Bronx Bakery Battle: Striking employees at the Stella D’oro cookie factory in the Bronx have emerged as symbols of working-class resistance during a time of economic crisis
By Sarah SecundaFrom the March 20, 2009 issue | Posted in Local | Email this article
MOBILIZING MOM: Sara Rodriguez leads the charge on the Stella D’oro picket line. PHOTO: JOEL COOK.
When the 136 factory workers at the Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. in the Bronx went on strike Aug. 13, they didn’t expect to be out on the street for long. Evelyn Rivera, who had only been at Stella D’oro since August 2007, recalls the reassurances she received from some of the factory’s older hands. “Maybe five weeks,” they told her.
The strike had been launched to protest, among other concessions, wage cuts of up to 26 percent demanded by Brynwood Partners, the private equity firm that purchased Stella D’oro from Kraft Foods, Inc. in 2006.
Declaring Brynwood’s terms unacceptable, the workers set up a 24-hour picket line outside the factory gates at 237th Street and Broadway that by their own account better resembled a neighborhood party than a scene of dissent.
“We used to barbecue every night for the people,” says Stella D’oro employee Mike Filippou.
But as weeks on the picket line turned into months, the Stella D’oro strikers began to realize that they had underestimated Brynwood’s unyieldingness.
“In the summer, we didn’t know better,” Filippou concedes. “We wasted a lot of time.”
The stakes abruptly became apparent when, a month into the strike, the bottom fell out of the U.S. economy and nationwide unemployment soared. As longtime Stella D’oro employee Emelia Dorsu puts it, “Right now you can’t even find a job.”
But far from cowed by the odds they face, after seven months on the picket line, the Stella D’oro strikers have mounted an energetic campaign that has been boosted by outside support. In the process, they have emerged as representatives of a larger struggle escalating between labor and management as the economy continues to spiral downward.
“[Business owners] are going to start to use the recession to take back wages and benefits, so I think people should resist,” Filippou says. As he sees it, the Stella D’oro strikers “are making the beginning for other people to start resisting.”
A NEW BUSINESS MODEL
As a workers’ representative to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union Local 50, Mike Filippou had already been through two sets of contract negotiations when he and other union officials sat down with representatives from Brynwood in late May 2008 to negotiate a new contract for the Stella D’oro workers. He expected the meeting to follow the model of past negotiations: “You give me this, I give you that.”
Instead, Fillipou says, “as soon as they get to the table, the company gives the union reps a big presentation about how bad the company is doing, how many millions they are losing. I was ready to cry.”
A lawyer from Brynwood then rolled out a proposal that divided the Stella D’oro workforce into two camps, the skilled and the non-skilled. Among the skilled the company counted the factory’s mechanics, electricians, foremen and mixers. Among the non-skilled were the sanitation workers and cookie packers, who comprise more than 60 percent of the workforce. While the wages of the skilled would remain intact, from the salary of the so-called non-skilled, Brynwood wanted to subtract one dollar from the hourly wage each year for the next five years. Under this plan, workers who earned $37,000 in 2007 would see their annual income drop to $27,000 by 2012.
Brynwood’s other proposals, which extended to the entire Stella D’oro workforce, included the elimination of overtime pay and all sick days, plus the loss of one week of vacation and four holiday days. Brynwood also wanted employees to pay for 20 percent of the cost of a company healthcare plan, whereas before the employees had paid nothing for health benefits.
Moreover, says Joyce Alston, Local 50 president, Brynwood rewrote “anything [in the contract] that gave members a sense of protection,” including work rules and conditions of employment. “They would have a grievance procedure but it wouldn’t be effective because the contract was saying that the company could change your schedule, change your job at will,” a condition that would leave the workers at the mercy of management. “You give that contract, you give your union,” Filippou says.
According to Alston, the union requested a copy of Brynwood’s financial records for an accountant to review in order to verify the company’s claims. She says that Brynwood denied union reps a copy, informing them that they could access the financial records only at company headquarters, in Greenwich, Conn., where they would be allowed to sit and take notes.
Brynwood has not responded to repeated requests by The Indypendent for comment.
Weeks of haggling followed. Once it became apparent that Brynwood would not budge on its central demands, Stella D’oro workers voted unanimously to strike.
In September, Local 50 filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the National Labor Review Board (NLRB), the federal governmental agency charged with adjudicating labor disputes. As its central grievance Local 50 cited Brynwood’s refusal to negotiate in good faith.
The company evidently recognized the value of some of its employees to the factory’s operation. Filippou says that he and other “skilled” Stella D’oro workers were approached by management in the weeks prior to the strike.
“They were betting on the skilled workers throwing the rest beneath the tracks,” Filippou says. Eddie Marrero, a Stella D’oro employee of 29 years, believes that Brynwood’s assumption that it could divide the workforce reveals a fundamental difference between the private equity firm and the workers.
“Our position wasn’t greed. Our position was respect,” Marrero says.
STRIKING BACK
What both the strikers and Brynwood had supposed a quick and easy fight has evolved into a seven-month battle.
Shortly after the Stella D’oro workers walked out, Brynwood made its first move by hiring scores of strikebreakers.
Local 50 responded to Brynwood maneuvers with a call to boycott Stella D’oro “scab cookies.”
PUSH BACK: Members of the Committee in Support of the Stella D’oro Strikers try to prevent strikebreakers from entering the Bronx-based factory March 11. PHOTO: JOEL COOK
Beyond the boycott, the union believed it had few options other than to wait for the NLRB ruling, which stood to prevent Brynwood from hiring strikebreakers as permanent replacement workers.
“The union is fighting the legal battle,” says Local 50 President Alston. “Other than that, your hands are kind of tied.” Since August, the Stella D’oro strikers have squeaked by on a weekly income of $105 from their union strike fund and an unemployment check, to which they are legally entitled due to Brynwood’s hiring of strikebreakers. The strikers’ unemployment benefits will expire this August.
The Stella D’oro workers entered their fifth month on the picket line with the realization that they could not rely upon a creeping legal process. This realization came to a head at the end of December when community members joined with strikers to organize a more energetic and aggressive counter-attack. The fruit of this collaboration has been the Committee in Support of the Stella D’oro Strikers.
Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, a nurse and long-time member of the New York State Nurses Association, describes the Committee as a coalition of diverse individuals, many affiliated with other unions or various left-wing activist groups.
“Different people were doing different things to help [the strikers],” says Sheridan- Gonzalez. “Then some of us said, ‘We need to do this together.’”
What began with one meeting at a McDonald’s has now evolved into weekly meetings during which strikers and community members sit down together to hash out a strategy.
The support group produces and distributes fliers, calls press conferences, organizes rallies, raises money for the Local 50 strike fund, and reaches out to other unions and labor groups.
One of the Committee’s campaigns aims to bring the Stella D’oro boycott to the attention of retailers by sending out teams to petition store managers to pull Stella D’oro products from the shelf.
