Boston rally cheers rail workers' strike

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SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1986 BOSTON-Chanting "no more union-busting," and "they say giveback, we say fightback," 1000 union members and their families paraded through downtown Boston to the Boston Common on May 18.

The "Labor March to Stop Union-busting" was sponsored by the New England Association of Railway Crafts and was called in response to the flagrant union-busting campaign being carried out by Guilford Transportation Industries on the three railroads it owns: the Maine Central, the Boston & Maine, and the Delaware & Hudson.

Although the focus of the rally was the strike by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE) against the Portland Terminal Co. and the Maine Central, other unions experiencing similar attacks in other industries also participated.

Fran O'Donnell, representing the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants on strike against TWA, was greeted with loud applause. She asked those assembled for their continued support.

Nancy Flynn, of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, thanked the greater Art LeClair is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 791 Protective Committee.

Rail (continued from page 1: “Rail workers' strike inspires far-reaching labor solidarity”) pay or compensation. Also, Mellon refused to call back furloughed employees according to seniority.

When the track workers struck, workers from the shop and operating craft honored the picket line. Mellon responded by importing supervisors from his other carriers. The workers countered by picketing the Boston & Maine and the Delaware & Hudson, severely limiting freight movement. Mellon then used commuter lines north of Boston to shield freight movements. The workers reluctantly answered by closing down commuter lines, forcing 12,000 rail commuters onto buses.

Mellon recruits scabs

After six weeks of the strike, Mellon sent a letter in late April to all individual workers, threatening to replace them permanently with scabs. He had been trying to recruit scabs with large newspaper ads.

This tactic was in clear violation of the Railway Labor Act, and Boston & Maine workers, who previously had been honoring other workers' picket lines, struck on their own for one day, shutting down all commuter rail service. But a federal judge ordered them back to work within 24 hours.

Throughout this period, the Maine track workers were pursuing their fight in the streets, on the picket lines, and in the courts. They organized rallies of 200 each Davk Boston labor community for its support in the nurses' strike against Carney Hospital (owned and operated by the archdiocese of Boston).

Bill Flaherty, president of Utility Workers Union of America Local 387, took the opportunity to explain the facts in his local's strike against Boston Edison Co. Edison supplies electricity to over 600,000 customers in eastern Massachusetts and operates the Pilgrim's Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth.

A representative of the garment workers at the P & L Co. addressed the rally in Chinese. P & L was a garment factory that closed its doors on Dec. 6, 1985. Its workforce was primarily women of Chinese, Italian, and Hispanic descent. Since the plant was shut down, these hardworking people have been virtually ignored by state agencies, who were supposed to establish training programs as well as offer other forms of assistance to help them find new jobs.

Fifty United Auto Workers union members, who have been on strike for four months against the Colt Firearms Corp., traveled for two-and-a-half hours from Hartford, Conn., to express their solidarity with "everyone on strike and everybody in the organized labor family." Their own strike has lasted over four months.

Perhaps the most electric moment came when Micky Neader, chief steward of the in Waterville, Maine, and Deerfield, Mass., gathering the support of unions in these areas. They sent their members to freightyards as far away as Virginia, closing down whole operations with two or three pickets. The pickets often held a solitary post day and night.

Union representatives also debated a Mellon public-relations spokesman on the radio for a few hours, until the man bolted the station. BMWE attorneys argued that other non-Guilford railroads had offered the Maine Central "mutual aid," and were thus subject to be picketed as well.

But a federal judge ruled in the union's favor on this issue. Then the situation shifted dramatically twice in 24 hours. BMWE picketers headed for Conrail freight -yards and began shutting down a major International Union of Marine Ship Building Workers of America (IUMSWA) Local 6, from Bath, Maine, read a state -ment of solidarity with the BMWE strikers from Local P-9 in Austin, Minn.

As a railroad worker for the last 14 years, this reporter was struck by the elation coming from the participants. Several speakers told everyone to "look around and see who's here." This was a historic moment in the Boston labor movement.

also able to reach out to other unions who are up against it now-the flight attendants at TWA, the nurses at Carney Hospital, the garment workers at P & L."

"I think it was a real learning experience, too, for the mostly male railroad people to meet women workers who are breadwinners fighting equally tough battles," Walsh went on to say. "This whole process still has a long way to go. It's still a narrow layer of union activists leading the way."

Some workers felt that Reagan's back-to-work order was a victory for the strike. "Not so," says Walsh. "In fact, it is a dagger pointed at the heart of the strike. Mellon will use the extra time to sell off Central Labor Council For the first time, representatives and members of all 14 railroad crafts and five different carriers came together in a show of solidarity with every union now under attack by the employers.

John Davidson, general chairman of the BMWE on the struck railroads, summed it up when he said, "I look at this turnout and I see all the different unions and I've got to tell you, this is the happiest and proudest day of my life.

his short lines, dump smaller customers, and consolidate his position. It's true that Mellon thinks he has the upper hand and is willing to wait 'forever' to get a favorable settlement."

"It's also true that Reagan did not issue the back-to-work order until Conrail was shut down, and that fact shows the power of the labor movement. But we'll never win the strike by relying on courts or executive orders, " Walsh concluded. "As long as we rely strictly on the Railway Labor Act and the courts, our hands we'll be tied and our cause we'll be lost. A settlement favorable to labor will be won only by mobilizing the ranks on the picket line."

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COIL T STOP UNUNG David Walsh

STOP SOLiDARTY Central Labor Council