Hormel strikers inspire widespread labor support

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people striking at be replaced than to lose my dignity by Speakers at San Francisco P-9 support rally singing "Solidarity Forever." Behind lectern (proceeding left from Jim Guyette): Anamarie France, head of S.F. TWA flight attendants; Esperanza Torres, cannery workers; and Bill Daly, rally chair and president of Painters Local 4.

SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1986 5 SAN FRANCISCO-"All labor must unite behind the P-9 strikers and show that in this country we cannot stand by and watch the National Guard negotiate our labor contracts with guns and bayonets."

With these words, Bill Daly, secretarytreasurer of Painters District Council 8, kicked off a rally of over 600 trade unionists, community activists, and others who came to hear Jim Guyette, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local P-9.

The rally, sponsored by District Council 8 and Local 4 of the Painters Union, was organized around two themes: "National Guard Out of Austin, Minn." and "Support P-9's Fight Against Concessions."

This display of solidarity by a wing of the Bay Area labor movement occured in spite of pressure brought to bear by UFCW International President William Wynn to boycott the event.

"We don't care what the local, Inter -national union, or AFL-CIO's politics are," stated Stan Smith, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. "When a governor orders the National Guard to come in to break a strike," Smith said, "then it is time for all workers, regardless of affiliation, to come to the support of those strikers."

One of the warmest welcomes at the rally was reserved for Anamarie France, head of the striking TWA flight attendants in San Francisco. "We are all in this together," she STo FERNEND said, "and we back the Hormel 100 percent!"

After informing the audience of the issues in the TWA strike, France explained that "85 percent of our membership are women, and 45 percent of them are single women supporting households. Like the Hormel strikers, the concession demands we face mean we won't be able to support our families—so we are drawing the line."

John Moran, business agent for District 115 of the International Association of Machinists, admonished those labor leaders who were absent from the rally for "forgetting where they came from." Referring to the recent meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Bal Harbor, Fla., which refused to support P-9, Moran said, "Unions must stand up and • support each other, otherwise every union in the United States will go under—because credit cards and better banking will not make a better union."

Jim Guyette was the next speaker [see excerpts of his speech in this section]. But before Guyette spoke, he gave the microphone to two workers from the Ottumwa, Iowa, and Fremont, Neb., Hormel plants who were fired for their refusal to cross P-9 picketlines. [See excerpts from speech by Ottumwa worker in this section.] Frank Vit, from Local 22 in Fremont, Neb., was one of the 48 fired Fremont workers. "I was raised from my youth to believe a picketline is a picketline and you do not cross it!" he told the rally. "I'd rather PAINTERS be replaced than to lose crossing a union picket."

A fund raising pitch by Bill Daly, who chaired the rally, raised over $2000. After this, telegrams of solidarity from actor Ed Asner and United Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez were read.

Karen Schieve, an executive board member of UFCW Retail Clerks Local 1100, described her 10 days on the picketline in Austin. "Something different is happening there," she said. "I saw workers in 30-degree-below-zero weather on the picketline everyday. In daily meetings at the union hall, 500 to 600 Hormel workers would meet to discuss how to fight back."

Schieve outlined the lessons being learned and taught by P-9 members: "The Austin workers are showing all of labor the bankruptcy of the concessions policy and why it can't work. The more we give back to the company, the more they want to take."

Schieve concluded, "It is time for everyone to be on the side of the workers willing to fight. The TWA flight attendants and the Hormel workers, if we help them, can turn the labor movement around."

Esperanza Torres, a member of Teamsters Local 912 in Watsonville, Calif., could easily sympathize with the P-9 strikers. The Watsonville cannery workers have been on strike for over six months against concession demands. Like the Hormel workers, they too have been faced with court injunctions, police attacks on their picketlines, and lack of support from the International union.

"Our struggle is the same as yours," Torres told the Hormel workers who were at the rally. "Like you, our fight is not just against concessions, but for justice."

Ignacio De La Fuente, business manager of Molders Union Local 164, stated his case for the need to fight back. "It's very hard to win strikes these days," he said. "But it's better to fight even when you know you're going to lose than it is to roll over and play dead."

The final speaker was Connie Peoples, president of the Oakland Education The following are excerpts from Mike "Bear" Martsching's statement to the San Francisco P-9 support rally. Martsching is a fired Hormel worker from Ottumwa, lowa.

There are 505 of us in Ottumwa, lowa, that were fired for honoring a legal, authorized picket line. What do we do? Do we roll over and play dead and say, 'Hey, we gotta cross that picket line for our jobs?' That's bull!

If we have to crawl on our bellies, we don't have jobs, we don't have our dignity. That's what this is all about-having our dignity and pride. I was brought up in a union household. My father fought for what I've got. And I believe it's my duty to fight for the next generation. We've got to.

I really feel that it is an honor to be part of this struggle, and it is a struggle. It's a very important struggle. It's for me. It's for you. It's for our kids. It's for your grandkids. And—I've never said this before-I want to thank Local P-9 for starting this and having enough guts to stand up for themselves.

Detroit UAW packed for P.9 DETROIT-On March 1, close to 600 people packed the hall of United Auto Workers Local 600 to support Local P-9. Unionists attended from throughout the Detroit area, including two busloads of workers from Toledo, Ohio, headed by

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"We won't crawl on our bellies'