cave and go back to regular duty,” said a woman worker who had been terminated by the company for getting hurt. “All workers are familiar with this. Once you get hurt they start trying to build a case against you to drive you out,” Richter said. “That’s why a party of labor is necessary. It would fight for workers control over safety and conditions on the job.”
The SWP campaign asks workers to support these strikers. Messages of support and contributions can be sent to Teamsters Local 570, 6910 Eastern Ave., Baltimore, MD 21224, earmarked for the Ecology Services strike.