All I want Christmas
1991 1991-12Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 5 →
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SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 1991 5 Ebeneezer Scrooge came to Midway Airlines last month. On Nov. 14, with no warning, Midway's 4300 employees were told to clean out their lockers because the company was shutting down.
Midway shifted the blame to Northwest Airlines, which had reneged on a scheme to buy them out. Court action is threatened.
A legal settlement might provide a golden parachute for the Midway bosses. But it will do little to help the workers. They'lI have to search hard to find work in the recession-shocked airline industry. And most of them have already lost their health insurance.
"I'm a single parent with a 13-yearold boy." flight attendant Judy Carlson told reporters as she arrived at Chicago's Midway Airport on the airline's last flight from Los Angeles. "You tell him why be can't get braces for a Christmas present this year."
On Nov. 15, about 100 Midway workers carried signs as they gathered outside the airport terminal. One sign read; "All 1 want for Christmas is a job."_ M.S. paid for? Some Democrats have suggested financing it by raising taxes on the wealthy. But such a step is "impractical," retorts Senate Finance Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas). Instead, he proposes a measly 5 percent cut in the $240 billion military budget.
Much more must be done. The entire military budget should be abolished in order to fulfill our social needs; a massive public works project is needed to rebuild our towns and cities, and give people jobs at union wages.
To solve unemployment, the workweek should be cut from 40 to 30 hours with no cut in pay.
When employers want to close plants their books should be open to inspection Fourth International In Memoriam Ann Snipper and Henry Snipper, two long-standing fighters for socialism, recently passed away. Ann Snipper died of cancer on Oct. 3 in Los Angeles. Her brother, Henry, died on Oct. 25 in Oakland, Calif. Next month's Socialist Action will contain tributes to these two lifetime fighters.
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