Labor

PITTSBURGH — Mining is a basic industry, not given to fluff or mounds of paper. Despite the history-making call by West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin to halt coal production in the state in the wake of the Jan. 2, 2006, Sago Mine disaster, which took the lives of 12 miners, there are few changes in the mines to protect the men and women who work in them to help keep the lights on.

The race for the 23rd Congressional District Seat is as hot as a San Antonio jalapeño pepper. Labor-backed Democrat Ciro Rodriguez is pitted in a Dec. 12 runoff election against Bush Republican Henry Bonilla, who has close ties to disgraced former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

OAKLAND, Calif. — In a pre-Thanksgiving outpouring of solidarity, over 200 union and community activists gathered at Oakland International Airport Nov. 22 to demand union rights and fair treatment for workers who provide Southwest Airlines passengers with curbside check-in, baggage handling and other services.

TAR HEEL, Carolina del Norte — Casi mil obreros de la carnicería Smithfield Packing Co., cesaron sus labores el 16 de noviembre en protesta contra despidos ilegales. Fue una muestra de fuerza por obreros sin sindicato, muchos de estos indocumentados, y en un área rural en un estado con leyes antisindicales.

Hay dos cosas que son ciertas: el 7 de noviembre los votantes tenían la misión de votar contra la guerra en Irak y restaurar los derechos económicos y democráticos al pueblo que construyó este país – los trabajadores y sus sindicatos.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — In response to Eve Enseler’s feminist “Vagina Monologues,” a series of theatrical vignettes on the theme of contemporary women’s gender and social oppression, South Asian Sisters, a California-based group, developed “Yoni Ki Baat” (“Talks of the Vagina”).

As the holiday season approaches, 15,000 workers at Goodyear plants in 10 U.S. states and three Canadian cities, members of the United Steelworkers, walk the picket lines, as the union ramps up a national solidarity campaign.

HOUSTON — Nationwide pressure — everything from pending strikes elsewhere to a strong statement from a key U.S. senator — plus images of Houston’s mounted police beating and arresting unarmed janitors forced this city’s top cleaning firms to bargain and finally give striking janitors here a big win on Nov. 20.

Folks were still eating turkey sandwiches when the AFL-CIO issued its call for a Dec. 8-9 labor summit and march in Washington, D.C., to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, a top legislative priority for labor. Among the summit’s goals is training 250,000 “trusted messengers,” worksite-based labor activists, to force veto-proof enactment of EFCA.

TAR HEEL, N.C. — Close to 1,000 Smithfield Packing Co. workers walked off the job here Nov. 16 to protest illegal firings, and they won against big odds.