Minneapolis, MN – “After our strike two years ago, we were ready to sit down and negotiate a good contract this year. But U of M management started off by undermining our negotiating committee and attacking me as local president because we have stood up for our members and for justice,” said Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME Local 3800 and co-chair of the Clerical and Health Care workers’ negotiating committee.

Management Overestimated Costs But Won't Lower Rates

Minneapolis, MN – “Workers at the University of Minnesota are being ripped off. The administration is stealing $6 million from us and we want it back,” said Kelly Ryan, an executive board member of AFSCME Local 3800, the clerical workers' union at the University of Minnesota. The unions are fighting to get back $6 million that the administration is overcharging workers for health care. They have come together in a new coalition called University Unions United.

Minnesota – As of January, 40,000 public sector workers in 129 local unions across Minnesota are now in one statewide union, AFSCME Council 5. Council 5 is a merger of three previously separate state union bureaucracies.

Minneapolis, MN – After a 45-day strike, Twin Cities transit workers reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, April 13. Despite vocal opposition in the media by some members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, the contract was ratified with 72% voting in favor. The final scorecard was clear – retiree medical benefits were eliminated and wage increases were only 1.5% over three years. While there were some gains from the employer’s final pre-strike offer, the union was able to get back only a portion of the millions of dollars the employer saved by not operating buses during the strike.

Chisholm, MN – With a contract set to expire July 31, the stage is set for a major confrontation between iron miners and the Cleveland Cliffs Inc. Cleveland Cliffs is demanding concessions, including take-aways of retirees’ health care. The company says that it will answer any strike by hiring scabs. Housing for strikebreakers has been placed at the Hibbing mine. Scabs are being trained in the town of Silver Bay.

Chicago, IL – There has been a high tide of conflict at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In January, two Saturdays were spent in hearings on campus before Black and Latino state legislators. Called by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, the hearings resulted in a 67-page report, released finally in late August. It details the many demands by the forces that are fighting the administration: union workers, oppressed nationality students, faculty and staff, and the residents of the surrounding communities, mostly Mexicano and African American.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 100 people gathered here May 1, May Day, for a celebration of International Workers’ Day. Speakers from key Minneapolis and St. Paul battles, including organizers of the clerical workers’ strike at the University of Minnesota and the 46-day transit workers’ strike, addressed the standing room-only crowd. The event was organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Minneapolis, MN – After months of negotiations with the Metropolitan Council, 2200 Twin Cities bus drivers, dispatchers, maintenance and clerical workers went on strike at 2:00 a.m., March 4. The transit workers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, last struck in 1995.

Minneapolis, MN – A growing number of organizations representing poor people and bus riders are demanding a restoration of bus services and an end to the 29-day-old transit strike. The demands fly in the face of Governor Tim Pawlenty's arguments that the strike is having no effect and that mass transit is not necessary.

Minneapolis, MN – At a packed fundraiser for striking bus drivers on Saturday, March 27, almost $15,000 in contributions from local unions and individuals was collected for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 strike fund. Participants also contributed three truckloads of food for the Local 1005 strikers' food bank.

St. Paul, MN – As the transit strike enters its third week, more than 1,300 transit workers and their supporters rallied on the steps of the state capitol building, March 18. The rally drew from a broad cross section of the labor movement, including postal workers, University of Minnesota clerical workers, Teamsters and some of the building and trades unions.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 700 strikers and their supporters demonstrated here, March 12, to demand justice for workers on strike against Metropolitan Transit. The action was organized jointly by AFSCME Local 3800, a local of University of Minnesota clerical workers who were on strike themselves just months ago, and transit workers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005.

Minneapolis, MN – After months of negotiations with the Metropolitan Council, 2200 Twin Cities bus drivers, dispatchers, maintenance and clerical workers went on strike at 2:00 a.m., March 4. The transit workers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, last struck in 1995.

The following is a speech delivered by Phyllis Walker, the President of AFSCME Local 3800, at a Dec. 10 forum organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization. The program focused on the lessons of the clerical workers’ strike at the University of Minnesota, and featured talks by strike leaders. Many in the audience had participated in strike. The speeches were followed by a wide-ranging discussion on the strike, the state of the labor movement and the need for socialism.

Madison, WI – The Colombia Action Network gathered here March 8 to develop the campaign to boycott Coca-Cola, in defense of Colombian trade unionists. Luis Adolfo Cardona, the Colombian trade unionist who escaped kidnapping, torture and murder by Coca-Cola’s death squads, gave a talk about the grave human rights situation for Colombia’s workers.

Fight Back! received the following report from the Colombia Action Network (Chicago). We urge our readers to support the international campaign to boycott Coca-Cola, and to back the effort to end U.S. support to Colombia's death squad government. An international day of protest against killer Coke will take place April 15.

Minneapolis, MN – “After striking for 15 days, we came away with a stronger, fighting union and we won some real gains for clerical workers at the University of Minnesota,” said Phyllis Walker, President of AFSCME Local 3800, the clerical workers union at the U of M. Clerical workers at the University of Minnesota went on strike from Oct. 21 to Nov. 4, 2003 against huge health care cuts, a proposed wage freeze and to win key job security provisions. This was the first strike at the University of Minnesota in 60 years.

On Monday, March 15, Coca-Cola union workers in Colombia began a hunger strike in front of the Coke bottling plants in Barrancabermeja, Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Medellín and Valledupar. Juan Carlos Galvis, vice-president of the union in Barrancabermeja, has said, “If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives.” William Mendoza, president of the union in Barrancabermeja, said, “This is the final battle and we're giving it all we've got. We need all supporters of human and labor rights in the U.S. to do the same!”

Minneapolis, MN – At the beginning of October, clerical workers at the University of Minnesota said no to a wage freeze and skyrocketing health care costs, and voted to go on strike. The clerical workers’ union, AFSCME Local 3800, is leading a fightback to stop the university administrators from balancing the budget on the backs of the lowest paid workers and students.

Madison, WI – “I watched as they put a bullet into his head,” said Luis Adolfo Cardona, a former worker at a Colombian Coca-Cola bottling plant. He was speaking of Isidro Segundo Gil, a lead union negotiator at the plant. “I knew I would be next,” Cardona continued. Later that day, Dec. 5, 1996, Cardona was kidnapped and was likely headed for the same fate as his friend until he escaped.