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WSWS : Workers Struggles Around the World
Workers Struggles: The Americas
15 January 2002
Latin America
Argentine strikes and protests
Hospitals
Provincial hospital workers in Buenos Aires began a
24-hour
strike on January 10 against the critical shortage of
medicine
and material they face in the wake of Argentina's
December
crisis. Seventy Buenos Aires hospitals on strike
maintained only
skeleton emergency crews.
Jorge Yabkowski, general secretary of the Buenos Aires
Association of Health Professionals (ASPSBS), described
the
situation as a "sanitary emergency that keeps getting
worse."
Striking workers are also demanding that unpaid wages
from
December be paid for the 12,000 provincial health
employees.
ASPSBS officials say that the medicine shortage, which
includes a critical shortage of insulin, is due to
price speculation
by laboratories. An emergency shipment of Brazilian
insulin took
place last week to partially alleviate the crisis.
The unemployed
On December 10 in the southern city of Neuquen, 80
unemployed youth confronted police in a protest to
demand jobs
at an industrial park. In Huincul, Neuquen province,
130 families
blocked a national highway and picketed to demand jobs.
In
Tucuman, in the Northwest, unemployed workers blocked
several highways, demanding 2,000 jobs.
Public employees
In Santiago del Estero, more than 400 municipal workers
burned tires and refuse in front of Senator Jose
Zavalia's home,
demanding back pay. The workers have protested for over
eight
weeks. Previously workers had disrupted the senator's
press
conference at a local hotel, forcing him to flee
through the roof.
A mountain of refuse was also burned on December 8 in
the
Buenos Aires suburb on Lanus by garbage collection
workers
who have not been paid in weeks. In Mar Del Plata,
2,000
workers marched through the streets of the resort town.
National
University employees also protested in La Plata over
December
salaries and year-end bonuses.
In San Juan, federal workers struck and blocked public
buildings
in the city to press demands for back pay.
Transit strike
In Rosario, workers on 27 bus lines have been on strike
since
December 8. The drivers rejected a management offer
that
would have brought their pay up to date in stages. They
are
refusing to return to work until all their wages are
paid in full.
In the northern city of Salta, striking bus drivers
mobilized and
rallied at City Hall, demanding three months unpaid
wages.
Salvadoran health workers join protests
El Salvador's Public Health Ministry employees
mobilized on
December 10 to demand the rehiring of 1,200 government
employees laid off by the current administration.
President
Francisco Flores insisted that the layoffs were
necessary to
make the government run more efficiently.
Union leaders claim that, while they do not oppose the
layoffs,
they consider them arbitrary, pointing out that union
officials
have been made the target of the firings. On January 1,
8,000
were sacked in one day. Previously another 6,000 had
been let
go. Flores claims that the government will save $32
million
through the layoffs.
Flores' plan now is to lay off workers who maintain the
Health
Ministry's vehicles. Their work will be contracted to
Star Motors,
a company owned by Roberto Murray Meza, leader of the
right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA),
according
to union sources.
By the end of January health workers plan to expand
their
protests to involve 25 hospitals. The Health Ministry
employs
18,000 workers in 30 hospitals.
Argentines protest new bank restrictions
On December 10, over 6,000 people rallied in front of
the
Government House in Buenos Aires, while many others
banged
pots and pans in neighborhood protests across this
sprawling
capital to protest harsh restrictions on access to
their savings
accounts. Protesters battled police and attacked banks
and
ATM machines.
Throughout Thursday night until dawn on Friday
protesters
denounced the Duhalde government's decision to freeze
dollar-denominated accounts for a year, and
peso-denominated
accounts for at least two more months. The policy seeks
to
protect the banks from another run. Banks lost 25
percent of
their deposits in 2001.
On Friday, banks were allowed to open for the first
time since a
peso devaluation was announced. The free market price
for
dollars immediately jumped to between 1.60 and 1.70
pesos to
the dollar. The official price is pegged at 1.40 for
exports and
essential imports.
