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Socialist Appeal Magazine
Issue 37 of Socialist Appeal is now available.
El Militante Sin Fronteras
Nuevo periódico marxista de la Liga Internacional de los Trabajadores
As we enter 2008, millions of undocumented workers are thinking about the economic crisis, immigration raids, presidential elections and Spring mobilizations. Two years after the massive marches and the national boycott and strike of May Day 2006, the problems facing immigrant workers are far from being resolved. On the contrary, we have entered a new stage of militarized repression and loss of our political and civil liberties. 
In late January, more than 80 U.S. and Canadian auto workers met in Flint, MI to discuss the impact of the worst contract ever shoved down the throats of the membership. As a result, UAW members and their allies further solidified a loose network of auto worker and community activists. After a day of enthusiastic discussions, important groundwork was laid for the beginnings of an industry-wide class struggle current, starting with a statement and call for the elimination of two-tier workplaces. 
The old home of the U.S. machine tool industry, producing about 13 percent of national machine tool output and employing about 15,000 workers, Cincinnati today is blighted by “deindustrialization” and has evolved into a services and financial center with large disparities in wealth and growing levels of unemployment, drug abuse and crime, as jobs have shifted into retail and related “services.”
The teachers and other professionals at Pittsburgh Public Schools, who we reported on in issue 36 of Socialist Appeal, have attained a number of concrete gains in a new three-year contract with the school district. The agreement comes after a year of hard-fought struggles by Pittsburgh’s teachers.
The U.S. Department of Labor recently reported that 311,000 more workers joined unions in 2007. While in 2006, 12 percent of wage and salary workers belonged to unions, 12.1 percent are in unions as of 2007. This growth in unionization took place in spite of the fact that many unionized industrial jobs were eliminated in the automobile and related sectors. The report showed that 35.9 percent of public sector workers are in unions, while only 7.5 percent of the private sector was unionized. As recently as twenty five years ago, 20.1 percent of the labor force was unionized. How did we go from strong powerful unions to where we are today? 
As if graveyard and shift workers needed a new reason to despise their jobs, which place their schedules in opposition to the waking world, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, has recently declared night work a “probable carcinogen,” with the American Cancer Society likely to follow suit. A report by the Associated Press states that research clearly shows “higher rates of breast and prostate cancer among women and men whose work day starts after dark.” This is due to the fact that melatonin, which is integral to the body’s functioning, is usually produced at night, while the body rests. Melatonin production is inhibited by the artificial lighting, putting night-shift workers at risk. 
Teachers in Pittsburgh are under attack. The city’s public school district has so far refused to meet their demands in round after round of contract negotiations. Since June 30 teachers in the Pittsburgh Public School District have been teaching 30,000 K-12 students without an up-to-date contract. The district’s paraprofessionals and technical-clerical employees have also been working without an updated contract. Those about to move up the salary ladder at the end of the 06-07 school year have had their pay frozen by the district, remaining at the same salary level. Now, only the “status-quo clause” of Pennsylvania’s collective bargaining laws hold the conditions of the old contract in place. 
While Ford workers in North America prepare to weather a new round of plant closings and layoffs, their bosses in Detroit have unveiled plans for new plants in China, a country with the world’s fastest growing car market along with rock-bottom wages. Meanwhile, Russian Ford workers have won an important victory not only against the company but against the new, repressive Russian Labor Code.New from Wellred!
