Rhode Island
Workers militancy spreads
By Michael
Shaw
Providence, R.I.
Maintenance workers belonging to SEIU Local 134 at Bryant
College in Smithfield will be voting March 16 on a tentative
agreement arrived at after an 11-day strike. Picketing had
begun at the college's main gate at midnight, March 2. About
40 fellow union brothers and sisters in food service joined
the more than 80 striking Physical Plant employees.
Strikers were protesting wages and benefits that have
failed to keep pace with inflation, despite Bryant's obvious
current prosperity. In earlier contracts, workers had made
sacrifices during periods of low enrollment in 1993 and 1995.
The workers were demanding that these concessions be reversed
now that Bryant is booming, with full classrooms and new
buildings under construction. Issues being negotiated
included wage parity with other Bryant employees, health care
co-pays, sick leave and emergency closings provisions.
Elsewhere in Rhode Island, over 100 members of New England
Health Care Workers 1199 on March 9 staged a one-day
"rolling" strike in Pawtucket at various sites of the
Blackstone Valley Chapter of the Rhode Island Association for
Retarded Citizens, a private agency. RIARC operates group
homes that care for persons with developmental
disabilities.
Workers have had it with low wages and increasingly
difficult working conditions. They make $3 an hour less than
state workers doing similar work, which discourages job
applicants and promotes high employee turnover.
RIARC Executive Director Peter Holden has repeatedly
agreed that the workers deserve higher pay, but claims the
agency can't afford it due to shrinking state
reimbursements.
Stan Israel, a leader of 1199, counters Holden's claims by
stating that the agency could take steps--such as reducing
some management positions--to provide more to the
workers.
Holding signs saying, "Be fair to those who care" and
chanting "No contract, no peace," strikers and their allies
blocked access to the Manton Street agency before marching
through the neighborhood to leaflet neighbors of the group
homes. They then traveled throughout Blackstone Valley to
further leaflet and to confront RIARC's board of directors at
their workplaces.
On March 9 more than a dozen labor rights activists
stormed the offices of Additional Personnel in Pawtucket,
seeking a Latino immigrant's illegally withheld pay. AP is
notorious for breaking labor laws where immigrants are
concerned; now they are holding up a check for 24 hours of
work by an employee identified only as "Pedro," claiming his
identification papers are not valid.
Mario Bueno, program coordinator for the United Workers'
Committee at Progreso Latino, argues that AP President Edward
Hickey is required by law to pay Pedro for work performed.
The law says nothing about being required to have a social
security number.
Confronted with the adamant activists, office staff
slammed the door on the group and called the cops. Told to
leave the office by the police, the protesters braved
snowfall to picket the entrance and chant labor slogans in
Spanish. "The cops should be arresting the staff of
Additional Personnel," said Deja Vargas, a member of El
Comite, "not harassing us."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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