Support for P-9 builds nationally

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SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1986 Support for the P-9 strike is growing nationally. The following is a list of some of the cities where supporters of P-9 are active.

• Boston: A mass rally in support of P9 has been set for Sunday, March 9, at 2 p.m. at IBEW Local 103's Freeport Hall, 256 Freeport St., Dorchester, Mass. For more information contact the Greater Boston Hormel/Local P-9 Support Committee, Hotel Workers Local 26, 58 Berkeley St., Boston, Mass. 02116. Tel. 423-3463, 423-2914. Local 26 President Dominic Bozzotto has made the office and phones available for use by the P-9 Support Committee.

• Cleveland: An ad-hoc coalition of P-9 supporters have organized a public rally for two P-9 speakers to be held Friday, March 14, 7 p.m. at the UAW Local 217 hall, 4935 State Road, corner of State and Brookpark, next to Pick-N-Pay.

• New York City: Leaders of the Communication Workers of America and representatives from some 50 unions have established the Greater Metropolitan Area Labor Support Committee for Local P-9. Susan Hibert is the contact person and can be reached at (212) 741-1766.

• Twin-Cities: The Metro P-9 Support Committee [157 North Dale St., St. Paul, MN. Phone (612) 228-1225] has been rallying support, food, and money since the beginning of the strike. In addition, they have organized to help picket in Austin as well as to build mass protests in St. Paul against Gov. Perpich's use of the National Guard against P-9 pickets.

• Los Angeles: A committee including Shipbuilders Local 9 is working in support of P-9. Call (213) 835-0229 for infor -mation on activities.

• Cincinnati: Supporters in this city provide a model for what can be done to help P-9 strikers. From March 4 to March 13, a former president of P-9, Floyd Lenoch, will be addressing several union and campus meetings and will be a guest on call-in talk shows.

• Detroit: A rally will be held on March 1 at UAW Local 600's hall. The rally will feature Tom Turner, president of the Metro Detroit Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO; the president of UFCW Local 26; and a representative of P-9. The rally is broadly sponsored by the city's labor movement. every issue of The Unionist closely, are deliberately distorting the facts in what can only be described as a crude hatchet job on P-9. This is typical of the methods used throughout the "Fact Book."

The "disaffiliation" slander The "Fact Book" charges that the P-9 leadership "in the middle of a strike brought in a lawyer to address the membership on how to disaffiliate from the UFCW."

What are the real facts? President Guyette explained that they did invite lawyer David Tweedell, who is the former counsel for the UFCW international, to address a mem -bership meeting. He was invited not to discuss disaffiliation, but to explain to members their rights in honoring other locals' picket lines, despite the existence of no-strike language in their contract.

During the question period a P-9 member from the floor, perhaps provoked by the public attack on P-9 being made by Wynn and Anderson and an indication that Hormel planned to hold a decertification vote to set up a company union, asked a question concerning decertification and disaffiliation.

Guyette further rejects the charge that the P-9 leadership is secretly preparing to disaffiliate from the international by stating: "I, as president, have not accepted "Fact Book" states that the P-9 leadership "embraces a position of 100-percent victory or 100-percent defeat."

What are the actual facts? Since the time of the last vote P-9 negotiators have made seven separate compromise offers in an attempt to reach a settlement. For its part Hormel has just refused to budge, relying instead on strikebreakers, the courts, and the National Guard.

Possibly the most astounding and certainly the most ironic charge raised in the "Fact Book" is that P-9 has "waged an unceasing hate campaign" against the UFCW international. This is a classic case The P buggy. J strike si Cities, ro marshal. Main Sti stores an two con yelled, marchers The P facilities Ottumwe the audit arose fro workers : by P-9 al Throus enthusias who voi‹ company courts to Henry Employe told the c in this Pentagon to stand go to jail This

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landers nade by service s clearly and tried e. I have local epeating mpany, pressive 's," and ic way. e most country. ave they bership • of the , nightly which S. At all take the notions, to the , Gov. roted for oposal." -9 could te in its ged that ough a Itlet" to icrats of making the victim the criminal. In point of fact, the P-9 leadership has shown remarkable restraint in not publicly answering Wynn and Anderson in kind.

P-9 challenges concessions

What is necessary is not answering Wynn and Anderson in kind, but rather probing what lies behind their bizarre and destructive actions. William Wynn has been for some time a prominent proponent of concessions bargaining. Under his leadership the UFCW had forced millions of dollars in takeback contracts on locals throughout the country.

Wynn's real differences with P-9 center on P-9's decision not to accept further concessions and its determination to fight back.

Wynn and Anderson see this as the major danger they and the labor union face. This twisted view emerges in the opening pages of the "Fact Book," where they describe P-9 as "the enemy within."

In the "Fact Book" and elsewhere Wynn and Anderson make virtually no criticism of Hormel's strikebreaking policy. They make no protest of the use of the Minnesota National Guard to run scabs into the Hormel plant. They don't even protest the arrest of the P-9 leadership on the notorious union-busting charge of "criminal syndicalism." For Wynn and Anderson these are all subordinate questions to the main danger which is the "enemy within"—P-9's challenge to the policy of further concessions bargaining.

At a recent P-9 support rally of more than 4000 workers, the president of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, Henry Nichols, expressed a different view. He pointed out that the Hormel strike posed sharply the central question posed by every strike: "Which side Wives Hormel WOr shu Nichols concluded that it was necessary to come down with all your strength on the side of P-9. Wynn and Anderson, in their actions and in their twisted view of trade union realities, in effect come down on the side of Hormel, on the side of the bosses.

The question of the Hormel strike is a crucial question for the entire labor movement. The drive for continued takebacks by U.S. corporations will not abate. On the contrary, it can only headquarters accelerate. More and more union locals will choose, and will be forced to choose, the path of P-9: to reject the bankrupt policy of concessions bargaining and organize the As in any strike there can be no neutrals in the resulting struggles. Union officials will either have to choose the WynnAnderson course or the course followed by Henry Nichols. The resulting decisions will have a crucial impact on the future of the AFL-CIO.

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