On the picket line

22,500 Colorado state workers unionize

At least 22,500 secretaries, campus workers and other state employees in Colorado will soon be covered by a union contract following a vote tallied June 11. Some 5,481 out of the 6,900 workers who voted went for union representation. Contracts with three unions in ColoradoWINS (Service Employees, State, County and Municipal Employees and the Federation of Teachers) will cover 22,500 workers, or a third of all state employees. Colorado WINS is continuing to try to organize another 11,000 state workers who are eligible to unionize and bargain collectively for wages and work conditions under an executive order issued by Governor Bill Ritter last November. (Denver Post, June 13)

Unionists rally against high fuel prices

State and local affiliates of the AFL-CIO organized protests in Albuquerque, Denver, Louisville, Madison, Wisc., and St. Louis in early June to protest high fuel prices. A prominent slogan in all the street demonstrations and rallies was “Say NO to big oil.” As Manny Flores of Laborers Local 730 in Denver said, “This is ridiculous. Two months ago, I spent $30 per week on gas for work. Now I have to pay over $60 per week. You have a choice—fill the tank, or buy milk for the kids. If I have $50, I spend $20 for gas, and the rest for bread, eggs, and milk. With this economy, you can’t live on what you make.” (blog.aflcio.org)

Atlantic City casino workers demand contracts

Even though casino workers in Atlantic City voted for the Auto Workers to represent them at four casinos—Caesars, Trump, Tropicana and Bally’s—last November, management of the casinos have refused to negotiate. That’s why more than 3,000 casino workers and their supporters from all along the Eastern seaboard and as far away as Ohio and Michigan took over downtown Atlantic City for more than three hours on June 21. Not sticking to the Boardwalk, marchers took over the main drag, shouting “Negotiate!” and shaking their fists outside the casinos. Unionists vowed they would repeat the demonstration once a month until negotiations are underway. (New York Times, June 22)

Letter carriers opt for solidarity

When the Letter Carriers gather for their national convention July 21 to 25 in Boston, they have elected to let the food services corporation Aramark know as clearly as possible that it supports the just demands of UniteHere Local 26 for a wage hike and better benefits. How? By canceling all food services, even the usually lavish opening reception, as an act of solidarity with the workers’ struggle. An Aramark representative speculated that the cancellation might pressure the company to offer an agreement before the convention. (Boston Herald, June 17)

Three updates

Three struggles moved to a new stage:

• Immigrant workers from India, who were lied to about being granted permanent visas and super-exploited by Signal International while rebuilding oil rigs in the Gulf, ended their hunger strike on June 12 when the Justice Department agreed to meet with their representatives to negotiate a settlement. (New York Times, June 12)

• After a hard-fought struggle, representation by the Union of Part-Time Faculty at Wayne State University was voted in nearly unanimously (245 to 3) on June 9, approved by the WSU board on June 18, and will take effect on July 16. (union press releases)

• In a viciously cynical maneuver to avoid a Bush veto, the House of Representatives attached a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits to a war-spending bill of $162 billion, which was approved on June 19. (CNN.com, June 20) Though a record 8.5 million people are officially unemployed, with millions more unofficially without paying jobs, those billions wasted on war could be used to create thousands of jobs.