These recent rulings were key in dispelling the notion that individual states can create their own immigration regulations, bypassing federal authority. When initially proposed, Alabama’s HB 56, along with Georgia’s HB 87, were sold as valuable pieces of legislation that would boost local economies – laws that would crack down on the presence of those entering the U.S. illegally. Conservatives billed such bigotry as a quick fix to unemployment and poorly performing schools. Instead, such rogue policies were a complete setback to Civil Rights and due process.

In Alabama, children of all ages were deterred from attending school and pursuing their education. Many withdrew out of fear that their families could be deported if questioned about their immigration status. According to the U.S. Justice Department, over 13% of Latino children withdrew over the one year HB 56 operated before federal intervention. Instead of teaching geometry, classroom instructors were fishing for birth certificates.

As for those local economies and decreasing unemployment rates, Alabama’s number one industry, agriculture, was damn near decimated. We’re talking an agricultural sector accustomed to generating over $5.5 billion per year. Industries dependent upon migrant labor, like Alabama’s poultry operations, were devastated. Small farming operations were brought to a halt, as valuable workers were scared indoors. Others simply migrated for the purpose of mere safety. Such complications have also been used as justification for not paying temporary workers – hired and fired a month later, and with no pay to show for it. Many Latinos have refused to report crimes; whether legal or undocumented, any potential scrutiny by local law enforcement could initiate an ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) investigation.

Though portions of these bills were repealed, human rights supporters have continued to sound the alarm, for this branding of social control affects all poor and oppressed people – creating fear and frustration through alienation. Recently, the state of Alabama has challenged the ruling of the 11th Circuit’s three-judge panel and has asked for a new hearing. Though particular provisions were found to be outright unconstitutional, a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, state officials are arguing that federal courts overstepped state jurisdiction. Unfortunately, it seems that like Arizona, Alabama is positioning itself to take its immigration law all the way to the Supreme Court. For those of us who are U.S. history buffs, one can’t help but draw a direct correlation to Governor George Wallace’s stand against federal authorities in the 1960s. His hard line for segregation against the U.S. Supreme Court aroused racists nationwide.

In addition to federal judges, HB 56 has also caught the attention of President Obama. Even Barack has gone on record stating that “it’s a bad law.” But then again, the Obama administration deported 396,000 immigrants last year.

While members of congress, federal judges and state legislators continue to debate, human rights defenders applaud what little progress has been made. We know damn well however, that those of us who despise such racist bigotry must continue to raise our voices. Deleting a few provisions isn’t going to be enough here, not while racial profiling still runs rampant. When traffic stops and roadblocks become immigrant obstacle courses, ethics become a serious matter of legal concern. If justice fails to prevail in this case, such structural hate could begin to blanket the entire southern Black Belt, setting new precedents for states like South Carolina, Georgia and Arkansas.

In response to this year-long battle, immigrants rights activists have stayed the course. Protesters have deployed an array of tactics such as rallies and community forums, teach-ins and street blockades. DREAM activists and immigrant youth have conducted walk-outs. Workers and adult cooperatives have organized major strikes. Latino customers have chosen to boycott local businesses, while tens of thousands have convened in solidarity. Organizations as the United Steelworkers Union, ACLU and Immigrant Justice League have joined forces. The NAACP and Southern Poverty Law Center are also on board. Ironically, Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church has served as a rest haven and planning headquarters, the same church bombed by racists in 1963.

The bottom line is that HB 56 is a law that continues to ostracize and divide, conjuring fear, heightening the level of innocent victims and false arrests – perpetuating a complete violation of civil liberties. These anti-Latino acts aren’t merely a matter of disenfranchisement. Latino immigrants are being denied the right to even exist in some states, to barely breathe without some ‘officer of the law’ riding their backs with an iron boot. True, the recent rulings by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals are great, but there should be no compromise with laws that encourage hate. For those of us who are abreast of such racist regulations, let us spread the word and continue to organize. For those of you who are learning of such injustice for the first time, join the movement’s noble cause. We the people say, “freedom for all,” and down with HB 56!

Lamont Lilly is a contributing editor with the Triangle Free Press, Human Rights Delegate with Witness for Peace and organizer with Workers World Party. He resides in Durham, North Carolina.

