Rail workers' strike inspires far-reaching labor solidarity

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Nuclear power/weapons, BOSTON-"Workers Dignity vS. Corporate greed-Labor March Against Union Busting" was the theme of a May 18 march here by 1000 striking railroad workers, utility workers, flight attendants, nurses, garment workers, and their supporters.

Railroad workers initiated the march in defense of striking Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees (BMWE) on the Maine Central Railroad. The track workers went on strike March 3, when negotiations broke down with the powerful Guilford Transportation Industries, owned by Timothy Mellon.

Mellon also owns the Boston & Maine Mark Schneider is a member of Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks (BRAC) Local 1089. and the Delaware & Hudson railroads. His total corporate holdings are in the $30 billion range, and he is personally one of the richest men in the country.

Rail unionists charge that Mellon is putting phase one of a major union-busting scheme into operation. A few years ago he commissioned a "White Paper," which advised ridding his properties of unions by busting the smallest local on the most isolated carrier. Then the plan was to extend that process throughout his system.

Although the Maine Central is a profitable company, Mellon's negotiators demanded a 20-percent wage reduction and that employees pay 50 percent of their health plan. The workforce had been reduced from 300 to 100 workers, and work had been contracted out to non-union outfits.

The laid-off workers, some with 10 to 20 years seniority, were offered no severance (continued on page 6, in “Boston rally cheers rail workers' strike”) Siele worldwide, including 100 in the United States. The International Atomic Energy Agency calculates that the world now relies on nuclear power for about one-sixth of its energy.

Here in the United States, the Reagan administration, Congress, and the media all initially joined in a loud chorus denouncing the Soviet handling of the disaster, while recklessly circulating accounts of thousands killed and mass graves. The initial lack of details from Soviet officials only encour -aged these claims.

The anti-Soviet hysteria, however, rather quickly lost some of its edge. Two reasons explain this. First, reports of 2000 to 3000 GI CANT killed, a complete meltdown, and a disaster at a second reactor were all proven to be wild fabrications.

Second, despite smug assurances that U.S. plants are safer, making too much of the Chernobyl disaster strikes a little too close to home for the U.S. nuclear industry and its allies.

SENIORITY David Walsh The Christian Science Monitor, for example, reports that the French government claimed no large increase in radiation from Chernobyl when, in fact, it was aware that radiation levels up to 400 (continued on page 13, in “Best nuclear survival tactic? Run for office”)

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Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editor: MICHAEL SCHREIBER AcTioN