Vol. 71/No. 10      March 12, 2007

By reaching to organize a union, the meat packers there are fighting back against intolerable safety conditions that jeopardize their lives and limbs. Repetitive motion injuries, illnesses from chemicals, and risks of death from unsafe conditions are realities that a big section of the working class faces every day, whether punching in at a packing plant, coal mine, construction site, or elsewhere. Most workers know that without a union the bosses have an easier time firing or otherwise victimizing anyone who speaks up for safer conditions or refuses to perform unsafe jobs.

The workers at Holcomb are emboldened in their struggle against the bosses by the experiences they and millions like them went through last spring during the mass proletarian mobilizations to demand legalization for undocumented immigrants. One of those actions on April 10, 2006, attracted 3,000 people in the nearby town of Garden City, which has a population of 27,000. The next day, 600 workers walked out at an Excel packing plant in nearby Dodge City, forcing the company to back off from its attempt to discipline those who had missed work to take part in the protest.

Nearly one year later, the U.S. working class remains politicized by such experiences, which included millions of workers downing their tools and taking to the streets last May Day to place political demands on the government.

The U.S. rulers' antilabor response, including large-scale immigration raids, has not cowed working people into submission. If anything, the brutal and dehumanizing way in which la migra carried out its raids has helped workers from different national origins break down the boss-fostered divisions among them. The message of the employers and the government is becoming clearer: the target is the entire working class, not just the foreign-born, not just those without papers. The outpouring of solidarity with the workers rounded up in the December raids at six Swift plants—including the one in Cactus, Texas, which is near Holcomb—and with their families is a case in point.

Unsafe conditions, injuries, and deaths at work don't have to be "part of the job." They are the result of the way in which the bosses organize production, putting profits ahead of workers' lives. The only way to guarantee job safety is for workers to organize and use union power to exert control over working conditions.

The workers in Holcomb are doing just that.

As the bosses continue speeding up the line to shore up declining profits and fatten their wallets, we can anticipate more workers will follow suit. To achieve working-class unity, which is essential in the success of any such struggle, it is necessary to champion the legalization of undocumented immigrants. That's a life-and-death question for trade unions today.

The entire working class and the labor movement should support the actions of the Holcomb workers and demand: Legalize all immigrants now! Unionize all workers! Not a single worker has to die or be maimed on the job!
 
 
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Meat packers at Holcomb, Kansas, plant to vote on unionizing  
 
 
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