From: "Curtis Price" <cansv-AT-igc.apc.org>
Date:          Sat, 9 Aug 1997 11:33:35 +0000
Subject: AUT: (Fwd) Thousands of CWA support Teamsters in NYC!


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Thu, 7 Aug 1997 23:46:03 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-to:      Labor-Rap-AT-csf.colorado.edu
From:          Michael Eisenscher <meisenscher-AT-igc.apc.org>
To:            Labor Research and Action Project  <Labor-Rap-AT-csf.colorado.edu>
Subject:       Thousands of CWA support Teamsters in NYC!
X-To:          pen-l-AT-anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap-AT-csf.colorado.edu,
               h-UCLEA-AT-h-net.msu.edu, united-AT-cougar.com, OIFAC-AT-CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU,
               can-labor-AT-pencil.math.missouri.edu

From: Jack Petith <jfp-AT-sprynet.com>
Subject: Thousands of CWA support Teamsters in NYC!

Hi folks,

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for this great
one.  The LP should be doing and organizing as much of this kind of thing
as possible wherever we can.  Especially if we can do it in conjunction
with the unions.  This UPS strike is the biggest strike in a long time,
with the most coverage by corporate media.  Labor everywhere seems to feel
very strongly in favor of this one and to understand that the fight is for
all of us.  There are signs that "the times are a-changing."  Let's be
there for the change and help it along!
jp

New York, August 7th
	A significant act of labor solidarity, such as has rarely been seen in
recent years, took place in the heart of New York City today.  Several
thousand members of the CWA (Communications Workers of America) rallied,
took over large parts of New York's 42nd Street and marched across the city
to the Teamsters' picket lines to support their fellow workers on strike
against UPS.  
	CWA's contract with NYNEX expires in one year, but thousands of workers
came out today in front of the phone company headquarters to let the bosses
know in no uncertain terms that they are ready to fight for a good contract
in '98.  CWA locals 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104,1105, 1106, 1109, 1110, 1120,
and 1180 were represented in the street.  Chanting, cheering the speeches,
and blowing hundreds of whistles, they sent a strong message that workers
in this country are not going to take it any more.  Things are changing,
and labor is getting into a fighting mood.  It's still one year to contract
time, but CWA is getting ready to do battle.
	In addition to the speeches by CWA leaders, local leaders of the striking
Teamsters spoke to the rally.  They emphasized that the demands that their
185,000 members are fighting for are the same issues effecting workers
everywhere:  More jobs and job security, the need to wake up and fight
against the vicious new onslaughts of corporate greed.  Labor solidarity is
key, they stressed, and if labor will stand up and fight as one we can win.
 Without us these companies are nothing, they said.  Without us they have
no money because we make the money for them.
	Taking over the up-town side of 42nd Street, in mid-town Manhattan, the
several thousand CWA workers surged westward.  They chanted and blew their
whistles all the way over to the Teamsters picket lines near the Hudson
River at 43rd Street and 12th Avenue.  Along the way other workers in cars
and trucks and along the sidewalks gave signs of solidarity, blowing horns,
waving fists in the air, or hollering encouragement.  This kind of labor
solidarity felt great!   No petty "identity politics" here!  Blacks,
whites, young, old, female, and male were united as one against the beast
that's threatening all of us more and more every day.  
	The Teamsters were jubilant on their picket lines when they saw thousands
of workers coming to their support.  Wild chanting, whistling and whooping,
and passionate shaking of hands and embraces broke out everywhere.  "Big
Brown, Shut 'em Down!"  "Union!  Union!  Union!" 
	Meanwhile the were cops everywhere, the same cops, never neutral, that
have been viciously attacking Teamsters in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
The cops had set up barricades to keep the Teamsters separate from the CWA
and anyone else, to isolate them, but they came down in a clatter as the
workers came together.  
	A local leader of the Teamsters told me they expect to have lots more
labor solidarity like this on their line.   I hope he's right.  This
particular act of solidarity was conceived and pushed for by Kathy Ciner,
head of CWA local 1105.  Let's hope a lot of other local leaders will take
similar initiatives.  Let's push for it in our unions.  UPS can be shut
down tight, in New York and everywhere.  The workers, the Teamsters and
their brothers in sisters in other unions, and even the unemployed, can
stand together and bring UPS to its knees if we act together.  A victory
for the Teamsters is a victory for all of us.

Jack Petith
NWU, local 1981 UAW

please distribute widely!

Jack Petith
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