#UnitedStates #ChicanoLatino #immigrantRights #SouthernLaborMovement #Racism #AntiLatinoLaws

The Smithfield Packing Plant in the small town of Tar Heel, North Carolina opened in 1992. It is the largest pork-processing facility in the world, with roughly 5500 workers who slaughter and cut up over 30,000 hogs a day.

In 1994 when the workers at the plant first held a union election they were met with violence, harassment and threats of all kinds, including racist attempts to divide the workers of the plant against each other based on nationality. Smithfield Packing Company’s attempts at illegal union busting did not stop there. The level of intimidation continued through the next election attempt in 1997. Union materials were destroyed, leading organizers fired and any support for the union was met with coercion and intimidation from the bosses. Nine years later the United States Court of Appeals ruled that Smithfield Packing Company repeatedly broke the law in its attempts to stop the union. The threats from this company have remained over these long years and the demands of the workers have remained unrepresented or unheard.

The nationwide Justice for Smithfield Campaign worked hard to raise awareness of the workers struggle in the broader community. The campaign fought to build solidarity between trade unionists, student activists, community organizers and the workers of the Tar Heel plant. Under such immense mass pressure, Smithfield finally broke down to sit at the table with the workers in early this December. From this meeting came an agreement, which declared that the workers would be allowed a “fair election process” and in turn the workers and their allies would end the public campaign against Smithfield Packing.

“When workers have a fair process, they choose a voice on the job,” said UFCW director of organizing Pat O’Neill. “This is a great victory for the Tar Heel workers. I know they are looking forward to sitting down at the bargaining table with Smithfield to negotiate a contract.”

The workers of Smithfield and their many supporters in the Justice for Smithfield Campaign have shown the strength a movement for unionization can have. Their determination and resolve over 14 years of struggle has culminated today in a brilliant victory.

#TarHeelNC #TarHeel #News #SouthernLaborMovement #Smithfield #UnitedFoodAndCommercialWorkers #JusticeForSmithfieldCampaign

Winston-Salem, NC – The opening round of what promises to be a hard-fought battle against big tobacco took place here, Oct. 28, as over 300 farm workers, trade unionists, religious leaders and students marched through the streets of downtown Winston-Salem chanting “Si se puede!” and “R.J. Reynolds escucha, el pueblo esta en lucha!” The march was called by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) to demand that R.J. Reynolds negotiate with the union over the oppressive conditions suffered by North Carolina tobacco workers.

Ernesto Gobinez, a tobacco worker who works in the fields of Nashville, North Carolina, and attended the protest, said, “We want better conditions for farm workers. There is a lot of exploitation in the fields. We want to be treated as equals, with dignity and respect.”

North Carolina tobacco workers face extremely harsh working conditions. As a statement from FLOC explains, “Sub-minimum wages, corrupt crew leaders, extreme poverty, bootleg labor camps, major health risks and heat stroke deaths are still the reality for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina.” In the past few years alone, nine farm workers have died from heat exhaustion while working in the fields of North Carolina, while tens of thousands suffer work-related illnesses every year from the heat and from ‘green tobacco sickness,’ caused by chemicals in the tobacco leaves. A great majority of North Carolina tobacco workers also suffer from racist national oppression. Many are migrant farm workers from Mexico, and those without documentation find it impossible to speak out against hazardous, and sometimes deadly, conditions on the job.

Over the past month, CEO Susan Ivey of Reynolds American Inc, the parent company of R.J. Reynolds, has refused to meet with the union or with religious leaders to discuss the issue, citing the fact that R.J. Reynolds is not the direct employer of these workers. But FLOC argues that because of the control that R.J. Reynolds has over their procurement systems, the company has the power to bring about changes involving all parties in the supply chain. R.J. Reynolds is owned by Reynolds American Inc, the second largest tobacco company in the United States and the manufacturer of one out of every three cigarettes sold in the U.S.

The demonstration was notable for the broad participation of trade unions and Central Labor Councils from across North Carolina and the east coast. The Teamsters, American Postal Workers Union, United Auto Workers, United Mine Workers Association, AFSCME, Seafarers Union, Association of Machinists and several other unions were well represented at the protest. James Andrews, president of the North Carolina AFL-CIO also attended and spoke at the demonstration, urging those present to organize and help, “bring dignity and respect to thousands of North Carolina farm workers harvesting tobacco used by R.J. Reynolds.” A statement of support and solidarity from AFL-CIO president John Sweeney was also read.

