Kalamazoo, MI – Joining hundreds of protests across the country, 70 postal workers and union supporters gathered outside the Arcadia Creek United States Post Office in downtown Kalamazoo on August 25. They held signs reading “Save the Post Office” while hundreds of drivers passing by during rush hour honked their horns and shouted approval.

A giant postcard signed by many of those present was being mailed to Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The postcard demands that the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate pass a new house bill providing $25 billion in emergency pandemic relief. It also calls for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and President Trump to reverse the delays in USPS service.

“Much of the financial crisis at the USPS Is due to the interference of big money politicians and President Trump’s appointment of Louis DeJoy as the Postmaster General. 91% of the public supports the USPS, but DeJoy is doing everything in his power to wreck the place and put it up for sale,” said Stan Sacha, union stagehand and officer of IATSE Local 26 in West Michigan.

Sacha continued, “Now it is more important than ever for unions to stand together and support each other. We cannot go back to the way things were.”

Jon Hoadley, a Democrat running to win Michigan’s 6th Congressional District, showed up to support the four postal workers’ unions and gain support.

As the November election nears, a movement demanding a working postal service, as well as public spending for jobs and unemployment extensions for millions hurt by the economic crisis, will grow.

#KalamazooMI #MI #PeoplesStruggles #PublicSectorUnions #UnitedStatesPostalService

Kalamazoo, MI – The Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority abruptly canceled their meeting on July 8, leaving 40 bus drivers and union supporters wondering, “What is really happening?” The bus drivers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1093, decided to do what they do best, and took it to the streets, chanting, “What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!”

ATU Local 1093 President Earl Cox spoke at the busy corner in front of the bus and train terminal, “We are here today to demand a contract, to demand better wages, to demand fair working conditions, to demand restroom breaks, to demand lunch breaks, to demand safety barriers, to demand fair treatment by management,” he said.

Cox continued, “Management just cancelled the meeting as if they don’t want to face us or be held accountable. We will be heard. We haven’t had a new contract for nearly one year. We are going to stand up!”

The bus drivers then marched thru the Kalamazoo Transportation Center, where dozens of excited passengers fist-bumped and cheered them. Finally, they marched down the block and entered a Kalamazoo County Transportation Authority (KCTA) reception room, but the normally busy office building resembled a ghost town.

Bus driver Renee Whitfield said, “I’m fighting a wrongful termination. There is no relief on the bus. I have a medical need to use the restroom. My doctor approved me to return to work, but these managers won’t even give me a chance to try and work. I’m not willing to give up my 22 years that easy, so the union is representing me.”

ATU Local 1093 union members say they are looking forward to speaking at the next KCTA meeting. ATU Local 1093 President Earl Cox says they are going to talk next with the county commissioners who appoint the KCTA board members.

#KalamazooMI #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #AmalgamatedTransitUnion #PublicSectorUnions #ATULocal1093 #KalamazooCountyTransportationAuthority

Kalamazoo, MI – More than 100 workers and supporters rallied in front of Panera Bread in Kalamazoo, Michigan on June 21. Panera workers in Kalamazoo voted to form a union and join the Bakers, Confectioners, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union (BCTGM) over a year ago. Panera bosses are refusing to recognize the union or bargain their first contract. The NLRB ruled that Panera bosses broke the law and ordered them to the bargaining table.

However, enforcement of the ruling is being held up by a Washington D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals case involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) appointments by President Obama. That case claims Obama overstepped the president’s constitutional authority. Without the Obama appointments, the NLRB cannot function or make rulings because it does not have a quorum (enough members to vote).

The workers solidarity rally included a giant, ten-foot tall union baker – an inflatable representative of the Bakers union. The giant union baker showed his support by walking the picket line and waving to the cars and trucks honking in support of the union.

Union members and the community came together to support Panera workers, one who was fired and others who are being retaliated against by the bosses for forming a union. The rally also demanded the confirmation of the five NLRB presidential nominees.

Union struggles are heating up in Michigan since Republicans passed ‘Right To Work’ laws that make forming unions much more difficult. Spirits are high however, and the workers are determined to win this struggle for a first contract. It will set an example in fast food industries for others to follow.

#KalamazooMI #rightToWork #antiunionBusting #PaneraBread

On Sept. 24, 2010, the FBI raided seven homes in Minneapolis and Chicago, taking boxes of activists’ personal belongings, computers, cell phones and passports. The FBI delivered subpoenas to fourteen activists that month, including two people in Michigan. Then in December, under orders for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office in Chicago, nine more Palestine solidarity activists were subpoenaed for Jan. 25.