Protests in Paraguay
Hundreds of Paraguayans rallied on December 8 in
Asuncion,
banging pots across from the capital. The protesters
demanded
relief from the economic crisis that is afflicting the
land-locked
nation. Many warned that supermarkets would be looted
if
emergency measures were not taken. The organizers
announced that beginning on December 13 they would
establish
soup kitchens in Asuncion to dramatize that many
Paraguayans
are going hungry.
Unemployment in Paraguay now stands at 20 percent.
Factories and commerce are paralyzed, inflation is
accelerating
and crime is increasing.
United States
New York bus workers carry out wildcat strike
About 1,500 bus drivers and mechanics who work for
three
private bus companies-Jamaica Buses, Triboro Coach,and
Queens Surface Corporation-spontaneously walked off the
job
on January 7. Workers in two other Queens bus
companies,
Green and Command, engaged in a sympathy slowdown.
The walkout caught the leadership of the Transport
Workers
Union (TWU) Local 100, which represents the workers, by
complete surprise. The union officials proceeded to do
everything in their power to end the wildcat strike. As
a result,
the job actions that began at 5 a.m. came to an end
before
noon.
TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint visited the
workers
in each company and told them to return to work.
Afterwards he
told the press, "We had a very difficult time getting
people back
to work. People's frustration is really riding high."
One driver said, "I feel like we didn't get anything
accomplished.
My take is, we should've stayed out until we got what
we
wanted."
The workers have been without a contract since December
31,
2000. Two of their major demands concern wages and job
security. The striking workers want pay parity with
their
counterparts in the public transportation system.
Toussaint has told the press that the union has given
up on
achieving parity because of the financial troubles of
the bus
companies and the city. The workers are also demanding
that
they have job security even if the city does not renew
the
franchise to the private companies for which they work.
Toussaint became president of the union a little more
than a
year ago when he ran at the head of the New Directions
slate
that overwhelming defeated the old entrenched and
corrupt
leadership in a local-wide election. New Directions'
victory was
based on the promise that they would develop a genuine
fighting union sensitive to the needs and feelings of
the
membership. In reality, in the service of the financial
powers that
they really represent, they have done everything in
their power to
keep workers under control.
Tyson employee admits to conspiracy to transport
undocumented workers
A former employee of Tyson Foods, the giant poultry
processor,
admitted to smuggling undocumented immigrants into the
company's US plants to be used as low-paid labor.
Amador
Anchondo-Rason, a native of Mexico, faces a possible
five-year
prison sentence, a $250,000 fine and the forfeiture of
profits
from the illegal venture.
Anchondo-Rascon testified that he transported foreign
workers
to Tyson plants in Shelbyville, Tennessee and provided
them
with fraudulent identification, including Social
Security cards.
Justice department officials would not say whether
Anchondo-Rascon would be used as a witness against six
Tyson executives who have also been charged by the
federal
government with conspiracy to transport undocumented
workers. Anchondo-Rascon's lawyer indicated his client
would
cooperate with US attorneys.
Machinists union sues over presidential emergency board
at United Airlines
A US federal judge refused to grant a temporary
restraining
order barring the decision by George W. Bush to appoint
a
presidential emergency board to preside over
negotiations
between United Airlines and its 15,000 mechanics. The
International Association of Machinists (IAM) had sued
to
overturn Bush's action that barred a Christmas holiday
strike at
United.
Judge James Robertson, however, will allow a hearing on
whether the Bush administration should have intervened
in the
dispute. The IAM's suit named the National Mediation
Board
and United as defendants and sought to bar Bush's
decision
that prevents the mechanics from striking for 60 days.
The judge
will allow the IAM to present its case that the board
made its
recommendation to the White House to simply avoid a
strike,
while not meeting the legal requirements governing
negotiations
in the airline industry.
