Vol. 75/No. 29      August 8, 2011

Local 48G in Keokuk, Iowa, has accepted the latest offer from the corporate criminal Roquette America, ending the brutal 10-month lockout initiated by the company. We fought a valiant struggle and our union became stronger as time went on. This new contract is designed to divide workers, so it will take a constant effort to remain strong.

This letter I write today is a thank-you letter. Early on in our struggle, these folks showed up at our picket lines talking about the working class and selling this newspaper called the Militant, where we could read about other workers’ struggles. At the time, we were so timid as a union, we tended to shy away from words like “militant” or even “SOLIDARITY” and phrases like “class warfare.” As time went on, we found these comrades weren’t just selling a newspaper. And it wasn’t them joining our war. It was us joining the war already being waged against the working class.

These days you don’t have to look far to find a member of 48G with a subscription to the Militant. We came to rely on the Militant as they covered our story more often than our international’s monthly did.

I thank David Rosenfeld, who ran for governor of Iowa as the Socialist Workers Party’s candidate, for mentioning our struggle during the “third party debate” hosted by WHO radio in Des Moines. There are others too numerous to name, but I thank all the good people I now call friends and comrades for the rides, the meals, the books, and the opportunity to tell 48G’s story. This includes the opportunity to tell it to locked-out SEIU members in New York when I visited there last January.

Most of all, thank you for breaking down the walls that corporations and their puppets are constantly trying to divide us with. They are coming after all of us.

My brothers and sisters are grateful for you being there for us. I will close with one of my favorite chants being heard around the country in marches, at rallies, and on picket lines: “Gay, straight, Black, white, same struggle, same fight!” We are all in this together.

In SOLIDARITY,

Buddy Howard,
President Lee County Labor Council
Proud member of Local 48G
Immigrant
 
 
Related articles:
Iowa lockout ends: union fought, came out stronger
Illinois: Locked-out Honeywell workers to vote on contract
Striking building workers rally in Queens, N.Y.
Bombardier layoffs met by British nationalist demagogy  
 
 
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