Boeing Workers’ Strike in Washington/ Oregon

A handful of party militants went to the picket line in Gresham Oregon and then to several 5 of the 7 locations in Washington state including Everette where the largest contingent of workers are located. CSAN and Party material was distributed among the workers. Despite threats from some picket line bosses who wished to expel our members, the vast majority of workers expressed a positive interest in our positions and literature.

University Food Service and Custodial Workers’ Strike in Illinois

The building and food service workers at University of Illinois represented by SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 73 voted against initial bargaining attempts by the Board of Trustees and the union. Alongside SEIU Local 73, the union representing graduate student workers started an undergraduate labor solidarity group in which the party is militating. A solidarity rally was held about one week before the strike began where a Party leaflet explaining class unionism, steps to take to further the struggle, and calls to push back against the pitiful electoralism of SEIU was distributed. Negotiations with the union continued throughout the week as they attempted to avoid the strike. This concluded with an affirmative strike vote. The strike of building and food service workers at the University of Illinois began on September 22nd after attempts from the University to delay it with legal action. A CSAN quarter sheet urging unionized workers to call in sick, work slowly and work the bare minimum, and to organize a walkout was made and handed out to those still working during the strike. The strike concluded on October 2nd with the workers demoralized and ready to accept an unsatisfactory contract. While this new contract was certainly an improvement over the initial offer, it fails to come close to the higher wages being paid just ten years ago. To reach these heights and to go further still, class unionism is needed. We distributed the following leaflet on the picket line.

UFCW Fred Myers Workers’ Strike in Portland, Oregon

One of the largest of the fights in which the party is militating is the fight of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555. Most sections of Fred Myers grocery workers in Oregon went out on strike earlier in September over issues such as wage demands and a lack of willingness on the part of the boss to negotiate with the union. The strike was to take place for a set limit of days (6 days) with the boss getting advance notice of the strike allowing Fred Meyers bosses the chance to hire scab workers. During the strike the stores largely continued to operate and many customers and workers crossed the picket lines. Workers and this strike were further weakened by divisions within the union. Despite collaborationist leadership who encouraged workers to take a pacifist attitude to scabs and those crossing the picket lines, we reinforced the lines and alongside the militant elements in the union encouraged workers to defend the lines, distributing the newspaper as well.

In addition to this, workers organized in United for Class Wide Action within UFCW, supported by Party members and CSAN, have pushed for the strong wage demand of $40 and this demand was propagandized for among Fred Myers workers. This led to the union being successfully pressured into significantly increasing their original demands to $32 an hour from the company. When previously it was much lower and groups like Essential Workers for Democracy, a reformist caucus within UFCW, only wanted to see a wage demand of $30.

Efforts in Oregon Educators Association

In OEA the party, militating within a local education workers union, organized a strike solidarity committee within their local to bring fellow education workers to join Fred Meyers and then Boeing workers on the picket lines. The union has also been engaged in a year long open bargaining session, where we agitated for strong wage demands, and successfully argued against compromises against collaborationist attitudes that sought to compromise in the face of “budgetary” issues claimed by the district. We put forward the benefit of strike action in strengthening the unions leverage against the boss and the need for immediate collective action when the bosses began refusing the unions wage demand.

Class Struggle Action Network

Party militants continue their work within CSAN, to coordinate with other combative and anticapitalist elements within the unions. Recently, the most prominent of these fights is within Starbucks Workers United. A Starbucks worker and member of the CSAN organizing committee alongside coworkers at his store and others continue to struggle against the inclusion of a No Strike clause (NoStrike clauses are regularly included in labor contracts banning workers from striking during the duration of a labor agreement; a historic burden on the working classes struggle in the United States) within a Starbucks workers labor agreement and against the leadership of Starbucks Workers United whom has failed to prioritize organizing a majority of Starbucks stores in the United States and wants to enter into a friendly relationship with Starbucks bosses by putting forward weak economic demands and conceding workers ability to strike. CSAN, party militants, and these Starbucks workers continue organizing efforts to bring together more Starbucks workers around this fight through leafleting and holding meetings.