López spoke to Militant reporters during an expanded picket line outside the garment manufacturing plant here October 21. About 70 workers and their supporters rallied that morning at the plant’s main gate during the 7:00 a.m. shift change. In addition to the more than 50 Point Blank strikers, members of Jobs with Justice, United Transportation Union, and the Carpenters union took part.

"On your feet to struggle; Never on your knees!" and "So-so-solidarity!" chanted the strikers, as Point Blank employees who have crossed the line and replacements the company has hired since August 9 entered the plant.

Prudencio López explained that they walked off the job two and a half months ago after the company fired a third person in response to the workers’ fight to win representation by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). Point Blank, located in the Miami area, employs 375 people and is one of the major garment shops in South Florida. It makes bulletproof vests and riot gear sold to the U.S. military and police forces.

In September, the NLRB announced its decision to file an unfair labor practices complaint against Point Blank. After a two-month probe of the plant, the board found that the company illegally retaliated against union supporters by firing three workers and threatening low wages, a loss of benefits, and a plant shutdown. The agency dismissed company allegations that UNITE picketed illegally and threatened employee representatives.

"We’ve also stood up against the attempt by the company to take down our tents," said López. He was referring to the August 18 order by Oakland Park city officials that strikers must take down their tent outside the plant on the pretext their presence "impedes the flow of water." The workers refused to obey the order and the city has not made a move to enforce it since then.

The NLRB filed its complaint against Point Blank with an administrative law judge, and a hearing has been set for December 2.

A week later, the company sued UNITE officials, claiming they have defamed Point Blank by spreading false and misleading information about the safety of the bulletproof vests it has produced since the strike began. In addition to Bruce Raynor, UNITE’s president, and Scott Cooper, who has been overseeing the union’s organizing effort at Point Blank, the suit names as a defendant Sam Cabral, president of the International Union of Police Associations.

According to Mervilus Jean Baptiste, a UNITE organizer who now is part of the Point Blank fight, union officials have argued that the bulletproof vests the company has produced since August 9 are not safe. Ten members of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee signed a letter to the company in July expressing concern about the working conditions at Point Blank. The New York Police Department decided to return 5,000 vests to Point Blank, reaching a deal with the company later to send back 1,000 of these for replacement.

Meanwhile, on the picket line the strikers have been discussing the issues that convinced them to seek union representation and later to organize the walkout.

Carlos Abriceño, who was a floor worker for seven months before going on strike, said that he is sticking with the union because of "the injustice inside there, what they pay, without water, without air conditioning. They treat workers like animals. It’s like a prison, but prisoners at least have water."

Abriceño said he started work at $5.75 per hour and received a raise to $6 within a few months. He pointed to another worker who was "still making $6.50 an hour after seven years with the company! It’s against this injustice I am fighting, more than for myself."  
 
 
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