According to Stella D’oro supporter Micah Landau, the strike committee has focused most of its energies of late on Fairway. Landau says the Committee is also targeting several larger grocery store chains including Stop & Shop and Food Emporium.
A FAMILY AFFAIR: A Stella D’oro striker (center) and her two kids march in a rally in the Bronx Jan. 31. PHOTO: SARAH SECUNDA
In this and other ways, strike support committees, which have not been prevalent since the 1930s, can sidestep the legal obstacles which so often stop more aggressive actions by unions and their members.
But not all Stella D’oro strikers have jumped on board. Indeed, far more strikers do not attend Committee meetings than do.
While Sheridan-Gonzalez cites a suspicion of outsiders as one factor contributing to low-involvement, striker Emelia Dorsu points to another reason.
“I think that when this first started, we thought it was just us. It was our problem and we have to solve it,” Dorsu says. “I didn’t know that there’s a lot of support and solidarity out there. I didn’t know that people care so much about other people. I didn’t. Until I started getting involved and going out.”
On March 5, Dorsu and the rest of the Stella D’oro strikers took a break from the picket line and headed to City Hall in order to participate in a giant rally organized by a number of New York City union locals to protest state budget cuts threatening public sector workers.
The strikers, who have received various levels of support from many unions — including the Professional Staff Congress, United Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union and the Transit Workers — came to the rally bearing a message of solidarity.
“When you go out there and you see all those people fighting for the same cause,” Dorsu says, “[you] feel a part of something that can make change, that can benefit people.”
Two weeks after the City Hall rally, the NLRB issued a preliminary ruling in the Unfair Labor Practice filed by Local 50 in September that found in the union’s favor. The case will go to a NLRB hearing in April.
Citing the possibility of a Brynwood appeal, Local 50 President Joyce Alston calls the labor board’s ruling “a step in the right direction,” but cautions “the battle’s not over by any means.”
It’s a battle that Alston considers “representative of the entire country in terms of working men and women.”
“What we’re giving is an example,” says Stella D’oro striker Eddie Marrero. “You gotta hold your ground no matter what, and take pride in yourself and don’t let nobody come in here and say, ‘You don’t deserve this. You make too much for what you do.’”
“This is where you let them know: I am a human being working for a living,” Marrero says.
Joel Cook contributed additional reporting for this article.
For more information about the Stella D’oro strike and how to get involved, visit stelladorostrike2008.com.
Stella D’oro began as a family business in 1932 when Joseph Kresivich, a native of Trieste, Italy, opened the Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. at 237th Street and Broadway in the working-class Bronx neighborhood of Kingsbridge.
The factory has since become a landmark, well-known to locals for the sweet aromas it exudes and for the quality of the cookies and biscuits being baked within its walls by a dedicated staff.
Eddie Marrero, a foreman baker and employee of 29 years, describes Stella D’oro cookies as “traditional Italian.” And its among tradition-minded consumers, particularly families and the elderly, says Marrero, that Stella D’oro breakfast treats, biscotti and breadsticks have found a loyal, nationwide market.
The workforce unionized in the 1950s with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union Local 50. Over the years, this affiliation has secured for Stella D’Oro employees the benefits and the working conditions that made the factory a place where people wanted to work.
“That place was like our home,” Marrero says. “You could eat on the floor because we took care of that place. You have family there — because that’s what we consider ourselves: all family.”
Things began to change at Stella D’Oro in 1992 when the Kresivich family sold the business to Nabisco. The company was then acquired by Kraft Foods, Inc. in 2000. In 2006, saying that it wanted to “better focus its brand portfolio,” Kraft sold Stella D’oro to Brynwood Partners, the private equity firm headquartered in Greenwich, Conn.
—S.S.
The contract offered by Brynwood Partners divides the Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. workforce into two groups: the skilled and the nonskilled. The burden of this classification would primarily fall on the women who spend eight hours a day packing cookies, by all accounts a rigorous job.
“A lot of women inside, they’re not the same as when they started,” says Evelyn Rivera. “They are always in pain.”
Rivera came to Stella D’oro in August 2007 from an office job on Wall Street and says that she has since developed trigger finger, a debilitating hand condition.
Factory work represented a big change for Rivera, but the salary and benefits offered at Stella D’oro made the job attractive to her, particularly as a single mother of two. “Nowadays it’s very hard to find a good job money-wise. I had the opportunity here, so I took it.”
Under the Brynwood plan, a employee earning $18 an hour would see $1 taken from her wages each year for the next five years. The cut would reduce a 2007 annual income of $37,000 to $27,000 by 2012. On top of this, Brynwood wants employees to pay for 20 percent of the cost of a company healthcare plan, whereas before employees had paid nothing for health benefits.
DETERMINED: On strike for seven months, Stella D’oro employees Sara Rodriguez (left) and
Emelia Dorsu (below) are standing up to wage and benefit cuts demanded by private equity firm
Brynwood Partners. PHOTOS: JOEL COOK
FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS
Like Rivera and many other women in the packing department, Sara Rodriguez is a single mother.
“Whenever I work, I can always say that I give my best,” says Rodriguez, 41. “And I always used to think, thanks to this job, I could raise my kids.”
If the strikers don’t return to the factory, Rodriguez expects she will have to find two full-time jobs in order to support her family — a bleak prospect in a crumbling economy.
Laughing, Rodriguez admits she had never heard of a picket line prior to joining one seven months ago. Now she is one of several strikers who makes sure to attend every meeting of the strike support group, the Committee in Support of the Stella D’oro Strikers.
“We are trying to get informed,” Rodriguez explains. “We’re getting a lot of support from all of these people that come to the meetings.”
Emelia Dorsu, 57, who worked with Rodriguez on the over-night packing shift, agrees. “There’s a big movement out there that will feel for you, that will support you, that will help you through hard times.”
In recent months, Rodriguez and Dorsu have begun to speak about the Stella D’oro strike at forums and rallies organized by labor groups in the city. Both women consider these events a chance to raise awareness about the strike as well as an opportunity to contribute to the much larger battle facing working people across this country.
“It’s not only us,” Dorsu is careful to point out. “The reason why I am trying to learn a lot of things is so that even if I cannot help myself right now, I can help others going through this.”
For the working women and men in a situation like her own, Rodriguez has strong words. “Fight to the end,” she says. “Don’t let these people take advantage of you. Don’t let them come and destroy your life.”
—S.S.
Mike Filippou seems most at home when he is among his colleagues on the picket line. He wears his position as a workers’ representative to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union Local 50 as a natural extension of himself.
“I’ve been a fighter all my life,” says Filippou, 44. “When it comes to peoples’ rights, I go all the way.”
Filippou grew up on the small Greek island of Kasos, population 1,500.
“I came here for the American dream,” he chuckles. “I see my brothers in the old country, and they live better than me now!”
Bad timing and management greed have worked against Filippou during his 23 years in the United States.
Filippou’s first state-side job came with Farberware, the Bronx-based cookware manufacturer, where he worked for more than nine years. He was six months short of qualifying for a pension when the company gave him one-month’s notice that it would be moving all operations overseas to India and Indonesia.
