Posted on

Coastal Alabama and Mississippi: Coca-Cola Workers Go on Strike

In August, Coca-Cola workers in coastal Alabama and Mississippi carried out a multi-day strike. The strike – organized by the 250-member Teamsters Local 911 union – has affected four Coca-Cola distribution plants. Workers organized work stoppages in Robertsdale, LeRoy, and Mobile, Alabama, as well as in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

This has certainly gotten the attention of the Birmingham-based Coca-Cola Bottling Company United Inc. Since the start of the strike, the company has resorted to the classic union-busting tactic of hiring replacement workers, also known as “scabs.” But, the union has stuck to its guns.

On August 13, protesters gathered along U.S. 90 at Coca-Cola Road in Mobile. Picketers carried signs expressing union solidarity and denouncing the company’s scab-hiring maneuvers.

According to the union, the main complaint is starting pay. New hires could see a pay cut of $5-$7 an hour. Union representatives say that with new hires making so much less than current employees, workplace relations will sour. Workers in the same operation will be divided. And, of course, the company will want want to bring in more of the lower wage employees and force out existing employees who are in the $19 an hour range

Posted on

“No Union for Fascists” – Sioux Falls AFL-CIO Bans Fascists

The working class movement and fascism have always been opposed to one another. Even though fascists make appeals to sections of the working class – particularly white workers – this is never more than empty rhetoric; for all of Donald Trump’s talk about blue collar workers and reviving coal country, we can see that his administration has done everything they can to undermine workers’ rights, to the benefit of the bosses. Fascism and white supremacy are props that hold up the power of the capitalist class. Fascist power hurts workers, but workers’ power is the weapon that smashes fascism and white supremacy!

The AFL-CIO in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has reaffirmed this truth. This union local recently amended their constitution, officially banning all fascists and white supremacists from the organization. This move was meant to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the death of Heather Heyer, a union member murdered by a fascist organizer at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

In a message on their website, Sioux Falls AFL-CIO president, Kooper Caraway, stated: “It is our duty to let our fellow workers know that Fascism, White Supremacy, and its organizations have only ever existed to divide us as workers and do the dirty work of the Boss Class. The White Nationalists have always been bought and paid for by those in power, they exist not to fight for any ideal, but to destroy the progress made by us as working class people. That is why the Sioux Falls AFLCIO voted to Ban all Fascists and White Supremacists from our organization.”

In the statement, Caraway cited the long history of struggle between labor unions and the Klan. In the Jim Crow era, hundreds of union organizers were murdered by the Klan. On the other hand – together with civil rights and black liberation organizations – unions have historically helped to keep the power of the Klan and other vile reactionaries in check

Posted on

Major Victory for German Workers

In Baden-Wurtemberg, a southern region of Germany, the IG Metall Union won a huge victory for the German working class: the right to temporarily shorten your work week to 28 hours to care for family, with lost pay being partially covered by the company. And as a cherry on top, they won a 4.3% wage increase for all employees! IG Metall is the largest union in Europe, with 2.3 million members. Germany has recently had a growing economy, but workers hadn’t seen anything to show for it, still working the same hours for the same wages (not too different from here in New Orleans). Under constant stress trying to balance work and family life with wages that won’t budge, the workers decided to take control into their own hands. They started with mass walkouts on the job, which they escalated to 24-hour strikes, until their employers (industrial giants like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Siemens) caved into their demands for more pay and flexible hours.

Posted on

The Brotherhood of Timber Workers (BTW)

By Malcolm Suber

Many of our readers will be surprised to learn the history of a militant, multi-national, anti-capitalist, industrial union active in Louisiana over 100 years ago. At its high point the BTW had 30,000 members who openly challenged the capitalist class and fought to achieve working class unity. The BTW was a union of sawmill workers from east Texas and southwest Louisiana that was organized by Arthur Lee Emerson and Jay Smith in 1910. The BTW was best remembered for the Grabow uprising when the workers went on strike against the Galloway Lumber Company in Grabow, Louisiana. The BTW was also notable for the fact that they were an anti-racist union in the deep South, where segregation and Jim Crow were the order of the day.

The BTW was created because of the terrible working conditions at the sawmills in the southern piney woods region. The sawmill work was dangerous and depended on the ability of the worker to keep up with the machinery. In 1909, there were a reported 125 deaths and 16,000 accidents in the southern lumber industry.

In 1910, Emerson and Smith began to recruit members for the BTW. They moved from camp to camp to recruit hundreds of black and white sawmill workers. Interest grew rapidly and workers flocked to the BTW. The BTW held its first convention in Alexandria, La. At the conference they adopted their constitution that extended membership to all races and sexes.

The creation of the BTW immediately drew the attention of the capitalist owners of the Southern Lumber Operators Association. They vowed to kill the BTW in its infancy. In 1911, the SLOA shut down 11 mills in De Ridder, LA. Members of the BTW were blacklisted. In order to work again, they would have to sign an anti-union card. Most workers refused and the BTW became stronger.

In 1912, the BTW held its second annual convention in Alexandria, LA. “Big Bill” Haywood of the International Workers of the World (IWW) was the main speaker. Haywood noticed that the black and white workers were meeting separately in accord with Jim Crow law. He called for breaking the segregation law and having one joint meeting. It was here that the BTW voted to affiliate with the IWW.

The SLOA criticized the BTW as an anarchistic, race-mixing organization in an attempt to weaken support among white workers. After affiliation with the IWW, the BTW presented the lumber operators with a list of demands concerning higher wages and improved safety that led to more lockouts and the importation of scab labor. The SLOA brought armed guard along with the local sheri s to protect the scabs. This set the stage for the Grabow uprising.

On July 7, 1912 A.L. Emerson led a group of strikers toward the King-Ryder Mill. Upon hearing about an assassination attempt on H.G. Creel, a socialist organizer, they changed course toward the Galloway Mill in Grabow , LA. On arriving, Emerson began to speak to the strikers when shots were red from the company office. This sparked a gun fight between the company gunmen and the armed union members. It was reported that 4 workers were killed and 37 others wounded as a result of the battle.

Following the incident, 49 union men and their officers were arrested and faced charges of rioting. After a vigorous campaign to declare their innocence, all 49, including Emerson, were acquitted. This victory was the high point in the history of the BTW. However, the trial depleted their finances and drained their membership.

The BTW was a step forward for the working class struggle against the capitalist class. It was a fundamental challenge to the rule of capital as it championed working class unity, racial and sexual equality in a time when racism and sexism were widely accepted by the US working class.