Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • Teamsters, supporters rally at NY city hall for fired UPS drivers

    New York, NY – Hundreds of union members and community supporters rallied on the steps of city hall here, April 3, in support of the 250 UPS drivers who were issued terminations for walking out to defend their fellow co-worker.

    Union members from Teamsters locals all across the city were joined by MTA workers from Transport Workers Union Local 100, SEIU 32BJ and members of Communication Workers of America and other union supporters.

    President of Teamsters Local 804 Tim Sylvester told the crowd, “UPS is threatening to bankrupt 250 families,” and described the attacks as a heartless attack on drivers and their families. The crowd responded with shouts of “shut ‘em down!” and “Save the 250!”

    New York Public Advocate Letitia James spoke and threatened UPS with ending their $43 million of tax breaks provided by New York City. She also pointed out that a sweetheart deal on parking tickets is in on the line, now that 250 drivers have been given termination notice and UPS already fired 20 workers on March 31. She went on to proclaim, “This ain’t Wisconsin!”

    It was pointed out that different conditions prevail in New York City, which has the highest unionization rate in the country, than in Wisconsin, where right-wing Governor Scott Walker stripped public workers of their collective bargaining rights. “This is not going to end this way,” said City Controller Scott Stringer.

    Workers walked out to defend a union activist and 24-year worker, Jairo Reyes, after UPS tried to fire him through an abuse of the grievance procedure. UPS’ abuse of the grievance procedure is a common practice to retaliate against workers who are trying to enforce their rights. UPS issued working terminations to the 250 brave drivers from Teamsters 804, claiming they could maintain the right to dismiss them at anytime.

    One of the workers who was issued a termination, Domenick DeDomenico, age 40, spoke of the kind of harassment workers faced on a daily basis at UPS. A car struck DeDomenico while he was delivering packages, and he slipped into a coma for 10 days. He eventually returned to work after brain surgery and serious physical therapy. However, upon his return, UPS issued him a separate intent to discharge for slipping from his delivery rate of 13 packages per hour to 11 packages per hour after his injury. “I have a 13-year-old son and a wife,” said DeDomenico.

    Shop steward and 804 driver Vincent Perrone told the crowd, “How do you do something like this to our families? We work 10, 11, 12 hours a day…we leave houses at 6 o’clock in the morning and get home at 10 o’clock at night. It takes a toll on us, on our families, but we want to work. All we want is the dignity and respect we deserve.”

    A spokesperson for UPS later issued continuing threats, claiming that if UPS lost their tax breaks and sweetheart deals they may be forced to fire additional employees.

    “This company thinks they can get away with whatever they want. If they refuse to listen to reason, if they refuse to back down, it’s time to walk all the buildings and show them what union power means,” said one 804 member who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation for advocating a work stoppage. “We’ve got the support of the city, now’s the time to take a stand.”

  • U of M SDS plans protest against war criminal Condoleezza Rice

    Minneapolis, MN – The University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) are organizing an April 17 protest to coincide with a speech by Condoleezza Rice – a close aide of George Bush and a war criminal to boot.

    Former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice will be speaking as the 2014 Distinguished Carlson Lecturer at the University of Minnesota. The Carlson Foundation, a private donor to the University of Minnesota, is fronting the $150,000 honorarium to host Rice. The university planned her speech, on the subject of civil rights, to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The University of Minnesota describes her speech as recognition towards “her effort to foster freedom and democracy.”

    This invitation and “distinguished” lecture has disgusted students, staff, faculty and community members. The Twin Cites anti-war movement, heeding a call from SDS, will join a large rally to highlight Dr. Rice’s criminal conduct and to underscore the massive violations of human rights she was responsible for during the Bush administration.

    The choice of Dr. Rice to speak on civil rights or “freedom and democracy” is outrageous. In fact, her crimes stand in direct opposition to the great contributions made by leaders of the civil rights movement like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King had no problem connecting poverty, racism and injustice at home with the imperialist war in Vietnam. Dr. King noted that “every time we kill one [Vietnamese] we spend about $500,000 while we spend only $53 a year for every person characterized as poverty-stricken in the so-called poverty program.” For Dr. King and other civil rights leaders, the war was a disgrace that “played havoc with our domestic destinies” and put the U.S. “in a position of appearing to the world as an arrogant nation.”

    Recall that under Rice’s leadership as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, the U.S. openly committed well-documented and widespread crimes against humanity. These crimes included but are not limited to an illegal invasion of Iraq on pretenses of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ – which were never found. The years of occupation that followed the invasion of Iraq left, by conservative estimates, over half of a million people dead. This invasion and occupation was accompanied by widespread use of terror, in the systematic torture of prisoners as documented at Abu Ghraib and the long-standing torture prison known as Guantanamo Bay.

    While this torture was documented, much more remains less documented. White House reports have long cited legal memos dispersed by Rice not only tolerating torture but suggesting that the Geneva Convention does not apply to the U.S. while engaged in its terroristic war, ‘The War on Terror.’

    It is with these facts and with many others that Students for a Democratic Society and other student and anti-war groups will rally against Rice’s visit to the University of Minnesota. While administrators of the university have said that their invitation of Dr. Rice was on the grounds of “freedom of speech,” her “free speech” should be seen as nothing more than promoting the annihilation of sovereign countries via barbaric means of torture and criminal activity.

    Like students and staff at Stanford, and most recently at Rutgers, Dr. Rice will be greeted upon her arrival with a reminder that her mark of distinction is that of a war criminal. In the name of the millions of Iraqis who saw their country ripped apart by the U.S. invasion – overseen in part by Condoleezza Rice, we urge you to join us at this protest. And in the names of thousands of young Americans sent to war only to return home without jobs, without proper healthcare – and the many who never returned at all – join SDS on April 17 at 4:00 p.m. at the University of Minnesota to condemn war criminals speaking on our campus.

     

  • UPS starts firing drivers, outrage spreads

    New York, NY – Following a walkout by 250 UPS drivers in Maspeth, Queens, and the subsequent unjust retaliation by UPS, the fight for justice continues.

    Workers walked out to defend a union activist and 24-year worker, Jairo Reyes, after UPS attempted to fire him through an abuse of the grievance procedure – a common practice to retaliate against workers enforcing their rights. UPS issued working terminations to the 250 brave drivers from Teamsters 804, claiming they could maintain the right to dismiss them at anytime. In response, the local union launched a national campaign of support with the aims of bringing UPS back to the table, and rescinding the terminations. The support included a national petition which garnered over 100,000 signatures in just two weeks.

    Union leaders, stewards and rank-and-file activists from Local 804 hit the gates of every building in New York City educating members and gathering signatures from their 6000-person membership.

    “We want to show UPS we’re united and won’t tolerate them retaliating against our brothers and sisters. UPS created this situation by violating the contract and refusing to respect the grievance procedure,” said 804 member Dustin Ponder. “The workers we talked to were eager to sign. They stand behind the drivers and our local.”

    The groundswell of support spread nationwide as activists from groups like Teamsters for Democratic Union, the Vote No movement and Part Time Power at UPS circulated the petition outside gates across the country. Within days activists gathered petitions at hubs in Florida, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Philadelphia, Chicago, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Jersey and Arizona.

    The union held a rally outside the distribution facility in Maspeth, Queens on March 21, where union leaders and local politicians such as New York City Public Advocate Letitia James were joined by hundreds of workers and community supporters. They demanded the company rescind the terminations and begin respecting the contract.

    UPS attempted to raise the stakes on March 31 by terminating 20 workers after they completed their shifts, and stating more terminations of hard working drivers would follow. Outrage spread in a matter of days and the story quickly spread to national headlines.

    The union and their allies now want to shine the spotlight on up to $60 million in subsidies New York City gives the company. “We’ve given UPS breaks, particularly as it relates to this [parking] program,” Public Advocate Letitia James said in quote given to the Daily News. “They should not treat workers in this manner.”

    Local 804 issued a call for workers and community supporters to rally on April 3 at 10:00 a.m. outside city hall to continue the fight-back against UPS’ abuses of their workforce. The rally will demand that UPS reinstate all workers who walked off their jobs and rescind all outstanding terminations.

  • Reid ‘confident’ of Senate vote on Extended Unemployment Compensation (EUC) this week

    Washington, DC – In a press statement, March 31, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “Notwithstanding this opposition to extending unemployment benefits I am confident we will pass this bipartisan legislation here in the Senate this week. Once passed, the matter is then in the hands of the Republicans who control the House of Representatives.”

    The Senate measure would reinstate jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and includes retroactive payments.

    The cut of long-term jobless benefits at the end of last year has impacted nearly more than 2 million workers. Many are losing their homes and face car repossessions and utility shut offs.

    Many Republican politicians assert that the unemployed are the cause of high unemployment rates. Congressional Democrats failed the unemployed when they did not insist that Extended Unemployment Compensation was included in the December 2013 budget accord.

  • Review of the movie ‘Cesar Chavez’

    Los Angeles, CA – The movie Cesar Chavez by Mexican actor/producer Diego Luna again puts the public eye on the injustices and harsh working conditions of the mostly Mexicano farm workers in the U.S. It also covers the early history of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) and its first strike and the successful grape boycott against the growers. The movie was funded by mostly Mexican investors and shot entirely in Sonora, Mexico, as it was not a priority for U.S. film makers.

    The movie mainly covers the first 10 years of the UFW farmworkers struggles, beginning with the grape strike in 1965. The boycott that followed gained national support and helped to win the first UFW union contracts in 1970. The movie goes on to show the role of Cesar Chavez, his family and Dolores Huerta working with others to start the UFW. It does point out the important role of Filipino farmworkers who started the famous strike in August of 1965. In one short scene it shows Chavez talking with farm workers at a house meeting, asking questions about the work conditions and asking them what they want to do. He was known for his one-on-one organizing skills. It does show briefly his start with the Community Service Organization (CSO), an early Mexican-American civil rights group.

    One thing I enjoyed about the movie was seeing Chicano and Latino actors and actresses playing important Chicano historical figures in our fight against racist injustice. Chavez is played by Michael Peña, who I met on the set of Walkout where he played teacher Sal Castro. America Ferrera plays Chavez’s wife, Helen, and Rosario Dawson is the vocal UFW leader Dolores Huerta. The movie does point out the important role of the women in the founding and actions of the UFW.

    Overall, Cesar Chavez was a good movie, especially for those who know very little of this period of struggle in our Chicano history. The movie shows the brutality of the police and large ranch owners toward the Mexicano and Chicano farmworkers. It shows the oppressive working and living conditions of farmworkers in the fields and crowded living conditions in the farm camps with very low pay. When the farm workers organized with the UFW they faced the power of the state, including court injunctions, police brutality and mass arrests.

    On a personal note, I met Cesar twice, once at a grocery market boycott activity and later at Talpa Church in Boyle Heights for a 75-year birthday event for Fred Ross, who had worked for Saul Alinsky and had helped to recruit Chavez to the movement. Chavez always appeared a quite unassuming person.

    What the movie did not show was the support and solidarity the boycott received from the Chicano movement, with many organizations supporting the UFW, especially in the large cities. We saw the UFW as part of the Chicano movement and our struggle for equality. The Brown Berets joined the UFW picketing at the Los Angeles produce market to protest the delivery of grapes. Also the Chicano student group La Vida Nueva – The New Life – at East L.A. College protested and demanded that grapes be taken out of the student cafeteria.

    As a short movie it lacked the total story of Chavez and the UFW and did not show the later leadership weaknesses and the decline of the union, which has recently been documented in various new books.

    ¡Viva la Huelga, Viva la Union!

    Carlos Montes is a longtime activist in the Chicano community in Los Angeles and was a leading member of the Brown Berets in the 1960s.

  • Minneapolis forum on Ukraine crisis and U.S. intervention

    Minneapolis, MN – Over 30 people attended an educational forum on the current crisis in Ukraine on March 28 at Mayday Books.

    The forum, entitled “What’s Behind the Crisis in Ukraine?” attracted longtime peace activists as well as people new to anti-war activities.