After he turned down Farberware’s offer to train workers in Indonesia to perform his job, Filippou migrated to Stella D’oro, where he has worked as a lead maintenance mechanic for the past 14 years.
At Stella D’oro, pensions are awarded according to a rule called the Golden 80, for which an employee must put in a minimum of 15 years at the company to qualify. Filippou was one year from securing a pension this past August when he cast his lot with his colleagues and voted to strike. If the Stella D’oro workers lose their jobs at the factory, Filippou will find himself back at square one.
“I’m really pissed with them,” he says of Brynwood Partners, the private equity firm that owns Stella D’oro. “I don’t want to drive a Rolls Royce. I don’t want to have a mansion. Just give me a decent living.”
But Filippou is quick to note that he, as a mechanic in his prime, will be able to find some other form of work. He says he’s angriest about the fate of those he feels have been left in the lurch.
“We have ladies who are 50, 55, 60 years old, and the only thing they do in their lives, they pack cookies,” Filippou says. “Where are they gonna go to find these people a job? They lose their benefits, they lose everything. What they gonna do?”
Mike Filippou speaks not only for those whom he defends when he remarks, “You give your life and get nothing in return.”
—S.S.
Private equity firms typically acquire a company they deem to be “under-performing” or “under-valued” and implement a strategy of infusing capital while cutting costs with the goal of eventually selling the company for a profit.
For Greenwich-based private equity firm Brynwood Partners, Stella D’oro was one such under-performer. Even though Stella D’oro was a subsidiary of Kraft Foods, Inc., it was languishing. So Brynwood acquired it in 2006 based on a model of increasing its market share.
While Brynwood invested in new product packaging and opened lucrative accounts with national retailers such as Costco and Wal-Mart, it also pushed for productivity increases.
“After Brynwood took over, there was a lot more pressure,” says Sara Rodriguez, a supervisor in the Stella D’oro packing department. “People would retire. They wouldn’t replace the people. So we would have to do extra work. They wanted to get the same production with less people.”
Joyce Alston, president of the union local that represents the Stella D’oro strikers, says that within a year of buying Stella D’oro, Brynwood hired private contractors to replace the factory’s unionized delivery truck drivers.
Alston sees this as part of the company’s “bottom- line” mentality. “The company understands dollars and cents … It’s about flipping [the business] over for a profit.”
Stella D’oro strikers claim Brynwood wants to get rid of a union that provides a living wage, good benefits and safe working conditions to all of its members.
Eddie Marrero, a foreman baker at the plant, says the union provides “decent jobs in New York City for people who don’t have degrees from college.” But he says Brynwood is “coming in here and taking these decent-paying jobs and trying to drag these jobs through the dirt.”
Mark Brenner, the East Coast director of Labor Notes, considers the Stella D’oro strike “a textbook case of everything that’s wrong with our current economy.”
“Let’s hope this economic crisis closes the book on the 30-year working-class squeeze,” Brenner says. “But as tough as [these times] are, I don’t think that will happen without more strikes like Stella D’oro.” —S.S.
41 Responses to “Bronx Bakery Battle: Striking employees at the Stella D’oro cookie factory in the Bronx have emerged as symbols of working-class resistance during a time of economic crisis”
March 21st, 2009 at 5:56 am
as being a union woker myself i agree you guys have been out there too long sometimes the picket line needs to step it up a notch i have seen yo guys out there religously as i drive by. but come on enough is enough . if they havent giving in by now they wont they will just keep it in courts forever they have alot of money and lawyers. and soon you wont have a job left and all of the time you spent there will be wasted so i agree its time for a change . its time to change the way you picket. because it hasnt worked so far
March 21st, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Hi all,
I am writing to humbly suggest that Bill and Venessa should come to the next strike support meeting this Wednesday at 7PM at the Church of the Mediator, on 231st Street just west of Broadway, and voice their concerns and criticisms there. As a regular participant in strike support activities, I can say with certainty that the strikers are, in fact, “stepping it up a notch” on their picket line — but they need your help and active support! It is easy to criticize from afar — the real challenge, which I offer to you here, is getting involved in a direct way and fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with your neighbors and fellow workers to see this strike end with a victory for the union. I hope you’ll take me up on it.
Solidarity,
Micah Landau
Stella D’Oro Strike Support
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
“The union is fighting the legal battle,” says Local 50 President Alston. “Other than that, your hands are kind of tied.” Since August, the Stella D’oro strikers have squeaked by on a weekly income of $105 from their union strike fund and an unemployment check, to which they are legally entitled due to Brynwood’s hiring of strikebreakers. The strikers’ unemployment benefits will expire this August.
That is a revealing quote from the president of the union. No, the union can do more than just watch the labor process play out. It appears to be happening with the worker committee and involving the community into the strike, so either the union president has to say this in print to protect the union’s hide or he fundamentally doesn’t understand how to win strikes.
Strikes are rarely won in the labor board or how well you negotiate at the bargaining table. They are won by rank and file activism and involvement. And even then it is difficult. (See “American Dream” by Barbara Koppel)
March 24th, 2009 at 12:35 am
It seems that these workers are losing this strike in slow motion - the bakery is still in operation, scabs cross the line every day, and soon at the 12 month mark is crossed the owners will get one of their flunkies among the workforce (with a company supplied lawyer) to file a decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board.
The picketing will continue, Stella D’oro will go on the AFL-CIO Boycott List, and the strike will slowly dwindle away.
I’ve been a labor activist for 23 years, I’ve seen it all before - Hormel, Greyhound, Pittston Coal, JT Massey, Staley, Caterpillar, Eastern Airlines.
These workers need to “step it up a notch” (in ways that should NOT be talked about over open wires) or they WILL be defeated.
And that would be very tragic - not only for them, but for all New York unio nworkers.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:01 am
The struggle at Stella D’Oro is the struggle of labor in this country. The committee that formed to support the strikers recognized that it is the responsibility of ALL OF US to help in whatever way we can to ACT on our concerns.
The need for people power is tremendous and the strike will not be won by the workers alone–nor with great ideas and valid commentary absent involvement.
We welcome concerned community members to join us at the church (described in Micah’s post above) or write to sd-support@googlegroups.com and ask how you can help.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Judy,
Just how serious are you and Micah about winning this strike?
With all due respect to the workers involved, and to the strike supporters, it’s fairly clear that just walking around in circles in front of that short dead end street in front of the plant entrance is NOT going to win the strike.
Do you have a plan to deal with the almost inevitable August 4th decertification vote?
Have you explored at all the idea of getting the UFCW local 1500 and RWDSU local 338 members who stock the shelves of their stores with Stella D’oro products every day to engage in some sort of secondary boycott?
Have you in any way explored the idea of getting Teamsters who deliver product to Stella D’oro’s plant to refuse to make deliveries there?
Have you in any way explored the idea of getting Teamster private sanitation workers to refuse to pick up Stella D’oro’s garbage?
