On the picket line

UAW strikes GM in Lansing, Mich.

Workers at General Motors’ newest assembly plant in Lansing, Mich., went on strike April 17 over substantive contract issues like work rules and grievances. The workers have been negotiating since June 2007 for their first contract since Auto Workers’ Local 602 was set up. “This is the first local agreement for a brand-new assembly plant, so it is very imperative that we get respect for our membership,” local president Doug Rademacher told the New York Times. (April 18) “We produce the hottest thing on the market today. It’s time to respect that work force.” Local 602 joins nearly 30 GM plants currently closed or partly shut due to the weeks-long strike at GM parts supplier American Axle.

Labor supports May Day protest

Labor groups on both coasts—the Vermont AFL-CIO and the California Federation of Teachers—passed resolutions in mid-April supporting the 8-hour strike on May Day by the longshore workers in Oakland, Calif. The Vermont resolution, which passed unanimously, expressed “unequivocal” support for what it called the first U.S. labor strike against the war in Iraq. It is also the first state labor federation to publicly back the strike. The CFT resolution “publicly supports statewide and local actions on May Day against the war and in support of immigrant rights, including the ILWU’s portwide West Coast shutdown, marches, boycotts, and other mobilizations of labor, community, and student organizations.”

Equal Pay Day, April 21

Even though it’s been 45 years since equal pay was mandated by law, working women are still not paid as much as men for the same work. White women average 77 cents for every dollar a white man is paid, while African-American women average 63 cents and Latin@s only 52 cents. It’s estimated that a 25-year-old woman worker will be robbed of $523,000 over the course of her lifetime. CEOs and shareholders benefit directly from such widespread crime. Equal pay advocates are observing Equal Pay Day on April 21 by demanding that Congress pass the “Lilly Ledbetter” Fair Pay Act, which is coming up for a vote in the Senate. The bill seeks to reverse a biased 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision and allow workers the right to sue for pay discrimination.

Extending unemployment insurance

A bill to extend unemployment insurance for another 13 weeks was passed by the House Ways and Means Committee on April 17. Only after “official” unemployment jumped at the end of March to 5.1 percent of the U.S. workforce did Congress finally taken note of the plight of 7.8 million jobless workers. How long will it take to actually make this bill a law? Will President Bush even sign it? Stay tuned.

Florida tomato fields slave-like

On April 15 the Senate held a hearing on slavelike working conditions that mostly Latin American immigrant workers are forced to endure while harvesting tomatoes for U.S. fast-food restaurants. Lucas Benítez, co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida, testified that workers are sometimes held against their will, victimized by physical and mental abuse and forced to do backbreaking work for little or no pay. Many are left at the end of the week with as little as $20 after they’re made to pay for housing and transportation. Thousands are trying to survive on poverty wages with no sick leave, no job security and no freedom to join unions.

The CIW has led a campaign, with the support of student, religious and community groups, and labor unions, since 2001 to end these abominable conditions. The first breakthrough came when Taco Bell agreed to the CIW demand to pay a penny more per bushel of tomatoes in 2005. Since then, other major brands like McDonalds have followed suit. Burger King is currently holding out. Boycott Burger King! End slave labor in the tomato fields!