News and Views from the People's Struggle
Struggle for contracts continues
Chicago, IL – 2700 workers at the University of Illinois-Chicago were poised to strike Aug. 23. Last minute meetings between the officers of the union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 and the university president resulted in an agreement to call off the strike.
Chicago, IL – As Fight Back! goes to press Teamsters are getting ready to count the ballots in the showdown between the slates of incumbent International President Hoffa and the reform challenger Local 206 President Tom Leedham. The Tom Leedham Strong Contracts, Good Pensions slate, with extremely limited resources, took out a message of rank and file power to challenge employer greed.
¡Lucha y Resiste! entrevistó a Richard Berg (RB), candidato a vicepresidente de la Hermandad Internacional de Teamsters para la Planilla de Contratos Fuertes y Buenas Pensiones de Tom Leedham. Berg es también un líder clave en la lucha contra la corrupción en el Local 743 de Chicago. El resultado de la elección de los Teamsters es vital para todos los trabajadores Teamsters e impactará la dirección del movimiento de trabajadores.
Saladin Muhammad es un lider veterano del movimiento de los trabajadores y del movimiento para la liberación de los afro-americanos en Carolina del Norte. El es responsable de la coordinación y organzación en Carolina del Norte y Virginia de los sindicatos de trabajadores de servicio público. Muhammad desarrolla la lucha en contra de una ley en Carolina del Norte, NC 95-98, la cual limita los derechos de los trabajadores de negociar colectivamente.
Richard Berg estuvo empleado en el Hospital de la Universidad de Chicago (HUdeCH) como parte del departamento de limpieza por 16 años. En el 2004 fue despedido por una petición del corrupto jefe principal del sindicato Local 743 de los Teamsters, irónicamente el sindicato al que pertenecía Berg. En dos ocasiones en ese mismo año encabezó las listas del Nuevo Liderato de Reformistas (New Leadership Slate-NLS) y ganó ambas elecciones, pero su triunfo le fue negado por el robo masivo de votos por parte de la pandilla de Watson. Entonces, los pandilleros decidieron eliminar de una vez por todas a su oponente. Sí, Richard no trabajaba en el hospital no podría ser miembro del sindicato Local 743. Por lo tanto, no podría nunca ser candidato para el liderazgo del sindicato otra vez.
El 31 de diciembre, cinco miembros del Local 743 (Teamsters) que fueron los ganadores de las últimas elecciones, entraron a las oficinas para recibir las llaves de sus oponentes, los cuales perdieron las elecciones. El anterior presidente Richard Lopez sabía que había sido derrotado y que podría ir a la cárcel.
Austin, MN – About 200 veterans of the famous Hormel strike – members of Local P-9, along with their families and supporters – gathered here at the American Legion Hall to commemorate strike’s 25th anniversary. Among those in attendance were P-9 President Jim Guyette, Vice-president Lynn Huston, Pete Winkles and Ray Rogers. The event was sponsored by the United Support Group.
Two administrative workers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Jennifer Edwards (left) and Jackie Kurzeja (right), testify to members of the Illinois State Senate, Aug. 11. This spring, both workers lost their jobs after many years because of UIC’s practice of replacing unionized civil service employees with non-union academic professionals – workers who are paid more but have one-year contracts. Hundreds of positions have been lost in recent years because of this. This is the key reason that workers at UIC, members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, have voted to strike on Aug. 23.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Network for to Fight for Economic Justice.
“We’ve decided to strike if we can’t get contracts.”
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following commentary by Joe Iosbaker, a leader of SEIU Local 73.
Minneapolis, MN – The outpouring of online anger at Target turned to the streets on Aug. 5, as more than 50 people protested outside of Target’s store on Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue in the heart of Minneapolis’s Latino community. Target is under fire for contributing $150,000 to MN Forward for television ads in support of Minnesota Republican governor candidate Tom Emmer, a man infamous for his extreme anti-immigrant, anti-gay and anti-minimum wage views.
Chicago, IL – As part of strike preparations at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), a leadership group from all three committees met at the famed DuSable Museum of African American history on July 23. Nine out of ten SEIU members at UIC are Black or Latino, and Local 73 had waged a decade long struggle in the 1990s to win pay equity with the employees at the University’s campus in Urbana, where the workforce is mostly white. UIC was compelled to raise workers’ salaries because of the fight that Local 73 waged, and because of a broad coalition that was built with Black and Latino forces on campus and in the community.
Chicago, IL – Between July 30 and August 2, 800 service and maintenance workers and 400 technical workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) will take strike votes. Bargaining for the two contracts has gone on since February and ground to a stop in the past several weeks.
Minneapolis, MN – On July 1 the Minnesota nurses’ union negotiating team reached a settlement with management, averting a strike. If they would have gone on strike, it would have been the largest nurses strike in U.S. history. The following is the text of a leaflet that Fight Back! prepared to distribute on the nurses’ picket lines during the strike. While the strike didn’t happen, we are sharing this leaflet because it lays out the importance of the nurses’ struggle in the context of the economic crisis.
Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota nurses returned to the bargaining table with Twin Cities Hospitals on June 29. Four days earlier, on June 25, the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) had filed a ten-day notice of intent to strike, setting the stage for an open-ended strike beginning July 6 at 14 area hospitals.
Minneapolis, MN – 12,000 nurses are set to walk the picket lines in an open-ended strike on July 6, at 14 Minnesota hospitals. On June 22, nurses voted overwhelmingly to endorse an open-ended strike over staffing ratios and pension benefits. The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) filed the legally required 10-day strike notice after day-long negotiations with the hospitals on June 24 proved futile.
Minneapolis, MN – Throughout the day on June 21, thousands of nurses streamed to the voting sites and overwhelmingly voted to authorize an open-ended strike against 14 Twin Cities hospitals. With 84% voting in support of authorizing a strike, the nurses have taken another historic step. On June 10, in the largest single strike in U.S. history, 12,000 nurses walked out for a one-day strike. After the hospitals refused to return to the bargaining table, the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) called for a second vote, this time to authorize a strike that could be open ended.
Minneapolis, MN – The Minnesota Nurses Association announced that a strike authorization vote will be held on June 21.
Minneapolis, MN – Today 25 staff, faculty, graduate and undergraduate held a press conference to speak out against the University of Minnesota administration’s continued attempts to push budget cuts onto students and the lowest paid staff at the U.
Chicago, IL – On June 11, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) won – actually swept, with wide margins – an election victory in the Chicago Teachers Union. With President Karen Lewis at the head of the slate, the reformers won every seat: all four officers, nine citywide offices, and 23 vice-presidencies for elementary and high schools. The old-guard leadership, of the United Progressive Caucus, with presidential candidate Marilyn Stewart, went down, with only 8300 votes against CORE’s 12,000.