We invite you to contribute short items to this column as a way for other fighting workers around the world to read about and learn from these important struggles. Jot down a few lines about what is happening in your union, at your workplace, or other workplaces in your area, including interesting political discussions.

Nearly 800 electrical workers went on strike April 2 at Lithonia Lighting's production plant and distribution center in Conyers, Georgia, after overwhelmingly rejecting the company's final contract offer. Lithonia Lighting, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based National Service Industries, is a major manufacturer of commercial florescent lighting fixtures.

The strikers, who are staffing picket lines 24 hours a day, are members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 613. This is the first strike at the plant since 1968.

Lithonia Lighting's proposal to make workers pay drastically increased health insurance costs is one of the central issues in the walkout. The company wants workers to pay both higher weekly premiums and absorb much higher deductibles.

Another take-back proposal strikers reject is a sharp reduction in job classifications, allowing the company to cut the number of workers, while forcing the rest to work harder. Management offered a 40 cent raise over the three-year life of the contract. Union members explain that between this minimal raise and the higher insurance costs, they would be making about $2 an hour less by the end of the proposed contract.

"We gave and gave over the years," explained Judson Maddox, a forklift driver with 25 years on the job. "You get backed up so far and then you get tired of backing up. Let the company back up a little for a change."

Teamster-organized truckers are honoring Local 613 picket lines at the Conyers plant. Strikers have successfully stopped Lithonia Lighting trucks by picketing out several other trucking sites. Meanwhile, negotiations are set to resume in mid-April.

250 attend rally for rubber workers in Iowa
A crowd of 250 rallied on short notice in Des Moines, Iowa, April 6 in support of striking rubber workers. The event, which featured Jesse Jackson, head of the National Rainbow Coalition, was held at the United Rubber Workers (URW) Local 310 union hall. It followed a well-publicized visit by Jackson to the union's picket lines.

Rubber workers have been walking picket lines since last July at the Bridgestone/Firestone plants in Des Moines, Decatur, Illinois, Oklahoma City, and Noblesville, Indiana.

"It's better to fight in dignity than to go back and duck your head in shame," Jackson told the rally. He explained his view of struggle as being, "good profits for the company, job security for the workers, and a good product for the consumer."

Striker Dave Mendenhall told the crowd the strikers are carrying on the fight to preserve the union for young workers who will come into the plant in the future.

Amy Brandley, the teenage daughter of a union member, described the financial hardship strikers and their families have suffered during the long walkout. In spite of this, Brandley said, "Bridgestone/Firestone will never be able to take away our dignity."

Other speakers included Denise O'Brien, an Atlantic, Iowa, farmer and head of the National Family Farm Coalition; Jack Hatch, an aide to U.S. senator Tom Harkin; and Kathleen McQuillen from the American Friends Service Committee.

Several area groups are sponsoring a "Good Friday vigil for Labor Justice" that will include a church service and march to a nearby Firestone tire store.

The company and the union have held periodic bargaining meetings over the past couple months. Following the most recent meeting in Chicago, URW bargaining head John Sellers told the press that little progress toward a settlement was made. Another meeting with the company is scheduled for April 21.

Wood workers strike for pay hike in New Zealand
Sixty wood workers in Rotorua, New Zealand, have been out on strike since mid-March to press demands for a wage increase. Their contract is up for renewal.

The workers report that the struck factory is the only one in the country to make a particular style of prefabricated wooden houses. Both local and export orders have been left unfilled because of the strike.

An attempt to remove finished goods from the site was successfully turned back by the workers' picket line.

Money collections have been organized by the Wood Industries Union, one of two unions organizing the strikers. Donations of food have also been arriving at the picket line.

The workers are demanding a 3 percent wage increase and a 12-month contract. The company wants a two-year contract.

The strike was sparked when management suspended workers who refused to load goods for delivery after the union put a ban on goods leaving the site. Once the suspensions were issued, the rest of the workers walked off the job.

New York bus drivers stage warning strike
Some 150 school bus drivers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1181, struck for 90 minutes April 13. The unplanned walkout protested the New York City administration's plan to cut costs by sending out bus contracts for competitive bidding. New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani plans to drive down workers' wages by ending the current system, in which private companies are given contracts and hire drivers, mechanics, and escorts from common seniority lists at annual salaries that cannot be cut.

"We agreed to go back to work, because Local 1181 has told us they're going to take this to the wall," said James Tufaro, one of the drivers who was part of the brief walkout.

A citywide strike on April 24 involving 6,000 drivers appears likely, according to union officials who left fruitless negotiations at city hall recently. Many workers spoke angrily of the city administration's union-busting plans and were determined to wage a fight for their jobs. "I think it stinks," said Jerry Petrie on the hard-line stance the city has taken.

Contributors to this week's column include: Susan LaMont, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Tucker, Georgia; Norton Sandler from Des Moines; and Colin Parker from Auckland, New Zealand.  
 
 
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