Minneapolis, MN – Hundreds of striking Northwest Airline mechanics and their supporters converged Sept. 1 on the hotels where strikebreakers are being housed. Buses chartered by NWA were stopped and the scabs missed their shift at the airport.

At the Holiday Inn in Minneapolis, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) leaders held a press conference in front of a blocked bus. President of AMFA Local 33, Ted Ludwig, announced that the scabs would not be coming to work today. Chants of, “Scabs go home!” rang off the walls of the hotel.

More actions are planned for the coming weeks.

#MinneapolisMN #News #AirlineIndustry #AMFAStrikeAgainstNorthwestAirlines #scabs #AircraftMechanicsFraternalAssociationAMFALocal33 #NorthwestAirlinesMachinistsStrike #Strikes

Chisholm, MN – With a contract set to expire July 31, the stage is set for a major confrontation between iron miners and the Cleveland Cliffs Inc. Cleveland Cliffs is demanding concessions, including take-aways of retirees’ health care. The company says that it will answer any strike by hiring scabs. Housing for strikebreakers has been placed at the Hibbing mine. Scabs are being trained in the town of Silver Bay.

700 miners and their supporters rallied July 16 in Chisholm to reject concessions and union busting. Members of United Steel Workers Locals 2705 and 6860 made it clear that they were determined to fight back.

“If scabs are brought here to the mines on the Iron Range, I say, run right the hell out of here,” said Joe Strleker. Strleker, also a steelworker, is currently part of the strike against Aitkin Iron Works in a nearby town.

Minnesota's iron mining industry is heavily unionized and has a proud tradition of struggle. Observers agree that an attempt to run a mine with scabs in the heart of the Iron Range could result in an explosion. Miners at the rally on July 16 were looking back to other big northern Minnesota labor struggles, such as the 1989 battle at BE&K in International Falls, where $2 million damage was done to scab housing in a single day.

It is vital that the labor movement in Minnesota get behind the workers of Cleveland Cliffs. A setback on the Range would hurt all workers in the state. Their standard of living, pensions and health care have been a key issues in this latest contract round.

Minnesota iron ore is generally mined as taconite and processed into pellets which are in high demand, and the companies are raking in the dough. Miners were reminded at the rally that Cleveland Cliffs agreed to the pension and healthcare benefits more than 40 years ago. “We are not going to give up the fight in these negotiations,” said David Foster, District 11 director of the Steelworkers.

“For 65 years, the steelworkers have produced wealth in the Iron Range,” Foster said to the worked-up crowd. “Let us not forget, in the 1930s, when there were no unions to protect workers’ rights, when the police beat us, when the bosses laughed all the way to the bank, miners and workers decided to not give up, and sat down on the job, wouldn't move until a fair contract was had.”

#ChisholmMN #News #healthCare #scabs #ClevelandCliffs #IronRange #UnitedSteelWorkersLocals2705 #UnitedSteelWorkersLocals6860

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