LOS ANGELES — As part of his national campaign tour Dennis Richter, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for vice president, joined campaign supporters bringing solidarity to a number of labor struggles here.
Richter joined the picket line of workers striking Monogram Aerospace Fasteners Oct. 10. Later that day the 200-plus members of the United Auto Workers discussed a contract proposal, voted to accept it and ended their strike.
“It’s impressive that after a two-month strike the company hasn’t tore you up,” Richter told the workers. “It’s difficult to strike. The bosses try to sow divisions among you.”
“In the last few union contracts they gave us peanuts while their profits were skyrocketing,” one Monogram worker told Richter. “Inflation has gone up 23% since the last contract.” In the new contract “we got 5% the first year, then 5% and 3%. Health care costs are frozen.”
“To defend the working class against the ravages of capitalism our campaign raises the need to fight for automatic cost-of-living increases for all workers,” Richter said. “Every union contract should assure an automatic raise in wages to offset all increases in the prices. And we need these raises for Social Security, unemployment benefits and the minimum wage, too.
“We live in a class-divided society,” Richter said. “The things billionaires worry about are not what working people have to worry about.”
Shorter workweek with no pay cut
“The right to employment is the only serious right left to workers in a society based on exploitation,” said Richter. “We need to fight for a sliding scale of working hours. Shorten the workweek to 30 hours for 40 hours pay to prevent layoffs and spread the available work around.
“What our campaign is talking about can’t be given to us. It has to be fought for,” he said. “Workers change as we fight. We get a better appreciation of our worth.”
“We weren’t united before,” the striker said. “It was everyone for themselves. But we’re coming back stronger.”
Richter also joined a loud, spirited rally of 200 Service Employees International Union airport workers who rallied Oct. 11, then marched through terminals at the Los Angeles airport in their fight for higher wages and improved working conditions. He spoke with several of them.
Javon Houston, a passenger service representative, told the Militant the workers are fighting to get the minimum airport wage raised to $25 an hour. It is currently $18.75 and “we work under terrible conditions,” she said. “We breath toxic air all day long.”
Richter also visited the Nova Exhibition now showing in Los Angeles. The installation graphically presents the Jew-hating slaughter carried out by Hamas last Oct. 7, at the Nova music festival in southern Israel. It helps to answer the lies of those who claim Hamas’ pogrom had anything to do with advancing the rights of the Palestinian people. The exhibition, visited by thousands, has extended its stay until Nov. 3.