Black workers organize for justice in the South SKILLEA

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BY COMPANY &KLED AND STATE POLIC NEVER AÑAL ORGANIZE THE SOUT For forums, classes and other activities, contact the Socialist Action

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HR In late February, Ina Mae Best soured the San Francisco Bay Area. Best's message was simple: "Organize the South." She and other Black women workers on the tour were well received. Her home state of North Carolina is the least organized in the country, with only 6 percent of the nonagricultural workforce in unions. Other Southern states aren't much better.

Best's story is typical of many union activists in the South. She had worked for 18 years at the Goldex Textile Factory in Goldsboro, N.C. She was fired after she led a drive to unionize the factory. The organizing drive was supported by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU).

Best, however, did not give up her organizing efforts. She became more determined to get out the union message. Her own experience at Goldex is not atypical of lowly-paid workers.

"After working at Goldex for 8 years," she explains, "I know plaint about my work, nor have I ever been told that I was dnino a poor job. For six years, 1 never took a vacation. For over 10 years, 1 never missed a day of work.

And in 18 years, 1 was never late for work. "There was never any problem until lam T fought for the union. I stood for the union because I believe we need a union at Goldex. I fought for the union because we were not treated like human beings. We were not treated with respect and dignity. And our wages and benefits were not enough to care for our families.

"Even though we did not vote the union in, it was our right to fight for it. I was fired because of my belief in making things better for all. We need to stand together and fight back for our dignity and our rights."

The Imperial fire Also touring with Best, was Conester Williams, a victim of the Sept. 3, 1991, fire tragedy at the Imperial Food Processing Plant in Hamlet, N.C. Twenty-five workers died, and 55 more were injured. Eighteen of the 25 were women.

Williams described how the plant operated and how the workers were treated. She herself had worked in New York City and human beings," she said.

Imperial's owner, Emmett Roe, paid an average wage of $5.40 an hour. Like many other employers, he had moved his plant from Pennsylvania to Hamlet seeking cheaper labor costs and less state regulations. The plant was non-union.

Because of the national outrage arising from the deaths caused by obvious greed, three officials of the Imperial plant were indicted March 9 for involuntary manslaughter charges. The three include Imperial owner Roe and his son, the plant's director of operations.

Williams urged workers in the Bay Area to support organizing the South as a way to defend themselves. On May 2, a national march on Hamlet is scheduled.

Organizing Schlage Lock A third speaker on tour came from a San Francisco-based company, Schlage Lock. Joan Sharpe described the fightback of workers at Schlage's Rocky Mount, N.C., plant. Schlage decided in 1988 to move that facility to Mexico for lower wages.

Interestingly, in 1972 Schlage shutdown much of its San Francisco plant to go to North Carolina for the same reasons.

(I briefly worked at Schlage in San Francisco in 1988, still open because the company retained some of the most skilled jobs there.)

After a concerted campaign by the non-union workers there, Sharpe explained, they were able to force the company's owners to grant some severance pay and agreed to take steps to clean up contamination to the community caused by the plant. The organizing of the workers with community support was primarily done with the help of the Black Workers For Justice (B WFJ) organ- ization. Sharpe strongly urged solidarity with the organizing efforts of workers in the South, and for the BWFJ.

Unfortunately, the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions are doing very little to organize workers in the Southor in the North, East, or West. It's why organizations like the BWFJ exist-and others may emerge. Not as dual unions or competitors to the established unions. But as pressure points, particularly for the most oppressed and exploited sections of the working class, such as Black women workers.

The BWFJ is an important but relatively new organization. It was formed in 1981 and is primarily based in North Carolina. Ajamu Dillahunt, a leader of the BWFJ, explained that the purpose of the BWFJ is to help organize Black (and white workers) in North Carolina and the South to fight from within their workplaces against the daily injustices they suffer.

The BWFJ's basic strategy is to build workers' committees to fight around immediate issues, while training and preparing these committees with community support to win unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO to come in and sign up the non-union employees.

Dillahunt, who is also president of the American Postal Cleveland P.O. Box 6151 Cleveland, OH 44101 (216) 429-2167 Dotrolt P.O. Box 1613 Detroit, MI 48231 branch in your area! Kansas City P.O. Box 32543 Westport Station, Kansas City, MO 6411 For information aboul other areas, contact the national office of Socialist Action at (415) 821-0458.

By Malik Miah Workers Union local in Raleigh, N.C., also explained that BWFJ teaches that only by organizing the South can the labor movement nationwide protects its wages and benefits.

Because most of the souther states are "right to work" (for less) states, average wages are 50 percent less than in the North.

This impacts on what unionized workers can demand in the North, since employers will threaten to go to the non-union states or abroad. To fight "runaway shops," he explained, labor must have a policy of solidarity and union organizing, particularly among poor women.

The BWFJ is a modest organization. It exists because Black workers in the South face racism and want unions.

It deserves the support of the unions and all working people. Significantly, its main activists are Black women, who tend to receive the lowest wages and most harassment by the employers. They are militant and will represent an important component of the future leadership of both a fighting Black and labor movement.

Black Workers For Justice publishes a monthly newspaper, Justice Speaks. For more information on the BWFJ and subscriptions to Justice Speaks write to: BWFJ Rocky Mount Ctr., 216 E. Atlanta Ave., P.O. Box 1339, Rocky Mount, NC 27802. Telephone: (919) 9778162. source for news about socialchange movements. I appreciate your coverage of the pro-choice and labor movements. I am planning on "marching for choice" in Washington, D.C., on April 5.

One area where I would like to see more coverage is the environmental movement. You should know (being out in San Francisco) about how angry the bosses have become at environmentalists. Keep up the good work. Long live socialism!

John Coviello Summit, N.J.

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