Sanitation workers forced into wildcat strike
By
Dante Strobino
Raleigh, N.C.
Published Sep 21, 2006 10:36 PM
On the mornings of
Sept. 13, 14 and 15, workers for the City of Raleigh Solid Waste Division
carried out an historic wildcat strike, withholding their labor power and
shutting services for several hours on each of those days.
Sanitation workers in Raleigh, N.C.
WW photo: Dante Strobino
|
In a plant
with over 100 workers, more than 80, including both drivers and laborers,
refused to mount the trucks and drive the city streets to pick up the garbage.
The vast majority of these workers are Black.
Sanitation workers suffer
from some of the worst conditions of all public employees in a city rife with
irresponsive governmental bureaucracy and cronyism. These super-oppressed
workers are raising their voices and organizing around their just demands, which
include: no forced overtime (10 hours a day maximum), time-and-a-half pay for
voluntary overtime work, all temps be made permanent workers, an end to
harassment from bosses, and respect for the workers’ right to organize and
elect their own leaders.
UE Local 150—the North Carolina Public
Sector Workers Union—has been organizing public sector workers since 1996.
It represents workers in four strategic areas: Department of Health and Human
Services, the University of North Carolina system, city workers, and private
workers in auto and aerospace in eastern North Carolina. UE 150 has been meeting
with Raleigh sanitation workers for over a year now and supported the recent
worker-initiated job actions.
On Sept. 14, over half of the solid waste
workforce attended the UE 150 union meeting. There they voted, signed up and
took an oath to join and build the union. Many other workers who could not
attend the meeting have already joined. Many others are joining every day. In
the parking lot outside, energy was high as workers chanted, “The orange
brigade is rolling in.” The workers had pledged to wear bright orange
shirts.
There was an incredible amount of unity in the room, as workers
themselves decided what steps to take next, elected a leadership structure to
meet with bosses and speak with the media, and decided on what demands to
prioritize.
Raleigh is one of the fastest growing cities on the East
Coast. From 1990 to January 1999, Raleigh registered a 30.1 percent increase in
population and expanded its area by more than 20% but has not had a similar
growth in the workforce. In fact, recently the City Council cut $135,000 from
the budget to get rid of six city worker positions. The city has also
implemented “one-armed bandits,” new automatic trucks that only need
one worker to operate, causing increased stress, danger and workload.
Jimmy Gaye, a solid waste laborer for 22 years and UE 150 member said,
“The city is growing but the workforce is not growing. … The only
changes I have seen have been to benefit the [bosses]. The job action has been a
long time coming. They cut down our truck from four to three people and made me
work … without extra pay. I joined the union so someone would listen to
me. The heads and superintendent won’t listen.”
Speaking
about the high risk work environment, he said, “I have seen a man almost
get his head cut off here; I know one guy got killed; I have seen fights; they
get against each other, until we are mad because the system is mistreating
us.”
As of Sept. 19, the sanitation workers have gone back to work
because they care about the public’s health. They are giving the city
until Sept. 22 to meet their demands. If the city abuses this act of good faith
and does not meet their demands, then the workers will be forced to consider
other serious actions.
For the first time that most workers can remember,
an assistant city manager—Lawrence Ray—was forced to come right to
the sanitation yard and speak to workers and hear their issues face to
face.
This whole struggle must be considered in the context of the deep
anti-union sentiment in the South. This struggle is also part of the movement
for collective bargaining rights and to repeal the so-called “right to
work” anti-union clause, North Carolina 95-98. This is a goal of the
International Worker Justice Campaign initiated by Black Workers For Justice, UE
Local 150 and others.
The workers are asking people to call Mayor Charles
Meeker at 919-833-8756 (home) and 919-828-0564 (work) to express their support.
Strobino is an organizer with the Raleigh FIST (Fight Imperialism,
Stand Together) youth group and UE Local 150.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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