Militancy the Old-Fashioned Way/Picketing Smith Barney Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the November 20, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- MILITANCY THE OLD FASHIONED WAY: UNIONS PICKET SMITH BARNEY By Molly Charboneau New York On Nov. 6, Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 100 protested Smith Barney's corporate greed the old-fashioned way--with a strong, vocal, diverse demonstration outside the company's headquarters in lower Manhattan. Chants of "AFL-CIO, union busting's got to go" and "We want justice" echoed from the walls of the glitzy building as 18 union, religious, student, workfare and senior activists--including Local 100 President Henry Taramin--were arrested for a sit-in blocking the main entrance. Simultaneous actions targeted the corporate giant in 30 other cities across the U.S. and Canada. On May 22, over 75 percent of the 50 cafeteria workers at Smith Barney's headquarters had signed an open petition asking Chair James Dimon and cafeteria operator Aramark for union recognition. They both refused. Since then, the workers have been subject to illegal surveillance, firings, harassment and other unfair labor practices. Smith Barney is part of Travelers Group whose chair, Sandy Weill, received $94.2 million in total compensation in 1996. In its latest annual report, the company acknowledged "record earnings of $889 million, up 48 percent on net revenues of $6.3 billion." According to union organizers, the workers make near poverty-level wages. "These workers serve a very privileged sector of New Yorkers. It's wrong for Smith Barney to turn its back on them," said Local 100 spokesperson Brooks Bitterman. "Some 2,000 other cafeteria workers across the city--at Goldman Sachs, Citibank, the New York Stock Exchange and Chase Manhattan Bank--have the dignity, respect, family medical coverage and job security of a union contract. Smith Barney cafeteria workers deserve the same." The demonstration was supported by unionists from the Communications Workers, Theatrical and Stage Employees, the Laborers, the National Writers Union, UNITE, AFSCME, the Musicians, the Jobs with Justice Coalition and others. Workfairness, currently organizing workfare workers into AFSCME, brought a delegation of activists to the event, including one who participated in the sit-in. "We stand solidly with the restaurant workers against these corporate union busters. They're the same ones pushing slave-labor jobs as part of so-called welfare reform," said Workfairness co-founder Larry Holmes. He noted that Aramark and 20 other companies just signed up to receive workfare workers from Opportunity America. This private consulting firm was started by Richard Schwartz, architect of New York's slave-labor workfare program, to extend workfare into the private sector. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytlab-11.15.97-03:06:12-20000