Conference planned against concessions
1985Carrie Hewitt 1985-09Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 10 →
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JUT WE ID TORS DEMANI TODC NO 10 SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 1985 OBS LOCAL What's going to save the unions is a general political thrust that labor is a part of. The revitalization of the tradeunion movement and the question of independent politics are two sides of the same coin. I don't see one happening without the other.
You're not going to rebuild the tradeunion movement in a shop-by-shop, local-by-local struggle. We have to develop an overall strategy for a class of DRKER GARY, Ind.—Plans for building National Conference Against Conce NOW THIS IS AN LINE NO LAYOFFS sions to be held this fall in the Midwest got underway as nearly 175 trade unionists from across the country gathered here for an organizing meeting on Aug. 10.
Participants in the planning meeting voted overwhelmingly to authorize an interim steering committee to select a specific date and place for the national conference. Eleven regional representatives were elected to sit on the steering committee.
The purpose of the national conference will be to bring together trade unionists in each industry and from each region of the country to discuss the growing battle against concessions and to take steps to end the destructive pattern of leaving local unions on their own to fight against concessions.
Encouraged by the large turnout at the planning meeting, Tonny Algood, executive secretary of Local 18, Shipbuilders union, and one of the initial supporters of the national conference, opened the meeting by stating that "in order to be successful, we have to grab together...the fight against concessions."
The critical need for opening a concrete discussion on how the labor movement can effectively organize to fight concessions was further underscored in keynote speeches by representatives from unions currently involved in anticoncessions struggles against the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation and against the Hormel Company in Austin, Minn.
At the Gary planning meeting, union officials including David Arian, president of Local 13, International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union; Darrell Becker, president of Local 61, Shipbuilders union, Pete Kelly, president of Local 160, United Auto Workers union; and Tom Laney, president of Local 879, United Auto Workers union, joined in supporting the call for the national conference.
In the coming weeks, the interim steering committee elected at the planning meeting will be putting together a specific agenda for the conference and will announce plans for fundraising.
Contributions and requests for further information should be sent to the National Rank-and-File Against Concessions, c/o UAW #879, 2191 Ford Parkway, St. Paul, MN 55116.
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ANTI-CONCESSIONS FIGHT
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UNION OWER NO S JOBS JOBS
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