Frank Smith, a member of the Seafarers Union in Maryland, traveled to Winston-Salem with ten other members of his union. He said, “We’re here to share our support and brotherhood with FLOC. Everyone deserves equal rights and opportunities. We’re here to extend our solidarity to these workers, from one human being to another.”

The march snaked through the streets of downtown Winston-Salem, past dozens of buildings owned or operated by R.J. Reynolds. The protesters paused at the R.J. Reynolds building to honor the memory of fallen workers in the fields. Dozens of flowers and wreathes were laid by farm workers to honor their memories. These were then set at the foot of the R.J. Reynolds building as a message to CEO Susan Ivey.

Baldemar Velásquez, president of FLOC, spoke at the closing rally, saying, “This new campaign is long overdue. Despite several studies and investigative reports little has changed over the last several decades for tobacco farm workers. The fact that they still live at subsistence survival is not only a tragedy but a moral disgrace hidden from the eyes of most Americans. FLOC will campaign until R.J. Reynolds commits to joining us in addressing this national shame.”

#WinstonSalemNC #News #ChicanoLatino #SouthernLaborMovement #FarmLaborOrganizingCommitteeFLOC #RJReynolds

Chapel Hill, NC – A delegation of fifteen city and university workers, student activists and union organizers delivered a petition of over 500 signatures on Oct. 26 to the University of North Carolina System General Administration, charging that workers’ voices were being silenced at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The petition was addressed to Erskine Bowles, who is president of the UNC general administration, and who is responsible for all 16 state universities in North Carolina.

The petition demanded that Bowles overrule the UNC-Chapel Hill administration’s censorship of an informational article on collective bargaining that was slated to appear last summer in the University Gazette, an official newsletter of the university. The article was submitted by the university’s Employee Forum as part of their regular yearly contribution to the Gazette, but was cut by the editors on the grounds that it was an “opinion piece.” Union organizers, workers and students say it was deliberately censored in order to suppress the growing movement among workers at the university for union recognition and collective bargaining rights.

Speaking at a press conference outside the General Administration office, Barbara Gear, a transit worker and member of North Carolina Public Service Workers Union (UE Local 150), said, “We’re here to speak up. A lot of people don’t even know what collective bargaining is. Where I work, everyone is afraid. We live in fear that we’ll get fired for union talk, for being around union organizers. Things are real bad, but everyone’s afraid, no one wants to lose their job.”

Gear continued, “I’m speaking out because it’s got to start somewhere. We have to get together to stand up for our rights. Working to build the union, that’s our main task right now.”

The protesters demanded that the university administration apologize and sit down at the table with workers to discuss their needs. The petition also expressed the signatories’ strong “support for UNC and Triangle area workers in their struggles to exercise their right to collective bargaining and support the repeal of Jim Crow-era N.C. G.S. 95-98, which criminalizes that right for public workers.”

Domenic Powell, member of Student Action with Workers (SAW), said, “We refuse to tolerate the censorship of collective bargaining issues. It’s a violation of human rights. We’re demanding the reversal of the censorship and that the university administration promote, not censor, dialogue on collective bargaining.”

Activists from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE), and the Young Democrats endorsed the protest. Tamara Tal, graduate student member of SDS, said, “Petitioning allowed us to talk with hundreds of people – students, workers and community members. North Carolina has a racist law, G.S. 95-98, that doesn’t allow public sector workers to negotiate contracts with the state. Talking about the censorship raised a lot of awareness and the petition shows the broad support that exists for workers rights.”

Focusing on the next steps in the campaign, Tal said, “We’ll continue to grow and broaden ourselves as a movement. We have four student groups, town and university workers, UNC hospital workers and community activists all involved. We’re going to build these connections for the future so we can unite all those who want to fight for change and build the struggle.”

#ChapelHillNC #StudentMovement #News #SDS #SouthernLaborMovement #UELocal150 #UniversityOfNorthCarolinaChapelHill #NCGS9598

The march led the protestors right past the Williamsburg Lodge, where Smithfield executives were holding their annual shareholders meeting. There, activists and ten workers from the Tar Heel plant gave Smithfield executives petitions demanding a union and a union contract of their choice. The petition, signed by thousands of workers, put pressure on the executives and by the end of the shareholders meeting they agreed to meet with union representatives to negotiate a contract for Smithfield workers.