And if you’ve considered any of these ideas, have you come up with a legal strategy to deal with the inevitable retaliation - since, of couse, all of those tactics are unfair labor practices under the Taft Hartley Act?
Now, I don’t expect you to answer any of those questions in this forum - but I do think it would be useful for you to suggest those ideas to the strikers.
It’s all well and good for you to demand that anybody with helpful advice come to your meetings - when you have the advantage, because you know the strikers and we don’t, so you would be able to shoot down any suggestions that come from outside your circle of trust.
But what are you going to say a year from now, when these workers have all been fired and permanently replaced by scabs, and when Stella D’oro has won that NLRB decertification election?
So, how about you take the suggestions that came from me, American Dream, Venessa and Bill, and bring them to the workers - they’ll listen to you because they know you, and the strike might just win.
Otherwise, it will be yet another defeat AND NEW YORK CITY LABOR DOES NOT NEED THAT!
March 26th, 2009 at 6:28 am
THE ONLY PERSON WHO IS OING TO MAKE OUT ON THIS STRIKE IS JOYCE ALSTON..SHE IS GETTING A HEFTY CHECK SINCE YOU WENT ON STRIKE ..BARGAINING CHECKS FOR HER GO UP WHEN ONE OF HER FACILITIES GO ON STRIKE.. SHE HAS DONE IT BEFORE ,GETTING RICH DURING STRIKES.. SOON IN AUGUST AROUND THE 10 TH WHEN YOU GUYS ARE DESURTIFIED AND UMEMPLOYMENT RUNS OUT AND THE PICKET LINE COMES DONE AND YOUR ALL FORGOTTEN ABOUT..AND THE SCABS HAVE C O M P L E T E CONTROL OF THE BAKERY MAYBE YOULL WISEN UP AND SEE HOW BAD YOUR UNION STABBED YOU.. MCDONALDS ACROSS THE STREET MIGHT BE HIRING BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO STAND IN LINE..YOU NEED TO TAKE CONTROL OF THIS SITUATION NOW..DONT WAIT ANY LONGER ..IT HAS HAPPENES TOO MANY TIMES BEFORE..JOYCE IS LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK,SHE LAUGHS AT YOU POOR FOLK
IN SOLIDARITY VERONICA
March 26th, 2009 at 6:44 am
what happened to all of the security at the bakery ??????
nobody cares about you people,and definatly not scared
scabs are getting checks
cookies are rolling off the line
bakery making money
alston getting richer
smells good in the bronx from cookie smell
” NO CONTRACT WE MAKE MORE COOKIES ” scabs new words
and more cookies and more cookies and more cookies
you people need to wake up and smeel the coffee and cookies ..because you are about to have to out and find new jobs real fast.. because these jobs belong to another kind of people..
EVERYONE LAUGHED BACK IN OCTOBER WHEN MOST OF THESE PEOPLE CAME TO WORK RACIAL SLURS ..NAME CALLING.. TIRE POKING HAPPENED…BUT WHO IS LAUGHING NOW……
THEY USE TO HAVE FULL SECURITY..NOW JUST GREETERS… APPARENTLY NONE OF YOU HAVE BEEN ON A STRIKE LINE BEFORE…
IT WILL BE A SAD DAY IN THE BRONX AUG 10TH WHEN STELLA DORO TOSSES THE UNION TO THE CURB AND BECOMES ANOTHER NON UNION COMPANY..THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL..AND YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO READ IT…
March 26th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
As a Stella D’oro “scab”, I can say that what you see on tv, read in these online articles and newspapers, and watch in youtube videos is absolutely NOT what really takes place outside of Stella D’oro. The fact of the matter is that these “strikers” don’t care, and they haven’t cared from the beginning. In August, they set up a tarp, and sat under it barbecuing and playing loud music as if it was some type of block party. The only time anything newsworthy takes place is if another union comes to fight their battle for them, because they’re too lazy and disinterested to fight it themselves.
The “No Contract, No Cookies” chant that you see in all these clips only exists when the media is around, otherwise its a constant barrage of racial slurs, sexist remarks, and other types of immature, ineffective name-calling. Slashing people’s tires, breaking people’s car windows, keying their cars while they are trying to get to or from work…what exactly does that have to do with your supposed “fight” ? Video taping “scabs”, taking their pictures and making embarrassingly ignorant videos to put on youtube with misspelled words does nothing but make you look uneducated, pathetic, and oblivious to what’s really going on. Not to mention, it’s harassment, defamation of character, and in some cases, attempted assault - all of which are punishable by law….should anyone decide to take legal action. You should focus less attention on petty, childish games, and more time on your negotiations.
Brynwood Partners own Stella D’oro…thus, it is their choice to run their company how they see fit. If cutting the wages of their employees, taking away a few days of vacation, a few sick days, and making you pay for 20% of your benefits is what they feel is necessary to do in order to survive in today’s economy; who can fight them on it? All over this country people are losing their jobs and major companies are going out of business. Brynwood Partners are simply protecting their investment as any intelligent business owners would do. Should Stella D’oro allow the stranglehold put on them by this union lead to their demise and the eventual unemployment of all of their workers? Or should they take the steps necessary to ensure that this company will stick around, and all of you will still have a job, albeit at a slightly smaller hourly wage?
Do I want to force anyone out of a job? Of course not, but unfortunately, in today’s economy, you have to do what is necessary to live. You have to do what is necessary to provide for your family. Every day, myself, and a hundred other “scabs” come to work and walk past a handful of strikers who are talking to each other, reading their newspapers and drinking coffee. It wasn’t until recently that the strikers have decided to bring a camera, so they can put our faces or our license plate numbers on youtube or on flyers to let people know “WHO” is making their cookies.
Do you really want to know who is making these cookies? We are mothers, fathers, daughters and sons who are just trying to earn a paycheck and do the right thing for our families during these difficult times. We are good people who work incredibly hard. And according to those standing outside on the picket line, we are “c*** suckers, ni**ars, sluts, crack whores, drug dealers, and faggots” . But call us whatever you’d like…even if we were all of those things you call us (which we’re not) we would still have more class, dignity and pride than any of you who are sitting in your trolley car reading the newspaper when you should be worrying about the welfare of your families.
March 27th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Hi all,
I am going to try to respond to several posts made in this forum over the last few days. Please bare with me — I think this is an important discussion.
First, I would like to say to “American Dream”: thank you! I agree absolutely with your critique of the local leadership and the approach they have taken in this strike and very much appreciate the support and kind words you have offered to the strike support group. The union has not been pro-active — so individual strikers and community members have stepped in and are trying our best to fill the gap. I should say, too, that I think we are doing a very good job — and have been told as much by many different people in the labor movement here in New York.
Second, Gregory, while you are certainly correct that walking around in circles outside a factory that is still in operation will not win the strike, your post makes plain that you have absolutely no idea what has been going on at Stella D’Oro these past few months.
