When we started organizing the 2006 conference nearly a year ago, our thinking was along the lines of: "How in the world are we going to we cheer these folks up?" As it turned out, participants brought their own good spirits...

Workshops and other meetings during the conference allowed participants to discuss issues and make plans. Photos: Jim West

When the Labor Notes staff and Policy Committee started organizing the 2006 conference nearly a year ago, our thinking was along the lines of: "How in the world are we going to we cheer these folks up?"

It’s been a busy few months for New York City’s transit workers. Since they went on strike last December, they’ve voted down a contract, been given a re-vote on the same contract (it passed the second time), paid hefty fines for striking (public employee strikes are illegal in New York), seen their local president go to jail, and had their union forced into binding arbitration...

It’s been a busy few months for New York City’s transit workers. Since they went on strike last December, they’ve voted down a contract, been given a re-vote on the same contract (it passed the second time), paid hefty fines for striking (public employee strikes are illegal in New York), seen their local president go to jail, and had their union forced into binding arbitration.

“I don’t think many people in the labor movement have seen anything like what we’ve been through in the past six months,” said J.P. Patafio, a member of Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents New York’s 30,000-plus transit workers. “It’s been unbelievable.”

During the countdown to the May Day immigrant walkouts, transportation industry commentators worried about the impact that immigrant strikes would have on the nation’s ports. Many feared repeats of the 2004 and 2005 strikes by mostly immigrant Latino port truckers (or troqueros), which crippled freight traffic up and down the West Coast...

Los Angeles truckers struck in solidarity with immigrants and over their own working conditions. Photo: Axel Koester

During the countdown to the May Day immigrant walkouts, transportation industry commentators worried about the impact that immigrant strikes would have on the nation’s ports. Many feared repeats of the 2004 and 2005 strikes by mostly immigrant Latino port truckers (or troqueros), which crippled freight traffic up and down the West Coast.

Over 100,000 workers in Puerto Rico were tossed off the job May 1 when their employer, the Puerto Rican Commonwealth’s government, shut down. Claiming that it could not afford to pay its employees’ salaries, the government closed up most of its operations, including all public schools...

Over 100,000 workers in Puerto Rico were tossed off the job May 1 when their employer, the Puerto Rican Commonwealth’s government, shut down. Claiming that it could not afford to pay its employees’ salaries, the government closed up most of its operations, including all public schools.

To avert the shutdown, Puerto Rico’s governor, Anibal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party, had proposed a seven percent sales tax on all consumer goods—in essence, asking workers to fund their own salaries. The governor’s rivals in the Puerto Rican legislature, the New Progressive Party, advocated a four percent tax instead.

The immigration reform bill that passed in the House of Representatives in December is an open attack on all immigrants. It makes being an undocumented worker a felony, provides no legitimate path to citizenship and exploits workers to the benefit of their employer...

The immigration reform bill that passed in the House of Representatives in December is an open attack on all immigrants. It makes being an undocumented worker a felony, provides no legitimate path to citizenship and exploits workers to the benefit of their employer.

Similar bills discussed in the Senate over the past few months, whether the McCain-Kennedy bill, Sensenbrenner bill or any number of versions of bill HR4437 have continued to be openly hostile to immigrants.

The Senate’s latest proposed legislation is the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, also called the Hagel-Martinez “compromise” bill. It is supposed to revive the possibility of passing an immigration reform bill some time this summer. It is a response to the unprecedented demonstration of support for immigrants that has exploded in the streets of cities all over this country since March, as well as a response to the political dialogue and deadlock it has created.

Police shot and killed two workers when authorities launched an assault to expel striking workers occupying the SICARTSA steel mill in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico on April 20. More than 40 other workers were wounded, most by gunshots.

Reports from the scene suggest that others may also have been killed or may remain in critical condition. Workers and townspeople quickly retook the plant, but were then besieged by the police. Parts of the plant have been taken over by the Mexican Army and Navy.

Condemning the government's attack on the strikers, a new coalition of Mexican unions called the National Front for Union Unity and Autonomy (FNUAS) has demanded: the resignation of Mexican Secretary of Labor Francisco Xavier Salazar; the impeachment of President Vicente Fox Quezada; punishment of those involved in the murders; and recognition of the elected leader of the mine workers union, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia.

The Baltimore-based United Workers Association (UWA) kicked off its Summer of Justice Campaign on April 1 to highlight the poor treatment of Camden Yards stadium cleaners by Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos. Angelos agreed to pay these workers a living wage back in 2004, but has yet to follow through. Instead, he gave opening day profits--about $250,000--to five soup kitchens in the area.

This donation would have been more than enough to pay all the stadium cleaners a living wage for two years. UWA believes the donation was an attempt to shut them up. The Summer of Justice Campaign is gearing up for its June 24 March Against Poverty with an all-night vigil on June 23. It will be followed by a pancake breakfast the next morning at 9:30 am and then the march to Camden Yards at 12:00 noon.

El Salvador's water workers union, SETA, is gearing up for a big battle. The government is attempting to privatize the publicly owned and operated water system. If it happens, SETA asserts the move will limit access to safe, clean, affordable water and mean the end of the union. The government has drastically cut funding to ANDA--the nation's water authority--laying the groundwork for private investors to take over.

For the less than 60 percent of Salvadorans who have plumbing in their houses, access to water remains inconsistent; they will sometimes go three days without. When this happens, ANDA sells bottled water to affected communities for six times the price of the average monthly ANDA bill. Most cannot afford the price gauging, and so they go without water.

With your help, the workers at Stepan Chemicals in New Jersey (mentioned in the April 2006 Solidarity Network) have returned to work, ending a 14-week strike after being locked out. Your donations, calls to headquarters, and emails of support made this victory possible.

The workers, new members of the United Electrical Workers (UE), proved that management was spending more on keeping the workers locked out than it would have cost to meet their original demands.

"It shows that even when it looks like unions are taking it on the chin everywhere, you can stand up to the boss and win," said UE General President John Hovis.