CHARLEROI, Pa. — Hanna Rudovsky, left, a member of United Steelworkers Local 53G, spoke with Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate Rachele Fruit, third from left, during the shift change at Anchor Hocking’s Pyrex plant Oct. 29.
Anchor Hocking, which recently took over the plant, announced in September that it will close it and all production will be transferred to its Ohio facility. Some 300 workers will be laid off in this small town.
“I just got hired in March. Now I have to start all over again,” Rudovsky told Fruit. Fruit discussed with her and other workers she met at the gate that the working class has to unite and organize to fight attacks like this.
“Working people need to build a different kind of party, a party of labor that can mobilize us to fight collectively, to use our power to deal with unemployment and low wages. The fight of the Boeing workers for pensions and better wages is an example all working people should support.”
Rudovsky said that she works with some of the Haitian immigrants who have come here recently.
The two competing capitalist candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, have been vying with each other over who will be the most effective in regulating immigration to serve the interests of the bosses. In the course of their conflicts, Haitian workers, who are in the U.S. legally, have been slandered.
“I couldn’t believe the hatred,” Rudovsky said. “People just need to get to know them. They are decent people, just like us.”
“This is part of unifying the working class,” Fruit agreed.