You mention UFCW 1500. If you came to our meetings — which I think you should since you would be a valuable participant — you would know that members of both 1500 and 342 were at our rally on January 31st and that we are in contact with the organizing directors at both locals.
Funny that you mention the Teamsters. I just spoke with leaders at IBT 805 a few days ago about ways to involve the Teamsters in the strike and disrupt the delivery of cookies. But, as an armchair critic, you wouldn’t know about that conversation — or our talks with 550, the local which represented the drivers until they were busted in 2006.
Sanitation workers, huh? That was one of the first suggestions made by some of our Teamster contacts. They are looking into it, but if you have any good contacts, I’d love to get them from you. Or do you only snipe at people in internet forums?
I’m sorry about the tone in which I am writing — but it is very difficult not to be very angry with your comments. I am sincere, however, when I say that I think you would be valuable to the strike support committee, and that I would love to see you get involved. Your suggestions about RWDSU 338; legal strategies for dealing with Taft-Hartley; and preparing for an NLRB decertification vote are all very helpful. But they would be even more helpful if you came to our next meeting and hashed them out with us.
You have expressed your concern about being excluded from our “inner circle of trust.” Why not come to one of our meetings and see how they function before you assume we will exclude you and the other critics you have named? I give you my word of honor that you will be welcomed and that your ideas will be judged on their merit and will not be ignored or shot down because you are new to the committee. I am being sincere — if you would like to take me up on this offer, write to me at micah.landau@gmail.com.
Third, Veronica, I am not a great defender of Joyce Alston or, for that matter, BCTGM’s international leadership. As I’ve written above, I don’t think they have been proactive in their support for the strike — and that is why our committee formed.
Your words, however, can only serve to demoralize the strikers and sow divisions and dissension. Why not come to our next meeting and discuss your concerns in person with strikers and supporters? Posting this kind of a criticism of a union while it is on strike in a public forum is totally irresponsible and, in my opinion, treacherous. Some things are best said in private — which you can do at our next meeting if you so choose.
Fourth, Bill, I am not clear — whose side are you on in this fight? Are you one of the scabs? If I knew who you were, I would make sure every union in town could read the beautiful words of encouragement you’ve written in this forum. You’d never hold a union card again. Calling strikers stupid in the midst of a fight with the boss? Thanks, pal, that’s some great support, you’re a real class act. If I could, I would rescind my earlier invitation to you to come to strike support meetings — but we are an open and transparent group and all, including you, are welcome to join us in this fight.
Fifth, “Scab,” I have a feeling you may not be who you claim to be. You write too well — you could be a professional journalist or writer with your writing ability. I have a hunch you may be from Stella D’Oro management or, more likely, from Brynwood Partners — or at least hired by them from a consulting firm to work on an anti-union campaign. I’ve certainly never heard any of the strikers use racial epithets or other similarly offensive language — that sounds to me like an accusation concocted by management to diminish sympathy and support for the strikers.
But assuming you are in fact who you claim to be, let me say that I sincerely feel for you. This economy is rough and I realize that the “scabs” working inside Stella D’Oro need jobs just like everyone else. As you have written, you absolutely are “mothers, fathers, daughters and sons” — I have never and will never try to dehumanize you. But by taking jobs at Stella D’Oro at a lower wage than the workers on strike, you are driving down wages across the board. You should be outside fighting alongside us for a fair wage for all workers.
You write that the strikers should focus on negotiations instead of on trying to shut down production at the factory. They certainly would be focusing on negotiations — if the company would sit down and bargain with them. As it is, they had no choice but to go out on strike, and they have no choice now but to keep fighting until they win. If this means confronting you and others crossing the picket line, so be it. As I have said, you are always welcome to join us and fight alongside us if and when you realize what you are doing is both morally wrong and counter to your own long-term interests.
Indy moderators, can you please be on the look-out for posts clearly made by company finks? Thanks!
Solidarity,
Micah Landau
micah.landau@gmail.com
917 572 8684
PS: I’m posting my e-mail and cell phone number here publicly to encourage those of you who are interested to contact me directly. I also think it is good form — unlike some in this forum, who post anonymously, I have the courage of my convictions. I hope Gregory, in particular, will contact me and get involved!
March 27th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I support the Stella D’oro Strikers! Together we stand, Divided we fall! Worker solidarity improves our living conditions!
March 27th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
One more thing. Gregory, I respect your 23 years as a labor activist. You’ve been active in the movement almost since before I was born! I’m a greenhorn, I admit — but I’m also a union staffer and I know a few people, as well as a trick or two.
Not to mention that I am working with a collection of people on our strike support committee who, respectfully, have far more combined experience in the labor movement than your 23 years. Why not bring the lessons you’ve learned to our next meeting?
Solidarity,
Micah
March 27th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Go Stella D’oro Strikers! Together we stand, Divided we fall! Worker solidarity improves our living conditions!
March 27th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Note that my last post was directed at “Gregory A. Butler,” not “Greg.” Thanks!
-Micah
March 27th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Real wages for working people in this country have been stagnant since the 1970s. Why? Because labor was defeated, and the labor movement that remained climbed into bed with management. We are facing some hard times, some brutal austerity, and these brave workers are taking it on the chin for all of us. We all need to come together and support them, whatever our differences over strategy. They have showed remarkable unity and solidarity in this effort; can we not do the same? Their fight is our fight.
March 28th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Dialogue is important but it needs to take place at the meetings with the community activists who have created the support committee and the activist-strikers present. We have a situation with only 135 workers–a number of whom didn’t even know what a picket line was or meant before the strike, a small union local functioning in the context of our (unfortunately) bureaucratic business union world, a horribly vicious private equity firm with deep pockets hell-bent on destroying the union, and what is obviously a concerned community of labor activists and “just plain folks.”
The workers and the support committee need your input and ACTION. We have many more ideas and concerns than we have people willing to put themselves out there to implement them. I am guessing that some of you with thoughtful commentary have access to others who can assist in this struggle, beyond yourselves. WE NEED YOU. WE NEED PEOPLE TO DO THINGS. For starters, come to our April 1 Rally at 3pm. You may be surprised.
Most committee members have full time jobs, households to run, children, are involved in our own unions and in other struggles, but felt a moral obligation to actively involve ourselves in this struggle. We are maxed out, but are doing this work–because it needs to be done, precisely because of some of the issues raised in these discussions.
Where are the rest of you?
March 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Micah and Judy have said about all that needs to be said, but I’ll reiterate: being an armchair critic does the strikers no good. If you think we in the support committee are doing a crappy job, fine — come get involved in the committee and explain to us what we ought to be doing, AND HELP US DO IT.
Like the old song goes, “we want no condescending saviors.” So please drop the disdain for those of us who are actually trying to ensure that the Stella workers do in fact win this strike.
Jason Schulman
Stella D’Oro Strike Support
March 29th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Micah, are you really prepared to defend your statement that Scab “write[s] too well” to work in a factory, or to scab on a strike, or whatever you were trying to say?