Abuse at the Tar Heel plant is rampant. Workers receive little or no safety training, and are forced to work at an unsafe speed of production, causing injuries. Workers are fired from their jobs if they cannot come to work because of job-related injuries and are often denied workers’ compensation. Racism and sexism are also a major problem at the Tar Heel plant, with many workers reporting sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Smithfield has kept workers from unionizing in the past through intimidation, racism and threats of bodily harm.

Justice for Smithfield workers!

Grant Smithfield workers a fair contract now!

#WilliamsburgVA #News #SouthernLaborMovement #Smithfield #UnitedFoodAndCommercialWorkers

Hoover, AL – In solidarity with the over 15,000 Goodyear Tire and Rubber workers who have been on strike since Oct. 5, demonstrations were held on Dec. 2 at Goodyear retail stores across the country. In Birmingham, over 100 workers and their supporters rallied at the retail store, while in Hoover, Alabama, a similar rally was held to protest the company’s unfair contract proposals, as well as to warn consumers of the risk involved in buying tires manufactured by strikebreakers.

Leaflets distributed to potential customers explain the findings of a recent study that linked defective tires to labor strife. For instance, the 2000 Firestone/Ford recall of defective tires, which killed over 270 people, was the result of the company’s use of unskilled scabs at a striking plant in Decatur, Alabama.

At the Hoover rally, unions from all over the country and from different manufacturing sectors were present, all demanding that Goodyear uphold its promises. “This is a combination of lots of unions – communications, steel – all pulling together to support each other for a great cause,” said Vickie Grace, member of the Communications Workers of America Local 3902 in Birmingham. “Goodyear is not living up to its promises. We want a change, and we want it now. These are hardworking employees and they don't deserve it.”

The Goodyear company is attempting to go back on its health care contract for retirees. Despite concessions the United Steelworkers union accepted in 2003 and record profits for the company and its CEO in 2005, Goodyear announced plans in 2006 to close plants and gut retiree benefits.

“Corporate America has chosen Goodyear to set a precedent for how companies will handle retiree benefits in the future,” explained Tommy Mayfield of Mobile, member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. “It’s not right for them to take retiree health benefits away that have been paid for over the years. The working class is tired of being treated like dogs.”

The U.S. Army, facing a shortage of tires for Humvees used in Iraq, threatened to intervene and break the strike at the Kansas plant.

[Editors note: On Dec. 29, it was announced that a tentative agreement between striking members of the United Steel Workers and Goodyear was ratified, bringing the courageous three-month strike to an end. On the upside, rubber workers were able to get Goodyear to up their offer for funding retiree health care. On the downside, a major plant in Tyler, Texas can be closed in 2008.]

#HooverAL #News #UnitedSteelWorkersOfAmerica #SouthernLaborMovement #Goodyear

Fight Back!: How has the struggle of the Sanitation workers impacted other workers in the public sector in Raleigh? How does the movement to repeal NC 95-98 play into this?

Saladin Muhammad: Yes, city workers in other departments have begun joining the union. State workers are also stepping up. The NC Public Service Workers Union-UE Local 150 launched the International Worker Justice Campaign in 2004 to build a rank-and-file and grassroots movement for collective bargaining rights and the repeal of NC 95-98. The current struggle draws attention to the strike as one of the only options left to the workers when there is no right to bargain. Many allies and forces who silently said they support collective bargaining are coming out publicly with this support as a result of this struggle. Appealing to the community has been a major component of the struggle. This struggle has been able to take away the strike issue as an argument used by management against unions.

Fight Back!: What is the significance of the Raleigh Sanitation workers’ struggle in the long-term goal of organizing the South?

Saladin Muhammad: This struggle is helping to create a labor, faith and community alliance as a social justice united front with the potential of building a united democratic front movement for economic and social justice and political power for African Americans and workers in the South. People seemed to make the connection between the relationship of quality working conditions to the delivery of quality services.

Fight Back!: What is next for the Sanitation workers struggle?

Saladin Muhammad: The union will hold a municipal workers’ summit reaching out to city workers throughout the state to bring together to develop a statewide program of action for city workers. Forums are currently being organized in various cities over the next two weeks entitled, “Understaffed, overworked and underpaid.”

#NorthCarolina #NC #Interview #Interviews #AfricanAmerican #WorkersAndGlobalization #SouthernLaborMovement #UELocal150 #UELocal160 #NC9598

Raleigh, NC – Raleigh sanitation workers changed tactics, after months of protests to city management fell on deaf ears. The sanitation workers held a four-hour and a two-hour temporary work stoppage on Sept. 13 and 14, forcing city management to address their concerns. An important struggle has unfolded in the weeks since.

The sanitation workers, the overwhelming majority of whom are Black, face exhausting 14-hour days and are understaffed and overworked. Forced overtime and harassment of workers by management is commonplace. Sanitation worker Daron Green emphasized, “We need to have our management looked at. We have very bad management overall. We need new management, period.”

The Raleigh sanitation workers put forward five demands to city management: An immediate end to forced overtime; overtime pay after 40 hours work and not compensatory time; make temporary employees permanent and hire more workers to reduce workload; end the harassment against workers for speaking out against problems; city to meet-and-confer with the elected North Carolina Public Service Workers Union (UE Local 150) representatives in sanitation. The sanitation workers gave the city council one week to meet their demands.

Meanwhile, community organizers began rallying mass support for the workers – from the NAACP to religious groups to student organizers, who drove a sound truck through Raleigh neighborhoods to raise support for the sanitation workers’ struggle. Unions and community organizations from all over North Carolina passed resolutions declaring their support for the sanitation workers.

The city council met to discuss the situation on Sept. 20. In a hall packed with supporters, organizers with UE 150 and over 40 sanitation workers presented their demands and stressed the need for collective bargaining. Under a 1959 North Carolina state law, collective bargaining is prohibited for public sector workers – a holdover from the Jim Crow era, when higher numbers of Black workers were concentrated in the public sector in the South.

Jerry Ledbetter, a spokesperson for the sanitation workers, said, “We are asking for collective bargaining, to meet and confer with city council of Raleigh. We are ready to cooperate. We are here in good faith. But we have to be treated fairly, and be treated like human beings.”

Jimmy Gaye, who has worked in the Sanitation department for 22 years, told the city council, “It’s so much of a work overload that we have, we’re doing two to three jobs a day. We take the truck out, we go back in, we take the truck out, we bring it back in, until it gets so late in the day that you can’t do it any more.”

Gaye continued, “We’re thinking about our future here. We can’t grow if you don’t let us grow. Raleigh grows, and we know that we’re going to be expanding out, we’re doing Durham County, we’re out in Raleigh, we’re out to parts of Morrisville, we’re out in parts of Cary. We cover those areas. Those are big areas that you trying to cover, that you’re allowing to be annexed into a part of Raleigh now that the growth is here. Now, what about us? We want to grow too – can you let us do that?”

Raleigh mayor Charles Meeker and the city council, under pressure from workers and the community, stated that a “complete overhaul” of solid waste services management was necessary, and agreed to meet the demands, including recognition of UE 150. The city council promised to send city manager Russell Allen to meet with the workers on Friday, Sept. 22, to discuss their grievances.

The sanitation workers were optimistic about the hearing at the city council but stressed that the struggle was by no means over. Ledbetter said, “I thought the meeting went real well. Only thing we can do now is wait. You know anyone can say a thing, but you got to wait and see if they live up to it.”

But Friday’s meeting was a disappointment to the workers as city manager Allen balked on most of the demands and ignored the key issue of union recognition.

As a result, the alliance of labor, religious groups and student activists mobilized again. Over the weekend, Black Workers for Justice, UE 150 and other organizations held a community forum to rally support for the sanitation workers’ struggle, with 60 people attending.

Community organizers gave powerful speeches, noting that this was not just a struggle for workers’ rights, but also a fight for real equality for African-Americans. Many also made the connection between the Raleigh sanitation workers’ struggle and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while rallying support for sanitation workers there.

On Monday Sept. 24, over 100 workers and their supporters, including Reverend William Barber, president of the state NAACP, took to the streets in a picket of the city council. They demanded a shake-up of the solid waste services department management and that the city council meet the workers’ demands. Mayor Meeker emerged from City Hall to publicly state that he supported the demands and would recognize the elected union leadership.

Less than a week later, Gerald Latta, the director of the sanitation department, announced he was stepping down, while Lash Hocutt, the operations superintendent, was transferred out of the department. Soon after, eleven temporary jobs were made permanent in the sanitation department, while the city council voted to make any city job longer than six months a permanent position – a victory for all of Raleigh’s city workers. Over half a dozen jobs were added to the solid waste services department, with plans to add more in the future. Sanitation workers are now receiving overtime pay, while an audit is set to take place of the city’s solid waste services department to determine how to reduce their workload and improve work conditions. In addition, Mayor Meeker has met with the sanitation workers’ union leadership.

