Labor

PITTSBURGH — “Como te sentiría si trabajara una vida completa por una gran compañía, te sacrificaste y ahora la compañía te dice, después de pagarle a los gerentes más altos millones en bonificaciones e invertir en países de bajos ingresos, que necesitan cerrar más plantas estadounidenses. Los trabajadores y jubilados de Goodyear dicen ¡Basta ya!”.

Julia Preston, a New York Times reporter writing from Washington, D.C., describes pears rotting on trees in Lake County, Calif., owing to a lack of farm workers to pick them. Growers tell her 70,000 of the state’s 450,000 farm workers are missing. America’s newspaper of record is being spun by agribusiness, which wants a new bracero program, and complains of a labor shortage to get it.

Today a mighty groundswell of senior fightback is underway. Its effect will be felt in the November elections. Retiree leader George Kourpias recently went so far as to say, “Retirees will determine who wins the 2006 elections.” Kourpias, president of ARA (Alliance for Retired Americans) added, “To us, Nov. 7 is not just Election Day, it’s Judgment Day.”

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The 14-month strike by 4,000 mechanics, cleaners and custodians at Northwest Airlines may end within 30 days if a majority of the workers, represented by the independent Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, ratify a tentative agreement.

Por una estrecha margen, la Junta Nacional de Relaciones del Trabajo (JNRT) decidió por un voto de 3 a 2 el 3 de octubre quitarle el derecho a sindicalizarse a millones de trabajadores. La decisión, por un voto de tres a dos, fue tomado el 3 de octubre.

ATHENS, Greece — The nationwide public school system here has been virtually shut down as preschool and primary school teachers enter the fourth week of their strike, high school teachers conduct two-day work stoppages, and junior and senior high school students begin coordinated takeovers of their schools.

PITTSBURGH — Laughter, cheers and applause filled the Steelworkers union headquarters here, Oct. 7, when Allegheny County Labor Council President Jack Shea introduced steelworkers who had forced Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to flee into a subway closet the day before.

With media reports about the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and report cards on “homeland security,” President Bush is seeking to win back the mantle of great protector of the American people that has served him so well in past elections.

CLEVELAND — “We’ve swung into high gear,” said Harriet Applegate, Cleveland area coordinator for Take Back Ohio, the effort by organized labor to oust key right-wing Republicans and elect pro-working-family Democratic candidates for governor, the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

Public Services International, a trade union federation of 640 public sector unions in 155 countries, including the U.S., demanded the release of Dr. Alberto Carvajal Salcedo, 70, a Colombian labor and human rights lawyer imprisoned recently