April 1st, 2009 at 10:50 am
Well, if someone is smart enough to write a literate paragraph, they’re presumably smart enough to see why they should support the union instead of being a scab and betraying the working people of the world for a temporary advantage. And what working person with a speck of life in them happily accepts the bosses’ “right” to slash their pay, benefits, and vacation days?
On the other hand, I disagree with the IWW and Jack London, who said “There is nothing lower than a SCAB.” People who sell their kids for child porn are lower–by maybe one step.
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 am
Micah and Judy, and Jason,
I was at your picketline today (you probably saw me - the heavyset lightskinned African American guy in the Local 608 Carpenters hat and the green camouflage jacket? - that wold be me)
And I still have to ask you - do you have a strategy to actually WIN this strike?
It’s hard to see it.
And, frankly, walking around in a circle in the police pens isn’t going to get the job done.
I’ve seen this happen before - at Greyhound, at Hormel, at Wheeling Pitt Steel, at Kaiser Aluminum…
Hell, at a local 50 shop, Tastee Bread, back in 1991 - BCTGM local 50 left those workers hanging too. They ended up having to turn to Rev Herbert Daughtry, and he wasn’t even able to win them severance pay!
I really feel for those 135 workers - but, if we keep going the way we’re going at Stella D’oro, it’s going to be another defeat.
Do you want that on you consciences?
Also, if you promote a rally by claiming that you’re going to “stop Stella D’oro” but then at the rally site, you march around in the pen, and then after a brief walk in the rain across the street in the wrong direction, turn back when the NYPD Community Affairs Officer and the Lieutenant tell you to, that’s a “Bait And Switch”.
I really feel bad for the Stella D’oro workers, because I don’t see how they are going to win with the leadership they have.
Call it “armchair criticism” all you want - but I’ve seen too many defeats, and it really pisses me off to see yet another strike led down to defeat.
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Gregory,
You’re like a broken record. Did you notice that I responded to each and every one of your suggestions for the strike? We thought of — and began pursuing — most of them before you raised them; the others I acknowledged to be new (and very good) ideas and asked for your help to implement them. But you’ve still not responded about whether you will or will not cast your lot with us. I appreciate that you came to the picket line, but that is not the same thing as engaging with the strikers and community members at one of our meetings.
You’ve asked about my conscience — it’s clean. How’s yours? While you were writing armchair criticisms against me, Judy, and Jason, I spent the day with strikers raising awareness about the strike at three different rallies — on Wall Street, for research assistants trying to unionize with CWA, and with ILA members standing in solidarity with ILWU members at Rite Aid. You may not like what I and others are doing to support this strike, but at least we are doing something. So I think you are the one who needs to examine his conscience — and his atrocious political practice.
You mention our recent rally. Our intention was to confront scabs and do our best to stop production at the plant. We were able to be very disruptive at a previous rally — including turning away scabs at the plant gates — because the police showed up more than an hour after we arrived. At this recent rally, however, a large number of police arrived and prepared for us several hours before the event began. Strikers and community members had agreed in advance that we did not want to risk arrest. So what would you have us do? Break our word? Create a situation in which strikers — many with dependant children — are arrested without their prior consent?
You apparently have a very static notion of planning and tactics. We had a plan but we examined the objective circumstances — the balance of forces — on the ground when we arrived at the site and determined to change it in order to achieve our ultimate objective: creating as much of a disturbance as possible without incurring arrests. You, in contrast, would have had us ignore the objective circumstances and pursue a plan which it was obvious to all could not carry the day. If you ask me, that seems a bit inflexible — and foolish.
Finally, you talk about the strikers’ “leadership.” As far as I am concerned, the strikers are the leaders. If you came to one of our meetings, you could see how we have put this principle of democratic unionism into practice. It is a balancing act, but at the end of the day the strikers set the tone and pace of our strategy and tactics. So you can say that Judy and I and whomever else are “leading” the strike in a very bad direction. But these are the strategies and tactices at which we have arrived in consultation with the strikers.
Keep in mind, too, that the committee is not infallible. In fact, it has made some strategic and tactical decisions with which I have disagreed and considered mistakes. In contrast to you, however, my response has been to struggle within the committee for my positions. You just write criticisms from afar.
Again, I responded to every suggestion you offered. What more do you want? I’ve reached out to the Teamsters and UFCW — but, unfortunately, they’ve been slow to respond. Do you have a magic wand to address that problem? You certainly make it sound like you do. In fact, you make it sound like if we just had Gregory A. Butler in charge, everything would be dandy and we would have won the strike months ago. So why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and actually get involved? You’ve convinced me. You apparently have magical strike-winning powers. I’ll follow your lead. Now you just need to lead.
Or maybe you’re afraid you don’t have anything better to offer than the rest of us?
Solidarity,
Micah
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Minimum-Wage,
Absolutely. I would be very surprised if someone who writes that well is scabbing on a strike. Certainly it is possible, but most people only scab on strikes when they’ve not got any other options. And someone with those writing skills likely does, in fact, have other options. I’m not judging anyone, as you suggest; I’m simply stating what appears to me to be a very obvious fact.
You can try to attack me and parse my words on internet forums all you like. Nothing you write, however, can speak louder than my actions. I have made clear through them which side of the class line I stand on. Which side are you on, Minimum-Wage?
Solidarity,
Micah
April 3rd, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Gregory,
As an afterthought, I want to congratulate you on one major improvement since your last post attacking me. This time you used the word “we” in reference to winning the strike:
“I really feel for those 135 workers - but, if WE keep going the way WEâre going at Stella Dâoro, itâs going to be another defeat.”
So I take it you’re onboard? Welcome! Next meeting is Wednesday night at 7PM at the Church of the Mediator, 231st Street just west of Broadway. I’ll look forward to meeting you in person then.
Solidarity,
Micah
April 5th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Micah, I would not waste your time on Butler. He has a history of internet attacks against people in the labor movement (e.g. Gilberto Sota the Teamster killed in Latin America). No sweat though, the man has no base and can not attract followers and is a nobody in his local.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Hi Anonymous,
Others have said the same thing to me about Butler’s internet attacks. He did, however, have some excellent suggestions in one of his posts, and I do think his participation in our support meetings would be valuable. That is why I have responded so far. At this point, though, I think I am done. Thanks for the support!
-Micah
April 7th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
A side that has little patience for middle-class bigotry in OUR class struggle.
Furthermore, I suggest that you do some preliminary research on the use of college students as strike-breakers before you presume to lecture the rest of us on who is, and is not, inclined to scab.
April 8th, 2009 at 8:18 am
How can you talk about “class struggle”? You’re defending scabs! I’m not in the habit of attacking them as bad people — they’re being screwed by the bosses just like other workers — but, unlike you, I won’t defend their actions.
I’ll do my primary research before I “presume to lecture” you about scabs. Now why don’t you come out and support the strike before you presume to lecture me about “OUR class struggle”?
And don’t defend scabs anymore. It really is unbecoming of a “class warrior” like yourself.
April 15th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Who am I defending?