UE 150 now represents 85% of the city’s sanitation workers, and is reaching out to organize other departments in the city. By standing together to put pressure on the city, Raleigh’s sanitation workers and their supporters have scored major victories – winning important concessions for the workers and building a fighting union.

But the struggle continues. City manager Russell Allen is still refusing to recognize the elected union leadership of the sanitation workers, and management still tries to pressure workers into forced overtime. Finally, as mentioned above, North Carolina has a long-standing legislative ban on collective bargaining for public sector workers. Many workers and activists involved in the sanitation struggle have decided to continue the fight for the rights of public sector workers, and that the time has finally come to overturn this unjust Jim Crow law.

#RaleighNC #NAACP #AfricanAmerican #SouthernLaborMovement #UE150 #unionRecognition

Gadsden, AL – Despite the heavy rains and the passing weeks, workers at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant here are holding the picket line, demanding job security and better health and insurance benefits. All 1250 workers at the Gadsden plant have been on strike since Oct. 5, leaving the plant idle and plant supervisors scrambling to make tires on their own. The United Steelworkers of America, who organized the strike, represents eleven other plants in America and two in Canada, a total of 15,000 workers, all of whom are participating in the strike.

Goodyear shut down a plant in Huntsville, Alabama in 2003 and recently revealed plans to shut down two more and move production overseas. Workers are fighting to keep the plant open, and to hold on to their health and insurance benefits, which are continually under attack, despite the fact that the company’s profit has increased in the past two years. Retirees draw less than $700 a month, yet pay $600 a month for insurance. “It’s not right, nothing’s right about it,” said Rickey Ramey, a tire builder with the plant for over 31 years, shaking his head, showing his hands crippled from years of hard work. “We accepted concessions, bailed the plant out in ’97, made them millions of dollars with our hands and our backs. Now they want to take it all away.”

The Goodyear plant in Gadsden has been operating since the 1930s and has a history of struggle; workers struck several times in the 1970s, for over four months in 1976 and again in 1997. The majority of citizens in Gadsden have either worked for or have family who has worked for Goodyear, and support the workers’ struggle. “The community is behind us 110 percent,” said Dennis Battles, president of the United Steelworkers Local 12. “Every time you look up, they are bringing food to the picket line, donating money. It really gets to you sometimes, makes you want to sit down and bawl.”

Battles is waiting for the call to restart negotiations. Until then, the workers plan on striking for as long as it takes, fully aware that without them, the Goodyear plant cannot operate. “Already, Goodyear’s credit report has been demoted from A to B; they’re paying $1.2 million of interest a day. I can see the bosses laughing, thinking, ‘Oh these peons are going to make us some money!’ But if the plant goes bankrupt, the CEO makes zero!” explained Ramey.

Rickey Williams, a maintenance mechanic, agrees that the benefit cuts are unacceptable, that compromise is no longer an option. “The CEO makes $7,700,000 and just got a $3 million bonus,” said Williams, soaked from picketing for hours in the rain. “We don’t want more concessions – the more we give them the more they want. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; they’re trying to get rid of the middle class. The past two years Goodyear has turned a profit, but they still want more. We have really got to stop that somewhere.”

#GadsdenAL #GadsenAL #SouthernLaborMovement #Goodyear #UnitedSteelworkersOfAmerica

Workers' rights are under attack in South Carolina. Later this summer, five members of the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) will be going on trial. Elijah Forde Jr., Kenneth Jefferson, Peter Washington Jr., Rick Simmons, and John Edgerton face up to 5 years in prison. They are changed with felony riot. In truth, they have done nothing wrong. They stood up to a union-busting shipping firm and exercised their right to picket. For that, South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon says they deserve “jail, jail, and more jail.”

What Happened

The conflict began when Nordana Lines quit using union labor in the port of Charleston. On January 20, 2000, the ILA called for a rally to coincide with the docking of the Nordana's ship 'Skodsborg'. Also on hand were more than 600 police that had been brought in from around the state. They were clad in riot gear, some were mounted on horses, and still others were in armored vehicles, helicopters, and patrol boats.

When workers approached the freight terminal, the cops moved in with tear gas and clubs. Many were injured in the cowardly attack. Subsequently the Charleston 5 were indicted, and placed under house arrest.

