Reprinted from ILC International Newsletter No. 316, Dec. 17, 2008 The National Union of Mineworkers, Steelworkers, Steelmakers and Allied Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSSRM) is being subjected to fierce repression by the fraudulent government of Felipe Calderon and by the Grupo México, the mining monopoly that seeks to destroy the union. What is the mineworkers" crime? It"s defending the right of workers to decide who their leaders should be without government interference; it"s defending their collective-bargaining agreement. On December 4, Carlos Pavon Campos, Secretary for Political Affairs of the mineworkers" union, was arrested in Mexico City. He was immediately transferred to the city of Monclova in the state of Coahuila (in the north), on charges of alleged fraud. The day before, Juan Linares Montufar, president of the union"s Main Committee of Vigilance, was transferred to Mexico City. Linares Montufar had been arrested in the city of Morelia i...
This is a report from two friends up here in Minneapolis
ReplyDelete"We handed out leaflets to workers and passersby in front of the US Trust Building in Minneapolis. US Trust was recently bought our by Bank of America and now functions as their "Private Wealth Management Division." We got positive reactions from every single person who took a leaflet. A few of the people we talked to were being laid off themselves. Workers in this country are hungry for change, and increasingly ready for a fight.
After about 20 minutes of leafletting, we took our message straight to the top. We rode the elevator to the 14th Floor of the US Trust Building, walked to the front desk of US Trust, and demanded a meeting with the President of the company. After a short back-and-forth with the secretary, she agreed to give the head of the office one of our
leaflets. We asked her to inform him that if the situation was not
resolved in favor of the workers of Republic Window and Door, that we
would be returning with a large group and setting up a picket line in front of the building.
This past July, Bank of America purchased US Trust from Charles Schwab for $3.3 Billion in 2007. The resulting entity is the largest manager of private wealth in the United States.