Friday, February 18, 2011

The power of sit-down strikes

Sit down strikes can be powerful tools.  In the 1980s, Polish workers rose up to protest against their repressive government, the government imposed martial law.  A total of 10,000 people were arrested.  The government dissolved all trade unions.  "Military commissioners were assigned to control crucial factories. Refusal to carry out their orders equaled desertion and was punishable by martial law courts up to the death penalty. Educational institutions at all levels closed down for a period of time. People couldn’t travel without a state officials’ permission."   Governor Walker of Wisconsin is trying to run that state like an old soviet style dictator.  If he brings in the National Guard to quell the protestors, how is he different from a communist czar?  The brave people of Poland stood up against their repressive government and eventually won out, and we had better hope that workers in Wisconsin succeed in their protest or we could see similar attempts at repression made in the rest of the country.  See the following website: http://www.polishhistoricalsociety.org.au/pr-waytofreedom.htm
Several years ago, workers at grocery warehouse in Kansas City went on strike.  Warehouse owners hired an armed guard service to break the strikers.  In 1995 The Detroit Free Press presented its union with a contract that they knew would lead to a strike.  Its union workers were replaced with 580 scabs.  The company hired 480 armed guards to protect the scabs.  Union workers picketed the distribution center.  Armed guards wearing black uniforms and helmets, and using shields and clubs, attacked and beat the strikers.  In an article in the Reader’s Digest, that magazine reported that the strikers attacked police officers.  Photos published in the UAW Solidarity Magazine clearly showed that strikers were the victims of beatings by the paid armed thugs hired by the newspaper.

http://dbacon.igc.org/Unions/02ubust3.htm
A big anti-union push came with the election of Ronald Reagan who fired air traffic controllers and replaced them with scabs.  The people put on the job at the nation’s airports were not able to provide the level safety that air travelers need, expect, and deserve.   The Republican Party has always wanted to destroy unions and the actions by Governors Walker and Kasich Ohio are only the first to launch a massive attempt to destroy the last elements of a once powerful labor movement in this country, one that protected its own members and pushed for many important pieces legislation such as the Fair Labor Standards law of 1938, which brought about the forty hour work week and time and a half for overtime.  Labor unions also pushed for other important pieces of legislation such as child labor laws and the minimum wage law.  While only about 15% of Americans are protected directly by union membership,  many millions of other workers benefit by the very existence of labor unions.   

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