Re-read my comments, then show me where I’ve defended scabs, or for that matter anyone else.
The copying and pasting of my actual quotes would not be out of line here.
And as for more actively supporting the strike - it’s a valid point, but like all of us, I have too many issues and too little time.
April 18th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Fair enough. I am calling a unilateral truce because, as you say, I too have “too many issues and too little time” — especially for fighting on internet forums.
Folks, come out to 138th Street and Convent Ave. at 2PM on Wednesday April 22 — CCNY students and Stella D’Oro strikers will be rallying together against budget cuts, tuition hikes, and union-busting.
Students and workers: unite and fight!
-Micah
April 19th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I’m amazed at how many posters seem to be advocating illegal activities in order to “win” the strike; no wonder the American labor movement finds itself in the situation that it is.
Make no mistake; if unions can’t make a case based on the merits of the situation (i.e. - the actual market worth of the labor they have to offer), and choose, instead, behave dishonestly and unethically, then, in the long run, I suspect they will go by the wayside….and to my mind, rightfully so. Our society needs ethical WORKERS who are willing to EARN their living based on the value of the labor they provide…not thugs who expect to be compensated based on the amount of trouble they might cause.
April 20th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Wilbur, who here has advocated illegal activities? Is picketing illegal? Are boycotts illegal? Are marches and rallies illegal? If so, it’s news to me!
Not to mention, our country has a proud tradition of civil disobedience. Some times you need to break the law to serve a higher purpose. Remember, this fight is to make sure that good, honest working people will be able to put food on the table — a fight worth fighting!
-Micah
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Wilbur,
You say “Our society needs ethical WORKERS who are willing to EARN their living based on the value of the labor they provide”?
Time for a reality check. Even when capitalists pay labor a “living wage,” the value of this wage (the value of labor power) *is always less than the value of the commodities produced by the workers’ labor.*
How “ethical” is this exchange, exactly? Is the asymmetry of power in this “free exchange” not clear to you? I suppose not. But it should be.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
It’s a shame what is going on, but when the drivers went on strike 6 years ago they crossed our picket lines after one week. In 1990 the bakers were on strike for 5 weeks and the drivers gave them their full support, but they left us to rot. It’s just the chickens coming home to roost, if they would have stuck by the drivers they might have been in a better bargaining position now. By the way, two years ago they broke the drivers union and they bakers told us too bad, but they were needed and would not ever be gotten rid of, sad state of affairs all around.
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:00 am
Mike,
You’re absolutely right about the chickens coming home to roost — but most of the strikers with whom I’ve spoken agree that, in retrospect, crossing the Teamsters’ picket line was a huge mistake, and also agree that if the drivers were still union, they themselves would be in a much better bargaining position today.
So what is the answer to this difficulty? To fight like hell and win the strike! We certainly shouldn’t let past differences and mistakes divide us in the face of the fight today. To be clear, you don’t sound like you hold a grudge against the bakers, but I’ve heard others certainly do and that some refuse to support them on account of it, which is very unfortunate.
I agree that what happened then and what is happening now are certainly a “sad state of affairs” — but hopefully we can turn things around for the future!
Solidarity,
Micah
May 29th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Jason;
Sure the “asymmetry of power ” is clear to me…and it’s a quite NATURAL “asymmetry”! As for the “value of this wage” being less than the commodities produced (albeit not SOLELY…an important distinction!!!!) ….well, “right on”! If they were NOT of higher value, then there would be no reason to provide ANY wages, would there? And besides, if the laborers aren’t prepared to accept this natural “asymmetry”, then it’s well within their power - IF (and this is a mighty BIG “if”!) they are capable! - to produce those commodities THEMSELVES without being employed by anyone.
I get a pain in my craw every time I hear this “living wage” crap. I.e. - wages ought to be paid on the market value of the labor they pay for….PERIOD!!! Any other basis is simply another name for “welfare”.
Granted, there are a lot of individuals in this country who seem to have convinced themselves that the only way they’re going to make it is by means of such welfare. But, for the life of me, I can’t see any reason why we, as a society, should encourage them, or try to disguise what they’re after by calling it anything else.
Now, if there are people willing and able to do the work at the wage being offered, then I say LET THEM WORK!!!! Dismissing them on behalf of those who are NOT willing to function competitively makes absolutely no sense…either for those actually willing to act as true EMOLOYEES, or for those who have a stake in society and its economy as a whole..
May 29th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Micah;
I would point to comments posted here such as….
“THEY HAVE EVEN REDUCED THE AMOUNT OF PRIVATE SECURITY AROUND THERE ..THAT SHOWS THAT THEY ARE NOT SCARED OF YOU..AT FIRST THEY HAD A BUNCH OF SECURITY ..NOW HARDLY ANY..
YOU NEED TO SCARE THEM .. OR BUSINESS AS NORMAL WILL BE IN AFFECT TILL AUGUST..
YOU NEED MORE FOCUS ON THE STRIKE LINE..INTERUPT DAILY SCHEDULES FOR THEM
HAVE THEM TIGHTEN THEIR BELTS A LITTLE MORE AND HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS AND HAVE THEM SPEND MORE MONEY..MAKE THEM HIRE MORE SECURITY..MAKE THEM INSTALL MORE CAMERAS..MAKE THEM PARK IN DIFFERENT AREAS..
IF YOU DONT DO IT NO ONE WILL……
AND YOU NEED TO DO THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE”
…and….
“These workers need to “step it up a notch” (in ways that should NOT be talked about over open wires) or they WILL be defeated”
…and… (fully aware that this poster was NOT promoting such activity)….
“The “No Contract, No Cookies” chant that you see in all these clips only exists when the media is around, otherwise its a constant barrage of racial slurs, sexist remarks, and other types of immature, ineffective name-calling. Slashing people’s tires, breaking people’s car windows, keying their cars while they are trying to get to or from work…what exactly does that have to do with your supposed “fight” ? ”
….and….
“Our intention was to confront scabs and do our best to stop production at the plant. We were able to be very disruptive at a previous rally — including turning away scabs at the plant gates — because the police showed up more than an hour after we arrived. ”
…to document my assertion that there are those here who “seem to be advocating illegal activities in order to “win” the strike;”.
So, if that’s “news to [you]”, then I suspect you should either (1) further review the thread, or (2) acquaint yourself with what’s legal or not, or (3) get some instruction in the field of ethics.
Bottom line is that thuggery in no way enhances the ultimate prospects of the labor movement; those that actually PROVIDE the jobs are eventually going to flee from it, and the jobs they provided will no longer exist. But it’s exactly such thuggery (which IS illegal!) which it seems many appear to be advocating here. And that’s unfortunate.
…
June 5th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Wilbur,
Almost all of the comments you’ve quoted were made by people who’ve not been to a single strike support meeting. I would know — I’ve been to all but a small handful of them. I can’t control what people say, but I can say with absolute confidence that no one actually involved with the strike has advocated any illegal activities in this forum.
