500 cheer Jay strikers at Boston labor rally
1988 1988-03Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 5 →
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SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1988 5 BOSTON-On Feb. 19 a caravan of 25 striking paperworkers from Jay, Maine, arrived in Boston for a rally hosted by Local 103 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). They were greeted by 500 cheering supporters from Boston-area unions.
As the United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU), Local 14, strike against the International Paper Company enters its eighth month, the strikers have embarked on a major campaign to publicize their struggle against I.P. and to raise much-needed funds. In the past month alone, there have been 11 rallies held all over Massachusetts.
The rally, held in the IBEW's Freeport Hall, was co-chaired by Rand Wilson, New England coordinator of the UPIU Corporate Campaign, and Robert Haines, secretarytreasurer of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. A number of labor officials addressed the gathering.
The highpoint of the rally came when the caravan of strikers entered the hall and the audience responded by erupting with a chant, "Scabs out, union in!"
Three members of the caravan described the situation in Jay. Armand Metivier told of several chlorine-dioxide leaks which have recently occurred at the plant while it was being operated by company management and scab workers.
Chlorine dioxide is twice as toxic as the gas that leaked out of a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India-killing thousands.
Speaking for the strikers and other residents of Jay, Metivier declared, "We will not pay for the price of mismanagement, let them [IP] pay for it."
Shirley Couture introduced herself by saying, "I'm a mother, a union person, and the wife of a union person." The audience cheered when she added, "and I'm damn proud of it."
Striking paperworker Sandra Robinson reminded the audience that a struggle by any single union is also a struggle for the labor movement as a whole when she said, "I would like to say to you, don't give in, don't let them take from your children, don't let them take from your family."
Alluding to the gas leaks, Robinson said, "They are not going to kill our children and our children's children." Referring to the chain-link and barbed-wire barricade which surrounds the Jay papermill, she ended by