Labor set to Challenge Low Wages, Union Busting id BAA20037; Fri, 12 Sep 1997 01:47:06 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the September 18, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- NEW YORK LABOR DAY: UPS STRIKE, ORGANIZING CAMPAIGNS LIGHT UP PARADE/ BUT UNIONS SIDESTEP POLICE BRUTALITY ISSUE By Scott Scheffer New York Because of the recent Teamster union victory over United Parcel Service, workers and all progressives were watching and hoping that this city's Labor Day parade would reflect the new fighting mood of the workers. The big win over UPS followed years of defeats and concessions. The struggle of the lower-paid, part-time UPS workers in particular, who are mostly African American, Latino, and women, drew the support of poor and working people across the country during the strike. Anyone watching the parade from that point of view must have been satisfied. Like any other parade, New York's was a giant spectacle of colorful banners and signs, music, and high-school marching bands. It celebrated the pride of every kind of worker, from teachers to plumbers, from electrical utility workers to social services. It took five hours for the 200,000 participants to pass the reviewing stand. Of course, it had that distinct New York City working-class character. There were film industry workers by the hundreds, including stagehands, projectionists, actors and musicians. Garment workers in UNITE carried signs printed in the many languages spoken by those who sew clothing. Their group was led by a spectacular Chinese dragon. But the march also reflected changes in the character of the working class. The Coalition of Labor Union Women had a very large and prominent contingent near the front of the march. Teamsters Joint Council 16--another of the early contingents--was led by about 25 African American workers. CHEERS GREETED CAREY AND UPS CONTINGENT AFL-CIO President John Sweeney led the way as grand marshal of the parade. The first contingent was from UPS. Teamsters President Ron Carey walked in front with hundreds of UPS workers, obviously the celebrities of the day. The workers chanted Carey's name and pumped their fists in the air as crowds of people shouted out their congratulations. Carey is facing a government-imposed election, but the support he's enjoying shows that workers want to fight and win. His opponent, James Hoffa, didn't appear at the march and there were no visible signs of support for him. Many of the most important issues of the day were addressed in the slogans and signs carried by marchers and in speeches at the end. The Lesbian and Gay Caucus of United Store Workers Local 3 carried signs demanding employment protection for lesbian and gay workers across the country. Jack Rojas, chair of the caucus, said: "We want passage of the Employment Non- Discrimination Act now in Congress. It is still legal in 41 states to fire people on the basis of sexual orientation. We demand equal rights." WORKFARE WORKERS IN MARCH FOR FIRST TIME The ruling-class attempt to institute modern-day slavery by using workfare workers against unionized workers is one of the most important issues for labor today. A lot of signs and banners in the parade showed a heightened awareness and level of solidarity with those forced to participate in the so-called Work Experience Program. One huge float belonging to Unity 2000--a coalition of the Machinists, Auto Workers and Steel workers, which will merge in the year 2,000--had signs reading "Organize the unorganized," "Hands off Social Security," and, most prominently displayed, "Jobs--not workfare." But the most significant expression of the struggle for workfare rights was organized by Workfairness. Workfairness, whose leaders and members are almost all WEP workers, is signing up these workers for union membership in AFSCME District Council 37, the main union representing New York government employees. The large Workfairness group marched with the DC 37 contingent. In his talk at the reviewing stand, Central Labor Council President Brian McLoughlin hailed the victory in the UPS strike, but said that the union movement can't "rest on our laurels." He discussed an AFL-CIO program called "Union Cities," which is an attempt to "join together the hopes and aspirations of all working people both in and out of the trade union movement." This new recognition by the labor leadership of the importance of reaching outside the unions to other working- class and poor people certainly helped win the UPS strike. It is just the kind of signal that the most militant workers are looking for. McLoughlin also used the occasion to announce an important campaign to organize immigrant workers into New York unions. Several limousines in the parade represented the first limousine drivers to be organized in this campaign. Many small companies here hire and exploit immigrant workers as limousine drivers. They typically work 70 hours a week for low pay. WHAT ABOUT POLICE BRUTALITY? Unfortunately, some important issues were left untouched by the AFL-CIO leadership--the most pressing being the epidemic of police brutality in the city. Much to their credit, members of the Mail Handlers Local 300 carried banners slamming the attacks on welfare, calling for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and demanding: "Stop police brutality, justice for Abner Louima"--the Haitian worker horribly beaten and abused by police at Brooklyn's 70th Precinct. This Labor Day saw some big steps forward: the great celebration of the UPS victory; the announcement by the Central Labor Council of its intention to organize immigrant workers; the participation of WEP workers in the parade for the first time. All this strengthened solidarity with the most oppressed in a real way. But in spite of all that, a shadow hung over the march. Something very important was missing. Those mail handlers in Local 300, as well as Workers World Party and a few others, were the only ones addressing the issue of police brutality. It should have been a main theme of the parade. In the aftermath of the attack and torture of Louima, thousands of people in the Haitian, Latino, African American, and other poor and working-class communities justifiably lay the blame at the doorstep of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who for a while marched at the front of the Labor Day parade. Giuliani made it clear when he began his campaign for re- election that the police would have a green light to wage war on people in the community. This atmosphere made the Louima case, as well as hundreds of other cases of brutality that are covered up, inevitable. The big contradiction is that some leaders in AFSCME, the United Federation of Teachers and others, whether or not they have endorsed Giuliani, are too close and too comfortable with a mayor who is perceived as the incarnation of racist evil in Harlem, on Flatbush Avenue, in Washington Heights and in the South Bronx. It has been widely reported that the Rev. Al Sharpton, who had planned to be at the march as part of his mayoral campaign, decided not to march because the labor movement "sold out to Giuliani." How deeply this reflects sentiment in the Black and Latin communities is hard to say, but there is no question that many feel that way. All this brings out the need for politically conscious and progressive people in the labor movement, especially rank- and-file organizers, to link their renewed efforts of organizing the unorganized to a more deliberate and bold strategy of solidarity with the struggle against police brutality and immigrant bashing. These are the issues that define the main challenge facing the advanced elements in the working-class movement: building a more militant struggle against racism, which must be fought by all workers and in every level of society. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. 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