Pittsburgh Teamsters show the way in newspaper strike

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Over 7000 strikers and union supporters march on the Pittsburgh Press Mexican border to the border of Ventura strike for union recognition Lopez, a drywaller from Anaheim.

skilled workers install 100-pound boards obtained court orders restricting picketing ly set at $50,000, but was later dropped decade ago. Earnings are about $250-$300 This has set the stage for increasingly protests against the outrageous charges for a 60-hour work week, with no bene- direct actions on the job sites. These of whom are Mexican immigrants-have actions have hit the home building indus- ment campaign of the police against the been in this industry for 15 to 20 years. try hard. Many of the building projects strikers' right to protect their jobs and *There is no way we can support our are behind schedule due to the flying win union recognition has been the interfamilies on $250 a week with no bene- picketlines of the striking drywall work- vention of the Immigration and industry was making tons of money, they expressed sympathy for the strikers' on July 2, the INS screened their names demands: "I understand why these guys and flagged 88 of them as undocumented Said another striker, "I received a check are out on strike. I'm even sympathetic workers who will be deported to Mexico for $258. Other men helped me. They to a certain extent. Wages aren't what after their trials. expect us to split our checks. They take they should be. Even though we went advantage of us because we don't speak along with it, it's the builders who've tive secretary of the Building and The drywall workers' demands include The Sheriff's Department, working County, could see the hypocrisy of the union recognition, company-paid health hand in glove with the employers, has INS move. "It's ridiculous that Immigrainsurance benefits, an increase in pay on assigned a lieutenant, a sergeant, and six tion sat back for years and let the piece work from the current five cents to deputies to follow strikers full time from development community work these peoOn July 2, 149 strikers were arrested going to act as strikebreakers for that The Building Industries Association of after they stormed a Mission Viejo build- same community. I wonder, if these peoSouthern California, which represents ing site. They were charged with ple tur out to be illegal immigrants, if more than 600 builders and 1400 sub-spe- attempted kidnapping (six scabs were Immigration is going to ask them who's cialty contractors, refuses to recognize the forced off the job), theft of tools, and been employing them illegally." strikers' demands and is proceeding on trespassing. It was the largest mass projects with replacement workers. The "felony" arrest in Orange County history. undaunted. When 149 of the strikers were building employers went to court and Bail for the arrested strikers was original- arrested, their wives and children went to SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1992 7 On July 26-27, an inspiring mobilization of thousands of pickets stopped strikebreaking owners of Pittsburgh's only two daily newspapers dead in their tracks. Over 600 striking members of Teamster Local 211, allied with 4500 newsboys and newsgirls, rallied to stop deliveries of the Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette.

The Pittsburgh Press Co., owner of both papers, had recruited scabs from as far away as Massachusetts, and had declared its intention to publish and distribute the two dailies in the face of the strike.

The drivers and the young newspaper distributors had been forced out on strike last May 17, when the owners attempted to eliminate the jobs of 450 drivers and most of the 4500 door-to-door distributors.

Striking workers, supported on the picketlines by at least a dozen unions and thousands of this Pennsylvania city's working-class population, ringed the Press LOS ANGELES-Over 4000 drywall workers have been on strike from the Countv since Inne 1 These hichlvWMMARI ME MANDANI into home building frames at five cents a square foot-down from nine cents a at many sites.

fits. Many of these workers-almost all fits," said one striker. "When there was a ers.

building boom in the 1980s and the were squeezing us [even then]."

the language well."

the previous rate of eight or nine cents, site to site.

and company-paid vacations.

WE STAND OCAI and Post-Gazette buildings. When scabs attempted to drive through the picket line, 500 strikers linked arms and blocked the trucks. The company's first attempt to deliver an edition of the two dailies since the strike began failed.

A sign of things to come The bosses called off their strikebreaking effort after just two days of determined resistance by the workers of Pittsburgh and their allies. The working people of Pittsburgh showed, thereby, that the real economic power of American workers remains intact. They proved that union consciousness in this city is alive and well.

