'State of emergency' fails to halt S. African revolt EMBARGÒ AFRICA- FREFDOM COMMIT TEL
1985 1985-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 1
unions—which has compelled the ruling white capitalist minority to take desperate counteraction. The last emergency declaration was declared 25 years ago after the massacre of 69 Blacks by police at Sharpeville.
The boycott is being enforced by organized groups of youns Black frees dom fighters who patrol the white business areas to discourage individual but we want to kill the money tree."
This lack of leadership only emboldens the corporations to increase their attacks against the unions. Thus, the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation announced that, based on 1984 revisions to federal bankruptcy laws, it would unilaterally reduce wages and benefits by up to 30 percent. The USWA estimates this will be a $6905 cut for every worker.
Last month the seventh-largest steel producer filed for bankruptcy and received permission from a federal court to void its contract with the USWA. The contract would have expired next year. In a booklet mailed to employees, management has emphasized that the revised work rules and wages are subject to even more cuts in the future at company discretion.
The immediate response of the 8200 workers in 19 plants in the Ohio-West Virginia-Pennsylvania region was to call for a strike. The walkout, which began (continued on page 5, in “Unionists call meeting to plan concessions fight”)