CHICAGO — “This is my first time on strike, and I’m learning a lot,” Linne Boyd, right, a member of Teamsters Local 705 at Mauser Packaging Solutions, told David Rosenfeld, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate, and SWP member Lisa Rottach. Boyd was part of the Teamsters contingent at a Labor Day march here Sept. 1. The strikers are fighting for better wages, working conditions and livable schedules.
“Safety is a big issue. We want to leave work the same way we came, with all of our limbs, back to our families in one piece,” Boyd said.
“Safety is a big issue for workers on the railroad too, and in every other industry,” Rosenfeld, a SMART-TD union member and freight rail conductor, said. “All bosses push for profits at the cost of workers’ life and limb. We need to fight for the unions to have control over how work is done.”
SWP candidates across the country joined fellow unionists at Labor Day events to discuss what we face today and chart a course forward.
After seeing the Militant headline supporting Ukraine’s fight to defend its national sovereignty, Boyd said he also opposes Moscow’s war. “We are lucky that kind of thing isn’t happening over here.”
“Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is a reflection of the deepening worldwide economic and political crisis tearing at the bosses and their governments, which drives them toward World War III,” Rottach said. “It’s in the interests of all workers to support the fight to get Moscow’s forces out of Ukraine.” Boyd subscribed to the Militant to learn more.
Another Mauser striker, Guadalupe Ruíz, told Rottach about conditions in their plant.
“Your fight is part of the increasing labor resistance taking place today,” Rottach said. “The SWP says all workers, immigrant and native-born, must unite to wage a struggle to take political power.” Ruíz subscribed to the Militant and bought a copy of The Low Point of Labor Resistance Is Behind Us: The Socialist Workers Party Looks Forward.