And when many newsdealers posted the union's "Stop the Press" signs and tens of thousands pledged to boycott scab editions of the two papers, it also showed that workers continue to have the capability of bringing the class as a whole and even sections of the middle class over to their side in the course of their struggle.

militant actions by the strikers—through mounted.

One medium-sized contractor even pushed wages down." Co. on July 26 to stop scab trucks.

Of course, it would be wrong to overestimate the meaning of the Pittsburgh Press Company's setback. The city's rulers evidently sent a message to the strikebreaking company to pull back-for the time being, at least. This was partly evidenced when only 39 strikers were arrested and a court injunction limiting picketing was not seriously sought by Pittsburgh's capitalists.

Even Pittsburgh Mayor Sophie Masloff and U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, and other prominent capitalist politicians, called for the company to cease, for now, its attempt to run scabs through Teamster picket lines.

Clearly, in other times in this city—not to mention in other cities-the forces of law and order have not hesitated to use the most brutal measures for routing strikers when they judged it to be appropriate. They evidently feared that such measures could have provoked a much bigger response from the city's working-class population, making the game not worth the candle.

Moreover, the bosses have to reckon to between $10,000 and $1000 as An additional element to the harassNaturalization Service (INS).

When the 149 drywallers were arrested Local labor leader Mike Potts, execuConstruction Trades Council of Orange ple for nothing wages, and now they're However, the drywall workers remain with the new leadership of the national Teamsters union. President Ron Carey and his team were elected on a program promising no more givebacks to the bosses.

The strategists of American capitalism will not risk forcing the hand of the Carey leadership until they can better judge its likely response, and/or their ability to overcome a major labor counter-assault.

Bureaucracy will still betray On the other hand, they certainly know that the top officialdom of the AFL-CIO, which is centrally involved in this strike, is ready to compromise away whatever workers win on the picket lines.

The ruling class also knows that the top AFL-CIO bureaucracy will not press labor's interests to the point of a showdown battle. They know that, to the contrary, the aims of the labor bureaucracy are restricted to maintaining some measure of what remains of the social contract between them and the American capitalist class.

In the case of the newspaper bosses, the decision from above ordering them to retreat was accepted by them because they well understood that it was only a tactical step in their own longer-term interests and those of their class as a whole.

No matter how this strike ultimately plays out, this demonstration of potential class power will send a message to working people everywhere, that a determined effort-even by a small local union-can mobilize sufficient assistance from sympathetic workers to keep struck job sites shut tight. It proves, too, that determined action can decisively tilt the balance of power in favor of working people.

This example also shows that while deepening unemployment works to the bosses' advantage, the other side of this coin is the growing consciousness that something is seriously wrong with this country's, and the world's, economic system.

Moreover, economic problems are further aggravated by what amounts to an accelerated unraveling of the world capitalist political order-from Yugoslavia to Africa, and from Latin America to the Middle East.

While no one can say when the developing economic crisis will tumble out of control, the workers of Pittsburgh have assured us that when it does, American workers will not roll over and play dead.

The only factor not guaranteed is the matter of effective working-class leadership. But in the course of the coming class battles, a leadership willing and able to lead American workers to victory will be forged.

a drywallers' meeting and asked to stand in their husbands' place. "To stop us, they're going to have to make sure the whole family is arrested," said Pablo Arrests have heen made almost everv day. On July 23, 69 strikers were arrested when police forced them onto the Hollywood Freeway.

A mother of four, whose husband was one of those arrested, said, "These are working men who are just looking for a better future for their kids. That's not a crime."

Almost half of the striking workers are from the same part of Mexico, a village called El Maguez. Their skills have been passed down from generation to generation. The Carpenters' Union has permitted the strikers to use their hall as a meeting place. The drywall workers will more than likely affiliate with the Carpenters' Union, but the labor movement has put them in a Catch-22 situation—the drywallers can't join a union until they have an employer!

This narrow, formalistic approach by local union leaders should be abandoned, so that these workers can have the füll force of a union-sanctioned strike-support coalition. It is important now that the labor movement rally to support these valiant workers.

Their fight will determine the future for both union and non-union workers in the construction industry. But no matter sa, our strike will their picket signs

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state capitalism in as far as I'm con-

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