Learning the lessons of the Cygnus strike (A strike victory by 100 immigrant workers)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.socialistworker.org/2007-2/644/644_15_Cygnus.shtml

ISSUES IN THE LABOR MOVEMENT
Learning the lessons of the Cygnus strike

September 14, 2007 | Page 15

LEE SUSTAR explains that immigrant workers were ready, willing and able to organize themselves.

COULD A strike victory by 100 immigrant workers--who walked out without a union--hold lessons on how to revive the whole of organized labor?

The two-week strike that ended August 10 at Cygnus Corp. was sparked by the company’s plan to terminate workers who couldn’t re-verify their immigration status to resolve “no-match” letters from Social Security. Rather than surrender, the workers--all but eight of them temporary employees--carried out a well-organized strike that forced the soap manufacturer to drop its demands and rehire everyone.

During the strike, an overwhelming majority of workers signed a petition to be represented by International Association of Machinists (IAM) District 8. In its filing with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the IAM named both Cygnus and its temp agency, Total Staffing, as employers.

This requirement to deal with two bosses is the kind of difficulty that’s led many union organizers to walk away from workplaces where immigrant workers predominate. With limited budgets and staff time, union organizers (or their supervisors) weigh the resources needed to organize a small factory and the costs of negotiating and servicing contracts against the amount of dues that is likely to flow into the union treasury.

As a result, many unions turn down organizing opportunities in smaller shops, anticipating drawn-out and expensive organizing campaigns that, at best, will lose half the time when time comes for union elections--a vote that is often delayed by the employers’ foot-dragging and the NLRB bureaucracy.

FULL story at link.