As for the quote you’ve taken from me –
“Our intention was to confront scabs and do our best to stop production at the plant. We were able to be very disruptive at a previous rally — including turning away scabs at the plant gates — because the police showed up more than an hour after we arrived”
– I don’t see anywhere in it that I’ve advocated illegal activities. On the contrary, I’ve observed what occurred and described our intentions, which absolutely was to prevent the plant from producing and/or distributing cookies. But there are plenty of legal ways — including picketing and discouraging union drivers from making deliveries to and from the plant — to accomplish that end.
Finally, what is with your fetish for the law anyways? As I wrote, our country — and our labor movement — has a proud tradition of civil disobedience. Or do you think segregation laws were just and should never have been broken? What about the illegal sit-down strikes of the 30s which brought about the NLRA — and helped birth the industrial middle class?
Why is a right-winger like you even on this website?
-Micah
June 5th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
-Micah-
Perhaps you’re unaware of it, but deliberately “turning away scabs at the plant gates” and “intentionally being very disruptive” ARE “illegal activities”. I take it , however, that n light of you “before the police showed up” comment, you were already aware of that.
As for my “fetish with the law”, I have such a “fetish” because the law was - and is - designed to protect the individual from the excesses of the mob…and, quite frankly, I see you as representing mob behavior. You don’t care about society generally. Rather, you’re just out to raise Hell in pursuit of your own selfish ends, without making any societal contribution whatsoever. And what you call “civil disobedience” I see as simply disruptive - and DESTRUCTIVE - - behavior; i.e. - you’ve discovered that your labor’s real worth in terms of its market value doesn’t match your expectations, so instead of putting out the effort to EARN more value, you’re trying to shake-down the wherewithal that others HAVE earned.
As per your question about the “illegal sit-down strikes of the 30’s”….well, I view them as exactly that; i.e. - “illegal”…..and part ‘n’ parcel of the primrose path that led this country’s economy to where it stands to day. By that I mean that they didn’t help “birth the industrial middle class”, but rather generated a parasitical welfare class who today can’t seem to function competitively on the world stage. To paraphrase Henny Youngman…”take the UAW….please!
Not a “right winger” by any means; believe me, if you look around, I think you’ll find that not everyone who thinks that people ought to earn their way in life as opposed to extorting it from their betters is “right wing”. Rather, I’m simply one who is calling it like he sees it…and one who resents parasitical elements running this country’s economy into the ground,….and ruining it for the TRUE American worker who IS willing to competitively EARN his way through life.
I’m sure, however, that nothing I have to say will make much difference to you. No doubt you’ll keep being “disruptive” prior to the police showing up, and claim that you’re extending “civil liberties” or give some equally inane - and dishonest - excuse.
Anyway, you keep holding to your “proud tradition”…as if being some punk who serves no purpose other than being disruptive is something to be “proud” of.
June 5th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
-Micah-
A follow-up on something I forgot to get into above.
I think it’s rather pertinent to compare your original, rather “loaded” question of….
“Wilbur, who here has advocated illegal activities? Is picketing illegal? Are boycotts illegal? Are marches and rallies illegal? If so, it’s news to me! ”
….with your subsequent response of….
“Almost all of the comments you’ve quoted were made by people who’ve not been to a single strike support meeting. I would know — I’ve been to all but a small handful of them. I can’t control what people say, but I can say with absolute confidence that no one actually involved with the strike has advocated any illegal activities in this forum.”
Have a little integrity problem there, do ya’ guy? [[smile]
June 19th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Wilbur,
Deliberately “turning away scabs at the plant gates” and “intentionally being very disruptive” are not necessarily illegal. For all you know, we may have been turning away scabs at the plant gate by reasoning with them; and there are many ways to be disruptive while remaining within the limits of the law.
As for the police, they don’t simply enforce the law — they often go well beyond it. For example, they have tried on several occasions to prevent us from exercising our right to free speech by stopping us from marching and maintaining us penned in by the plant. You seem to fancy yourself an expert in labor law — so I am sure you know that the police cannot prevent a group from marching on a public sidewalk so long as they do not block pedestrian traffic.
So remind me: Who is violating the law, Wilbur?
As for the comments in your second paragraph, they lack any substance whatsoever. You don’t know me or the first thing about me so how you are able to speak to my supposed motivation is beyond me. I’ll only say one thing: I’m a union staffer and believe passionately in the labor movement and the power of working people to fight to better their lives and our society in general. As for me being out to “raise Hell” or my purported disappointment at having “discovered…your labor’s real worth,” those may be your issues, but they certainly aren’t mine.
Your comments on the gains of the labor movement in the past and the causes of the economic collapse in recent months are so ill-informed as to be laughable. I don’t have the time or the patience to go into detail on the subject here, but the labor movement — including the illegal strikes and factory occupations it has carried out — has been the greatest engine of growth for the middle class in this country. As for the economic crisis, it was caused by predatory subprime lending, not the UAW or any other union.
Maybe you should take an economics course? Or study a little bit of history? Or just read a newspaper?
You’re not a right-wing neanderthal? You could have fooled me! So how do you describe your political ideology, Wilbur? I’m clearly on the left — and proud of it! Which side are you on, Wilbur?
Also, last time I checked the relevant statistics, the majority of “TRUE American workers” would join a union given the chance. You would deny them the higher wages and better benefits that accrue to union members? You would tell them they have no right to fight for a better life? Some “TRUE American worker” you are!
I don’t see the point of your “follow-up.” Also, you never answered my question about civil disobedience and segregation.
So long as it means confronting right-wingers like you and fighting for the rights of working people, I am proud to be a “punk.”
-Micah
March 21st, 2009 at 5:47 am
DONT YOU THINK IT IS TIME TO STEP IT UP..
YOU HAVE BEEN ON STRIKE FOR 9 MONTHS
THEY ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE IN.. THEY ARE WAITING TILL AUG 4TH SO THEY CAN GET RID OF THE UNION LEGALLY..1 YEAR AND ONE DAY ..THATS ALL IT TAKES.AND YOU WILL BE GONE
THEY HAVE EVEN REDUCED THE AMOUNT OF PRIVATE SECURITY AROUND THERE ..THAT SHOWS THAT THEY ARE NOT SCARED OF YOU..AT FIRST THEY HAD A BUNCH OF SECURITY ..NOW HARDLY ANY..
YOU NEED TO SCARE THEM .. OR BUSINESS AS NORMAL WILL BE IN AFFECT TILL AUGUST..
YOU NEED MORE FOCUS ON THE STRIKE LINE..INTERUPT DAILY SCHEDULES FOR THEM
HAVE THEM TIGHTEN THEIR BELTS A LITTLE MORE AND HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS AND HAVE THEM SPEND MORE MONEY..MAKE THEM HIRE MORE SECURITY..MAKE THEM INSTALL MORE CAMERAS..MAKE THEM PARK IN DIFFERENT AREAS..
IF YOU DONT DO IT NO ONE WILL……
AND YOU NEED TO DO THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE