Labor support committee formed Greyhound shut down in San Francisco

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San Francisco, Dec.3 =- In their first powerful demonstration of labor solidarity, 2,000 militant Bay Area workers, organized by the recently formed Greyhound Strikers' Support Committee, braved 92 mph gale winds, heavy rain, power outages, and jammed bridges today to shut down the Greyhound depot.

Following a spirited rally addressed by leaders of the Bay Area union movement, contingents of Greyhound strikers, construction workers, teamsters, machinists, oilworkers, longshoremen and others marched on the San Francisco Greyhound terminal, overflowing the streets and entrances leading to the scab-run operation.

From that moment on, not a single Greyhound bus dared to enter or leave, despite the heavy presence of squads of mounted police and heavily armed cops. Regular mass mobilizations of ATU mem10 Socialist Action December 1983 bers and the labor movement are now for the coming weeks.

Plans for the day's action were set on November 30 at a meeting organized by the Greyhound Strikers' Support Committee, attended by more than 200 trade union leaders and activists in the San Francisco Bay Area.

James Herman, international president of the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), set the tone for the meeting when he said, "We in the trade i union movement have not been as tough as we should have been. When • we're prepared to brawl in the streets on an equal basis with these dirty bastards who have no idea of what it is to work is to work for a living, we ll win this strike."

Herman, like other speakers during the evening who recalled the bitter defeat of the PATOO strike, called on the more than 200 assembled trade unionists to plan to mobilize the power of the labor movement by "packing the streets with picket 1 ines nd Set Sue workers who say 'no way to uorun busting."

He reported that the ILWU has decided, if called upon by the Greyhound workers, to "shut down the port and march uptown to the picket lines."

Stan Smith, Secretary Treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, followed suit with a pledge to "shut down all union construction jobs in San Francisco and march with the ILW and Teamsters and AFL-CIO to the picket lines."

Greyhound strike leader Ed Kellert, vice president of the striking Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1225, reported on the company's last "offer," which was rejected nationally by a 96 percent vote of union ranks. Kellert said the company company take-away package, amounting to an overall cut of 23 percent in wages and benefits, would save the profit-hungry Greyhound Corporation $204.5 million over three years.

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