Buddy. York Don Savage

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SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1988 and Lock Haven, Penn. James Neal of Mobile summed up what seems to be the sentiment of UPIU members everywhere when he said, 'It's going to be all of us or none of us. That's the way it's going to be."

Rally speakers had to wait their turn while a band of Local 14 musicians led the audience in singing popular labor songs ("Solidarity Forever") and tunes specially Roger Sheppard of I.B.E.W. Local 103 in Boston took the podium at the April 30 rally to tell the Jay strikers about site collections members of Boston building trades unions had undertaken on their behalf.

Sheppard received a standing ovation when he told the audience that one collection on one day had netted $1500 to support the strikers and their families. "I have it right here in my pocket," he said.

Sheppard went on to suggest that Local 14 call for a day of solidarity throughout the New England area:

"Why not have a day for Jay in May.

If just the building trades in Boston people to cross the picket line."

In what it considered a gesture of good faith, the union had agreed to go along with the company's demand, only to be offered a ludicrous contract proposal.

The rally followed hard upon the heels of the rejection of the proposal. The negotiations fell apart once the new contract's damaging terms became known Alexei Folaer/Socialist Actiol took collections on that day, we could raise thousands of dollars. Think of what could be raised if all the unions throughout Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire participated."

Commenting on the state of the strike, Sheppard continued: "The theme here has been "Scabs out, Union in." But there's a problem—the scabs are in and the union is out."

Sheppard received a second standing ovation in the space of five minutes when he said: "To win you've got to get the scabs out, and you won't be alone. If you need our help, Boston labor will be there. We'll stand shoulder to shoulder with you to win this fight!"

Alexe Folger/Social'st Viction to union members.

Gary McGrane described the company's proposal. "We felt it was a regression in regards to the previous proposal," he said. "The previous proposal eliminated 500 jobs, and this latest proposal would only allow 60 striking members back to work." The proposal would also have put 60 currently striking members on a preferred hiring list each year.

The strike was originally called to protest a contract which eliminated 500 jobs, reduced pay levels by 13 percent, eliminated premium pay for holidays and Sundays, and did away with the Christmas shut-down. Upper management had also managed to include a 38-percent pay raise for themselves in the same contract proposal!

Rogers' Corporate Campaign Ray Rogers, of Corporate Campaign, Inc., updated the audience on some of the recent activities of the campaign and mentioned some of the companies which are being targeted because they have interlocking board memberships with I.P. These include Casco Northern, AnheuserBusch, Coca-Cola, Bank of Boston, and Avon.

Rogers announced that because of a recent Supreme Court action striking down some anti-union laws, it is now possible to ask people directly to boycott companies such as these. He pledged that a formal boycott notice would be forthcoming.

At a solidarity rally held in Boston last February, Rogers had promoted the publicrelations tactics of the Corporate Campaign and even went so far as to say, "You don't win strikes on the picket line."

It now seems that the pressure of events, the longevity of the strike, and the militancy of the union membership have pushed Rogers to at least give some lip to other high-school students in Maine and the New England area.

Fight with policy-makers

Those who came here to show their support for the Jay paperworkers are well aware that this fight is only one of the many struggles facing working people today. They also know that their battle is not only with individual companies, but with the corporate power-brokers as a whole and the government, which acts in their interests.

Kelly Austin, a union activist at the Bath Iron Works, gave a broad assessment of the situation facing unionists, saying: "There is a trend of union-busting right across this country."

Gary McGrane summed up the position of his fellow strikers when he told Socialist Action: "Our fight is with the national policy-makers in this country."

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STOP ATTACKS ON WOMEN Shop/socialist Action Irenca stretchers, taking over four hours. Meanwhile, pro-choice counter-demonstrators were divided into small groups and kept behind barricades.

Although a court injunction forbidding a blockade was in effect on Day Two, the bias on the part of the police became even more pronounced. The handful of pro-choice activists, who reached the clinic doors before the "Rescuers," were forcibly removed by cops.

On the final two days, "Rescuers" continued their blockade despite a strengthened court order imposing fines that could exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. The weekly total of arrests was 1646.

fanatical minority Supporters of reproductive rights must expose as a fraud the "peaceful" image claimed by the anti-abortionists. These are the same forces who have been bombing clinics and harassing pregnant women.

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SCABS UNION Alexei Folger/Socialist Action