BY LEA SHERMAN
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - About 35 women from across the state
participated in the 1998 Texas state conference of the
National Organization for Women (NOW) October 2-4.
A major theme of the meeting was the fight against discrimination in the workplace. The conference began with a picket line protesting sexual harassment and discrimination by the United States Post Office.
The demands of the picket, held in front of the San Antonio post office, included that postal officials cease sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation against women workers and settle numerous complaints pending before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Among the protesters were postal employees Vickie Louthen and Tillie Gonzales, the president and vice president of San Antonio NOW, respectively.
At the conference, Louthen and Gonzales were part of a workshop panel called "Working Together to Fight Employment Discrimination."
The panel of postal workers, both hourly and salaried, related the abuses and harassment they face on the job and their fight for equality, respect, and dignity.
The keynote speaker at the gathering was Sabrina Arellano, an attorney who has worked with women fighting sexual discrimination at the post office. Arellano lauded NOW's work to "put political pressure on the [court] system for positive change" in relation to this fight.
Also participating in the convention were three members of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) Local 4-227: Phyllis Miller, B.J. Case, and Karen Sloan. The unionists, who are also NOW members, have been locked-out at Crown Central Petroleum in Pasadena, Texas, for more than two years. Miller and Sloan are also plaintiffs in an anti-discrimination lawsuit filed in June 1997 by eight union and salaried Crown employees.
Invited to speak after the keynote speech, Sloan, who worked at Crown for 19 years before the lockout, explained their fight. The class action suit points to a pattern and practice of race and gender discrimination, including charges that supervisors created and distributed racist and sexist handbills, maintained a discriminatory promotion policy, and encouraged a workplace hostile to Blacks and women. "There are so many things we've had to endure. We're fighting this corporate monster. We will not stop until we win," she said.
In February 1996, Crown locked out 252 union workers who resisted the company's proposals to eliminate 40 percent of the jobs, contract out work, and gut union seniority. The refinery hired replacement workers, but the union members have never stopped fighting to get their jobs back, including holding daily pickets at the plantgate, rallies, participating in union solidarity events, and reaching out for support to organizations like the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and NOW. The OCAW members set up a table at the Texas NOW conference with literature and T- shirts on the Crown fight.
Participants at the meeting adopted two resolutions on the Crown struggle. One supported the fight to end the racist and sexist discrimination at Crown, and the other urged the company to negotiate in good faith with the locked-out union workers.
Other workshops included "Survival as a Young Feminist," "Countdown to the 1998 Elections," and "Women's Rights are Human Rights."
At the end of the conference proceedings, participants joined a picket line in defense of women's right to choose abortion.
Lea Sherman is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 15 and the Socialist Workers candidate for Congress in the 29th C.D. in Texas.