Sixty cities and campuses across the country and some overseas held protests Jan. 25. The original 14 and the new nine activists subpoenaed all refuse to speak at Fitzgerald’s Grand Jury. The Grand Jury is a secret court of inquisition, handpicked by Fitzgerald’s office, with no judge. Those called before a Grand Jury have no right to a lawyer in the room with them and no press is allowed to witness the proceedings.

Dave Staiger said he participated in the recent National Call-In Day to Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney General Holder and President Obama, asking them to stop the FBI raids and shut down Fitzgerald’s Grand Jury. This helped him in knowing what to say to the FBI and to not be intimidated.

Staiger states, “This is an attack on free speech and it is undemocratic. It is starting to remind me of the 1950s and the McCarthy era.”

Mick Kelly, of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, has urged everyone in the progressive community to exercise their legal right to not answer questions put to them by FBI agents. “This is a witch hunt against anyone who is standing up against war and injustice. Tell FBI agents you have nothing to say. Period.” says Kelly.

#KalamazooMI #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #September24FBIRaids

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression spokesperson Tom Burke and his wife joined the protest. Burke and his wife were both subpoenaed to appear in front of a Chicago-based Grand Jury on Sept. 24, 2010. The subpoenas were in conjunction with the FBI raids conducted on the homes of international solidarity activists in Chicago and Minneapolis as part of U.S. Attorney General Patrick Fitzgerald's new McCarthy-type repression.

Burke stated, “Today we joined more than 50 cities across the country in opposition to FBI and U.S. government repression of free speech and the right to organize – making history of our own!”

#KalamazooMI #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression

Kalamazoo, MI – This city has been the scene of another attack on working people.

On Jan. 26, the 429 members of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union – PACE – voted to ratify the contract offered to them by the Graphic Packaging Corporation. Back in July 2002, the workers rejected the same contract. When they voted it down, the bosses escorted the unionized workers off the premises. They brought in scabs, in an effort to starve the workers into submission.

What was so terrible about the company’s contract demands? According to Bill Gibbons, a vice president of PACE, “Workers are being punished by Coors,” because “they rejected demands to work up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, all days off and every holiday except Christmas.” This is dangerous work. During the lockout, a replacement worker was killed on a conveyer belt when a 2,000-pound bale fell on him.

The workers went back to work, but it was hardly a victory. “No one is pleased with the contract,” said Gibbons.

Solidarity From Other Workers

The PACE workers received support from around the country, as the International organized a boycott of Coors and spread the word about their lockout. In Kalamazoo, there was an outpouring of sympathy for them.

A big source of aid was a rank-and-file workers’ organization called Uniting All Workers-Concern. UAW-Concern was formed eight years earlier in a fight to stop General Motors from taking jobs from the Kalamazoo area.

Their efforts including picketing, raising money and food for the strikers, getting the mayor of Kalamazoo to make an appearance in support of the strikers and getting the Students Against Sweatshops involved with picketing.

Weakness of AFL-CIO Leadership

Pat Meyers of UAW-Concern said that the outcome could have been different if unions were organized for fighting management. “President John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO refused to take the boycott of Coors into a nationwide boycott. The PACE workers stuck together, but the AFL-CIO didn’t want to really fight the company.”

Meyers saw firsthand the failures of this ‘business unionism’ in the United Auto Workers collusion with General Motors, and now sees it again in the AFL-CIO’s handling of the GPC lockout. “We could have hope if the unions didn’t become company unions,” she said. “The rank and file are fine, but we need to take back the leadership of the unions.” Referring to her experience with the UAW, she said, “The union failed their members.”

Meyers isn’t just whining, she’s organizing. UAW-Concern helps build the fight against the bosses, and also struggles with the trade union bureaucrats to fight management as well. For example, UAW-Concern called 25 PACE locals trying to get them to put pressure on AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to call a national boycott against Coors.

To continue the struggle to put the unions in this country on a class struggle basis, Meyers reports they have incorporated as a new formation, the American Workers Advocacy Group. “Our vision is to give a voice to all American workers and to bring about long-term changes in the labor movement,” says Meyers.

#KalamazooMI #News #UAWConcern #UnitingAllWorkersConcern #Paper #AlliedIndustrial #ChemicalAndEnergyWorkersInternationalUnion #scabs #businessUnionism