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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2001V&V Supremo contract and solidarity
Chicago - On Nov. 22, the Chicago workers' movement celebrated a first contract
for the drivers and warehouse workers at V&V Supremo Cheese. They rallied at
St. Pius Church in the largely Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen where the plant is
located. This Mexican immigrant workforce had been on strike for six months,
fighting to be recognized as members of Teamsters Local 703.The production workers had agreed to go back to work while their contract is
being negotiated. But the "owners," Gilberto and Philipe Villasenor,
have since locked them out during negotiations. Their lawyer, John Rodenbaugh, with his firm Matkov, Salzman, Madoff &
Gunn, has convinced them to continue to waste time and resources fighting to
keep these workers at poverty wages. In fighting the workers' right to organize,
they have already wasted over one million dollars. Now they are attempting to
intimidate the workers by locking them out. Without knowing of the planned lockout, religious, labor, and community
leaders gathered in the church to celebrate a settlement which gives pay raises
over three years of up to 35% for drivers and up to 25% for warehouse workers.
The employer loses the right to arbitrarily reward people at various levels for
the same work. The contract institutes a standard, progressive disciplinary
system and a grievance procedure, and makes the employer agree to binding
arbitration. These provisions reduce the employer's dictatorial domination over the lives
of the workers. On the one hand, holding out for six months may have given the
employer the ability for now to keep a greater percentage of the wealth that the
workers produce. But as Sarita Gupta of Jobs with Justice pointed out, the
creative solidarity of workers with the community gained them real victory. A first contract gives them better opportunities to improve their conditions
in the future united as Teamsters. Local 703 Secretary-Treasurer Tom Steide,
while gratified at the victory of the union, pointed out the broader aspect of
workers' fights in the United States by saying that the ruling class is using
the so-called "war on terrorism" to declare "war against workers
at home." Jesse Jackson made a similar point by saying the "terrorists
must not (be used to) destroy the American Dream." Margaret Blacksheare, President of the Illinois AFL-CIO, emphasized the
appropriateness of having the rally at a Shrine of St. Jude, the patron saint of
the impossible. She said that the seemingly impossible was made possible by
those who tenaciously stood together as human beings in solidarity to defeat
injustice. Dennis Dixon |
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