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Vol.64/No.1      January 10, 2000 
 
 
Dye workers win strike in New Jersey  
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Photo-see caption below 
Militant/Ned Measel 
 
Members of Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) picket December 22 in front of Trio Dye & Finishing plant in Paterson, New Jersey. Some 1,300 striking fabric dyers ended their four-day walkout after workers voted to accept a contract later that day. The bosses at 12 textile finishing plants in the area agreed to a 30-cent per hour pay hike over three years, no cuts in health benefits, and a $300 signing bonus. Earlier, four companies signed contracts giving workers a 75-cent pay increase over three years. The employers, who had formed themselves into two associations that included 18 companies in several New Jersey counties, were pressing the workers to swallow a 15 percent pay cut, elimination of all company-paid medical coverage, and a five-year contract. The textile workers’ last strike in 1993-94 ended with the employers winning substantial cuts in wages and benefits. This time many workers were determined to resist the demands for givebacks. "My shop was not on strike," said Muzafer Ramadani, of Coral Dye. "But I was on the picket lines anyway from five in the morning to six in the afternoon."  
 
 
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