Mechanics at United have been without a pay raise since
1994
and for the past two years the IAM has negotiated
without
success to reach a new agreement.
Delta Air Lines to finally grant pay raise to mechanics
Delta Air Lines will allow a 16 percent pay raise for
10,000
mechanics to be implemented in March. The pay hike,
originally
due to be awarded in October, was withdrawn in the wake
of the
September 11 disaster.
Pay for Delta mechanics, who are nonunion, had fallen
behind
pay at other major airlines as of last year when the
Aircraft
Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) launched a
campaign
to organize the workforce. AMFA charged that Delta
finally
conceded the pay raise to its mechanics to head off
their
unionization. According to Delta, the pay raise makes
its
mechanics the second highest paid in the industry,
behind those
at American Airlines.
President overturns unions at Justice Department
agencies
President Bush, using the excuse of heightened national
security following the September 11 tragedy, overturned
union
representation at several Justice Department agencies.
The
decision involves the department's Criminal Division
and 93 US
attorney's offices.
The White House argued labor contract work rules could
prevent
the implementation of new practices aimed at fighting
terrorism
and therefore threatened national security. Carl
Goldman,
executive director of Council 26 of the American
Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, declared, "It's
a cynical
attempt to use September 11 to weaken unions."
The move is based on a 1978 law governing unionization
of
federal workers. While allowing workers to join unions,
it also
permitted the president to ban unions in agencies that
focus on
"intelligence, counter-intelligence, investigative or
national
security work." Besides the Criminal Division and US
attorney's
offices, Bush's ban includes the National Drug
Intelligence
Center, Office of Intelligence Policy and Review and
the US
Interpol office.
Canada
Law extending workweek cited in Windsor strike
New labor legislation which came into effect last
September in
Ontario is behind the strike by workers at a food-oil
processing
plant in Windsor Ontario, according to their union.
Changes to
the provincial Employment Standards Act now allow for a
60-hour workweek as opposed to the historic standard of
48.
Ninety-two workers, members of the Canadian Auto
Workers
union (CAW), went on strike December 12 in opposition
to
demands by ADM Agri-Industries for a longer workweek.
The
changes are supposed to require workers to agree to the
extended hours, but that provision is proving to mean
little in
practice
The company operates 24 hours a day refining canola and
soya
oils and prior to the changes required employees to
work 48
hours a week. Minister of Labour Chris Stockwell, who
drafted
the new rules, has denied that the changes affect union
contracts, saying that unions have often agreed to
longer
workweeks than allowed by law.
Labatt workers locked out at Ontario plant
Over 300 workers at Labatt's Horton Street plant in
London,
Ontario walked off the job last week after they were
locked out.
The brewing company closed its doors the day after
workers
voted to reject a final contract offer. According to a
union
spokesman, the outstanding issue is the hiring of 80
part-time
workers at reduced wages and with no benefits.
The workers are represented by the Brewery General and
Professional Workers' Union and say they expect this
could be
a lengthy strike. They voted to reject the company's
final offer,
which had provisions for an 18 percent wage hike over
six years
and a $2,000 signing bonus, but with major concessions
on the
number and rights of part-time workers. The company has
been
stockpiling product in anticipation of a job action,
but its seven
other breweries in Canada have continued operation.
Students walk out in support of B.C. teachers
About 500 students in southern British Columbia walked
out of
classes to stage a protest in front of Premier Gordon
Campbell's office in Vancouver last Friday.
Teachers in the province have been involved in limited
job
actions against the provincial Liberals, which in
recent weeks
has meant the elimination of extracurricular activities
for
students. Most of the students at the demonstration
were from
one high school in the town of Kitsilano, but there
were also
walkouts in the nearby Okanagan Valley.
The Campbell government has provoked public opposition
with
deep cuts to budgets and services and last year
outlawed the
right to strike by teachers. The British Columbia
Teachers
Federation is asking for wage increases of 22.5 percent
in a
new three-year contract, but the province is offering
only 8
percent.
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