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Vol. 76/No. 48      December 31, 2012

 
25, 50 and 75 years ago
 

January 1, 1988

TORONTO—McDonnell Douglas Canada has been forced to make concessions to union demands for improvements in health and safety at its plant here, after workers brought production to a standstill by exercising their right to refuse to work under unsafe conditions.

The job action followed a Nov. 13 report by the Ontario Ministry of Labour. The report confirmed what McDonnell Douglas workers have known for years: “Safety and healthy work practices appear to take second place to production requirements.”

CAW Local 1967, which organizes the 3,500 aerospace workers at the plant, responded to the report by distributing a leaflet at the plant gate summarizing its facts and conclusions. That day hundreds of workers refused to work and the next day production had effectively been halted.

December 31, 1962

The return to Miami of the Cuban prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion should put an end to U.S. press stories about their “mistreatment” in Cuba and “Buchenwald-like” prison camps. From television and newspaper photos they appear in good physical condition.

Under persistent coaxing and inducement by the U.S. press some are beginning to utter half-hearted vows about “returning” to Cuba in another invasion.

Are such boasts mere expediency to please the U.S. authorities? Or are the released prisoners suckers enough to be used by U.S. imperialism in another military assault on their homeland? For their own sakes, it is to be hoped they have learned their bitter lesson. The U.S. army has been engaged in a special effort to recruit Cuban counter-revolutionaries and some 1,200 of them are getting training in special Spanish-speaking units in army camps in the Carolinas.

January 1, 1938

Paris transport facilities and public services were paralyzed by a general strike beginning at dawn on Dec. 29. This was the answer to the attempts of Camille Chautemps’ People’s Front Government to break the new wave of sit-in strikes sweeping over France.

Faced with rising prices, which have wiped out the gains made by the great strikes of June 1936, and new decree laws virtually abolishing the 40-hour week won at that time, the French workers are rising to the struggle.

The strikes reveal a determined mass upsurge on the part of the workers. The occupation of the factories is widespread. Although centered in Paris with the Goodrich tire plant as a focal point, it has rapidly spread to include telephone workers, steel workers, chemical workers, department stores, food warehouses, river boatmen and all forms of transportation, especially the truck drivers.  
 
 
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