    Speakers included Gerald Erickson, Professor Emeritus, Classical/Near Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota; Dean Gunderson, chair of the Minnesota chapter of U.S. Friends of the Soviet People; Linda Hoover of Women Against Military Madness and longtime peace, labor and anti-racist activist; and Meredith Aby-Keirstead of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee.

    Erickson started the program by drawing attention to the similarities between U.S. and NATO policies that exasperated the breakup of former Yugoslavia and the current crisis in Ukraine.

    Aby stated, “Most Americans don’t understand that the U.S. helped promote instability in Ukraine and supported the coup. And the mainstream media is not explaining this to people. An important role for the anti-war movement is to be clear that the debate is not about whether the U.S. should intervene in the Ukraine – because the U.S. already is. We need to be focused on ending and not escalating U.S. intervention. “

    She continued, “We have done a good job in the Twin Cities of building a movement against drones and likewise we need to organize against the U.S. tactic of destabilization. At our protests it is critical that we focus on the main slogans of ‘U.S./West hands off Ukraine’ and ‘No sanctions/no threats against Russia.’”

    Mayday Books, the sponsor of the program, is an all volunteer, independent progressive bookstore located in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis.

  • Land Day: PFLP calls for national struggle to defend and liberate the entire land of Palestine

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following March 30 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) that was issued to mark the Day of the Land, 2014:

    On this year, Land Day marks intensified struggle on Palestinian land in its entirely. The Zionist enemy is not maneuvering toward it nor nibbling gradually at our land. The occupation has taken its occupation of Palestine to the point where it demands Palestinian and Arab recognition of the “Jewishness of the state” as the legitimate embodiment of the Zionist movement and its falsified history. It has stolen the religious term “Land of Israel” and transformed it to a geopolitical claim on the land of Palestine as the “Jewish homeland,” and is acting constantly to enact more laws and regulations to seize yet more land and displace our people, to expand settlements on every area in the land of Palestine, including Jerusalem which is specifically targeted.

    The sacrifice and struggle of our people in the ’48 occupied areas on March 30, 1976, was not only a defense against the confiscation of thousands of acres of the lands of Arraba, Sakhnin and Deir Hanna, but also an expression of the collective consciousness of our people, the threat of the Zionist project against all Palestinian land, and to defend the Palestinian people and their right to live on their land.

    These same meanings are embodied wherever our people mark this anniversary, adhering to the rights of the Palestinian people on the entire land of historic Palestine, the land of our ancestors, the heirs of all civilizations that passed through them, a reality that will not be changed despite all the failing attempts of the occupation state to force its recognition or to change our awareness of the land by building settlements, changing signs on the roads and renaming Palestinian towns and villages with Hebrew names.

    The right of return of Palestinian refugees to their land is the core of the struggle to liberate Palestine; the insistence on this right is linked very closely to the current struggle on the ground, which requires us to center this goal in our national program and struggle and entirely reject any initiatives, negotiations or deals that undermine or detract from this fundamental right.

    We also see the very serious matter that has been generated in these ongoing negotiations around the “exchange of land,” which includes recognizing the rights of “Israel” in the majority of the land of Palestine. This land is all Palestinian land and any approval of the “exchange” of one part for another means providing cover and legitimacy to the violent confiscation of our land in 1948 and the ongoing displacement of our people of the ’48 areas, and is unacceptable.

    On this day, he land calls for the people to protect themselves and the land. To reject division, uphold resistance and achieve national unity, to act to bring the negotiations to an end, to confront the ongoing and comprehensive vicious attacks on our land and our people, to achieve a national program of struggle that reflects the objectives of our people, affirms their rights firmly, and adopts all means of struggle to achieve those rights.

    On this day, our salutes and greetings to the masses of our people in the ’48 areas, and our salutes to the six martyrs killed on March 30, 1976 as they confronted the enemy forces that repressed demonstrations and marches that swept through cities, towns and villages of the Palestinian people in the ’48 areas in defense of the land of the Galilee. We stand together with all of our people in defense of all of our occupied land, throughout the geographical and historical land of Palestine.

    Glory to the martyrs of Land Day. Glory to the martyrs of freedom. Freedom for the prisoners, and victory for our people.

