Striking Illinois workers fight racist, anti-union harassment

[Omaha Steve]

http://transitional.pww.org/article/view/15301/

Author: John Bachtell
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 04/21/09 15:00

BEDFORD PARK – Workers at Commercial Forged Products (CFP) have had enough. After signing a new contract last year, 60 members of USWA Local 2154 have endured a constant stream of attacks and African American and Latino workers have been targets of racist harassment. They are mounting a fight back for workplace dignity and equality.

Chicago Jobs with Justice and other labor, community and religious activists joined the workers on a spirited picket line in front of the company recently while jets from nearby Midway airport thundered overhead.

“I’ve been here for 14 ½ years, said Charles Gilyard, Local 2154 president. “The last three years the company has decided to attack the workers on civil rights. They have no concern for individual rights.”

Gilyard described how a former plant manager once held up a hangman’s noose to an African American worker. “This is what I used to do when I lived in Mississippi,” the manager told him.
The company, which once had a majority African American workforce, also tried to remove the MLK holiday and civil rights committee from the new contract because African American workers were no longer the majority. This upset all the workers, African American, Latino and white. They also saw it as a scheme by the company to sow division.

The workers went on strike when the company sought contract language to limit the local union’s president leave to one term in office, whether re-elected or not.

“They wanted to weaken our union,” said Bob, a retired white worker. “Charles Gilyard is one of the best presidents we’ve had. The company hates him because he’s a fighter.”

FULL story at link.