Organize the South

The fate of Charleston 5 is of real importance to both the labor movement and African American Liberation movement. The Charleston locals of the ILA are overwhelmingly Black. Four of the five defendants are African Americans. The vicious actions taken by police and state prosecutors need to be viewed in this context.

South Carolina, like so much of the South, is a so-called “right to work” state. This makes it hard for workers to build and defend unions. The example of the Black-majority ILA locals standing up to union busters and state government, is powerful and stands to resonate among working people across the South – and across the country.

Today, most African Americans live in the South, where the shadow of the plantation still looms. Discrimination on the job and in the community is a part of everyday life. The climate of racism and union busting has been a call to Fortune 500 companies to “head south”.

The lot of working people of all nationalities, in every corner of the U.S., is closely tied to that of southern, African American workers. The sum total strength of the labor movement will rest to a considerable degree on the strength of its southern contingent. The call to organize the south is battle cry that signals a challenge to discrimination and exploitation.

The fight to have the charges dropped against the Charleston 5 is part and parcel of the fight to build the organization of working people in the South. It deserves the support of all working people.

#CharlestonSC #Editorial #Editorials #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #SouthernLaborMovement #InternationalLongshoremansAssociation #Charleston5 #NordanaLines

Hamilton, AL – “This is a fight to the death. We will not let the scabs have this plant. If we can't have it, we will shut it down,” vowed the local United Steel Workers of America membership.

Steelworkers on strike at Speedrack Products Group Ltd. since January 31, continue a battle that will last “one day longer” than the company's resolve. Many of the members are accustomed to long-term fights, some have participated in previous strikes at other workplaces and a good number have been fighting for a union at Speedrack for nine years.

Since 1991, the Alabama company's practice of using work release prisoners has increased so that they make up about half of the workforce. The union won recognition in September of 1999 after the U.S. Court of Appeals determined that the ballots of work release prisoners at Speedrack must be counted. Now the members are demanding a fair contract.

When the only other union in town, the United Auto Workers, came out in support of the approximately 100 steelworkers, local police tried to prevent their demonstration. The police cited the injunction against the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) as reason to stop the UAW protest, although local police did not even have jurisdiction in injunction enforcement.

Marion County's Judge Aderholt, a Republican who owns his own plant in the vicinity and is the father of Congressman Robert Aderholt, handed down the injunction against the steelworkers. It severely limits their picketing and allows only five USWA members to demonstrate at two locations in view of the plant. It keeps the union 30 feet from the gate. It prevents picketing on public roads immediately surrounding the company and even restrains them to no closer than five feet to the opposite side of the road.

Even with the county's 9.5% unemployment rate and the inability of the work release prisoners to participate in the picket prior to the injunction, the strikers had successfully stopped production.

The mayor and police chief provide Speedrack with full time police service. Strikers have been accused of, and arrested for foul language. Meanwhile, as the cops sat at the company, scabs threw bombs at the strikers. A member's truck was burnt in his driveway. Another scab, wielding a lead pipe, beat a member on picket duty, who was videotaping those crossing the line. Police classified the bombings as “littering” and insisted that the beating had been provoked.

In a meeting with federal mediation, Speedrack stood on its final offer, removing the eight-hour day as standard, changing employee status to part-time for 36 hours or less, removing heath care benefits and lowering the average wage below $7.75. They intend for employees to remain off work for one week without pay during the holiday season, to pay for uniforms, and to purchase their own tools.

Recently, the mediator indicated that the company was willing to meet a second time and the negotiation committee made the nearly 100-mile trip to Birmingham again. Speedrack's only object at the meeting appeared to be an opportunity for manager Tom Whitaker and company attorney Ron Passarrelli, of the firm Wessels and Pautsch, to express pleasure with their new scab workforce.

Back in Hamilton, strikers maintain the picket 24 hours a day and are stubbornly digging in for this hard fight for their first contract. Recently, they have erected a permanent structure at the site and raised the American flag. They appreciated their previous strike headquarters, maintained out of generosity at the local UAW hall, but they have found office space in the center of town, across from the Marion County courthouse. The Steelworkers have formed a citizen's coalition to elect new city government officials and are looking forward to the summer elections.

#HamiltonAL #Hamilton #News #Speedrack #Steelworkers #SouthernLaborMovement