  • LA students paint mural commemorating 1968 high school walkouts

    Los Angeles, CA – A mural commemorating the historic 1968 East LA Chicano high school walkouts was dedicated here, at Lincoln High School, March 25. The mural was created by Lincoln High School students who are part of the Behind the Heights Art Team.

    “We are raising awareness in our community through the arts. We made a mural about the walkouts. We did it on a wall next to our school so everyone could see it,” said one of the students who helped do the mural.

    Among those in attendance was veteran Chicano activist Carlos Montes, who helped lead the 1968 walkouts.

  • Senate clears way to vote on restoring Extended Unemployment Compensation (EUC)

    Washington, DC – The Senate cleared the way for a vote on legislation to restore benefits to the long term jobless, March 27. In a 65 to 34 vote, the Senate cleared the procedural hurdles necessary for a debate and vote on a measure to bring back Extended Unemployment Compensation.

    While more Republican opposition to unemployment insurance is expected over the next few days, the bill bringing back jobless benefits will likely pass. Five Republican Senators have signed on to measure, giving it the margin it needs to move forward.

    The decision to go ahead with Extended Unemployment Compensation came on the heels of the passage of a bipartisan deal to spend $1 billion on the fascists who recently took power in the Ukraine.

    The bill extending jobless benefits faces a tough fight in the Republican-dominated House.

    The decision by the Democratic leadership to not include Extended Unemployment Compensation in last December’s budget agreement gave Republicans the power to block measures to aid the long-term unemployed.

  • Campus workers in Chicago will take strike vote

    Chicago, IL – 3000 workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have gone without a contract, and without a contract raise, for over a year. In response, the Joint Bargaining Committee of Clerical, Service and Maintenance, and Technical units at UIC has called for a strike authorization vote.

    The workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73. The voting will take place from Monday, March 31 through Thursday, April 3.

    Fight Back! interviewed Joe Iosbaker, a clerical worker at UIC who chairs the joint committee.

    “In negotiations with management, their chief negotiator Steve Katz said, ‘None of your members are underpaid.’ In other words, management is saying, ‘just be glad you have a job and stop expecting raises.’

    “Now management is threatening us that the politicians in Springfield want to cut 12.5% of the university’s budget for next year. They say it’s because the state will lose that much revenue when the temporary income tax increase ends on Jan. 1, 2015. Management wants us to give up any hope of a fair contract.

    “The three bargaining committees met and agreed to fight on both fronts. Our message to Springfield: No pension cuts! No budget cuts! Make the rich pay their share of taxes! We adopted a resolution to send a message to the politicians.

    “And our message to management: We’re prepared to fight, and even strike if we have to. Salaries for top management have exploded while we have struggled to keep up with the cost of living, with no hope of getting ahead.

    “We are asking all union members to come out to vote Yes! to authorize our committees to call a 3 day strike.”

    Below is the resolution adopted unanimously by the joint meeting of bargaining committees (Clerical and Administrative, Service and Maintenance, and Technical units) of the Service Employees International Union Local 73 at the University of Illinois at Chicago:

    Tax the Rich!

    Resolution adopted unanimously by the joint meeting of bargaining committees (Clerical and Administrative, Service and Maintenance, and Technical units) of the Service Employees International Union Local 73 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, representing 3000 workers.

    The State of Illinois has an unfair tax system. Wealthy people don’t pay their share. In Illinois, the rich pay less in taxes that 42 other states.

    Many major corporations located in Illinois pay little or no taxes. Take for example the Boeing Company. They are the second largest arms manufacturer, and get most of their contracts from the federal government. From 2003 through 2012, Boeing had $35 billion in profits, but paid zero in state taxes.

    Now the politicians in Illinois want to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the higher education budget, and billions from other programs that benefit working class people.

    We shouldn’t pay for this crisis! The politicians have been raiding our pension funds for 30 years because they don’t tax the rich enough. Illinois state workers have met our obligation by paying into our pension fund from each paycheck. Our pensions are under attack already. Now we’re being threatened with this 12.5% budget cut.

    No pension cuts! No budget cuts! Make the rich pay their share of taxes!