On the picket line

Philly transit pact

It took only seven days on strike for the transit workers in Philadelphia to reach a contract agreement. According to the new pact, transit workers will pay 1 percent of their salaries toward health care rather than kicking in the 5 percent that management originally demanded. The workers will also get 3 percent raises each year of the four-year contract.

What is unusual about this settlement is that the managers of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority also agreed to contribute a percentage of their wages toward the same health plan. That was a central demand of Transit Workers Local 234 and United Transportation Workers Local 1594.

The settlement still has to be voted on by the two unions’ 5,300 members.

Mechanics’ strike slows NWA

The 4,300 members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AFMA), who have been on strike since Aug. 20, are holding strong. Their strike continues to impact Northwest Airlines (NWA) despite the company’s claims to the contrary.

The November report ranking the on-time performance of airlines showed Northwest coming in last—20th out of 20. That never happened before the strike. NWA is the only airline using scab labor to maintain its planes.

In addition, continuing reports of safety violations and unsafe practices have been attributed to inexperienced, poorly trained scabs.

For daily updates on the strike go to www.amfa.org.

Stop killer Coke

Activists plan to picket the national headquarters of Coca-Cola in Atlanta on Nov. 18 before proceeding to the annual protest at the School of the Americas on Nov. 20. This action is part of the international campaign to hold Coke accountable for anti-labor violence in Colombia.

The campaign against Coke now includes India, Turkey, Indonesia and Guatemala, where charges that Coke
officials instigated incidents of murder, torture, pollution and union-busting have been reported.

The rally is the culmination of the North American speaking tour of William Mendoza, vice president of the Colom bian food industry union SINALTRAINAL. United Students Against Sweatshops helped organize the tour, which included stops in Tallahassee, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto.

To find out more about the campaign, go to www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org.

Thanks to Rosemary Neidenberg for assistance in preparing this column.