Submitted on Tue, 06/06/2006 - 12:58pm
Staff Report - Industrial Worker, June 2006
Thousands of businesses across the country closed their doors May 1st -- some because there were no workers, others because managers preferred to avoid a fight with their employees that they could only lose. Many more worked short-staffed.
In Latino barrios throughout Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Miami, thousands of restaurants, warehouses, newsstands, and money transfer services were closed. Many McDonald's outlets cut hours or shut down.
In Los Angeles, hundreds of sweatshop garment factories were closed. The strike paralyzed construction sites and industrial food production plants across the country.
"It was one thing to march," said Armando Navarro of the California-based National Alliance for Human Rights, referring to the earlier wave of immigrant protests. "Now we're going to hit Ôem where it hurts Ð in the pocketbooks."
Cargill, the country's second-largest beef producer, closed seven meat-processing plants employing 14,000 workers. Tyson, Perdue and other meatpackers followed suit. Tens of thousands of farm workers stayed out of the fields, and the American Nursery and Landscape Association estimated that 90 percent of the half million workers in its industry took the day off.
According to Jack Kyser, an economist with the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., the economic impact of the strike could total $200 million just in Los Angeles County. No one has done similar calculations for the rest of the country, but the total would have to run more than a billion dollars.
While several companies threatened to fire or discipline workers who took off work for the day, and some carried out those threats, many employers' associations urged caution -- warning that such actions could lead to further actions.
"Law firms have been advising their clients that the immigrant labor boycott is protected by the National Labor Relations Act, even though it isn't specifically a union action," reported the May 2 Wall Street Journal, which had real-time coverage of the May Day actions in its online edition.
Submitted on Tue, 04/18/2006 - 7:37pm
Considerando que la clase trabajadora no conoce fronteras, ni razas, sino que existe dondequiera que los trabajadores se exploten en beneficio del capital; y
Considerando que todo ser humano tiene derecho a los medios para satisfacer las necesidades vitales para si y para su familia, a pesar de las barreras artificiales creadas por los gobiernos; y
Considerando que la naturaleza de las economías capitalistas atrae a trabajadores de todas partes hacia los centros de inversión capitalista, y a la vez saca la riqueza de economías "menos desarrolladas", eliminando así oportunidades de ganarse la vida en esas economías; y
Considerando que el reciente aumento en la inmigración en los Estados Unidos es el resultado directo de este proceso y especialmente de los destructivos tratados del llamado "comercio libre", impuestos en Latinoamérica por el gobierno de los Estados Unidos, tanto como la insaciable avaricia de los empleadores norteamericanos por una mano de obra inmigrante y dependiente que se puede obligar a trabajar bajo horribles condiciones y que se puede usar para socavar las condiciones de todos los trabajadores; y
Submitted on Thu, 04/13/2006 - 7:08am
Fellow Workers,
Kindly find below a urgent announcement of the IWA secretariat in Oslo regarding the strugle beetween CNT workers and Mercadona company in Spain.
They need our solidarity - An Injury to one is an insury to all!!!
Argyris Argyriadis
IWW GREECE
[email protected]
From the IWA-Secretariat, Oslo
Dear Sections and Friends!
The CNTE has conflicts in various places in Spain against the firm Mercadona, and now in Barcelona the CNT-AIT has a strike at the "el Centro Logistico de Mercadona en Sant Sadorni d`Anoia". Measures of security, three union delegates’ readmission, and the ceasing of labor pursuit are the reasons of the strike!
Submitted on Mon, 04/10/2006 - 12:16pm
Whereas: the working class knows no borders or races, but exists wherever workers are exploited for the benefit of capital; and
Whereas: all human beings are entitled to the means of obtaining the necessities of life for themselves and their families, regardless of any artificial barriers created by government; and
Whereas: the nature of capitalist economies is to draw workers from all over to the centers of capitalist investment, while at the same time drawing wealth out of less-developed economies, thereby eliminating opportunities to earn a living within such economies; and
Whereas: the recent rise in immigration to the United States of America is directly attributable to this process, as exemplified by the destructive free-trade treaties forced upon Latin America by the United States government, as well as the insatiable lust of North American employers for a dependent, immigrant work-force that can be compelled to labor under sub-minimum wages and deplorable working conditions and used to undermine the working conditions of all workers; and
Submitted on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 12:48am
By Mike Hargis, Chicago - Industrial Worker, April 2006
It was so incredible: I never saw the beginning of the march, nor the end. I didn’t hear one speech and never even made it to the Loop where the march was supposed to end. There was just this sea of humanity gathered in the streets, flowing in the same direction with the same object in mind: defeat the new, draconian immigration bill known as “The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005” (HR4437).
On March 10 at least 300,000 people took the day off work or school and converged in Chicago’s Loop to protest this bill, which would turn undocumented workers into “aggravated criminal felons” and those who assist them, such as priests and nurses (and unionists) into criminals as well for “aiding and abetting” them. The bill passed the House of Representatives just before Christmas, it is currently being debated in the Senate.
