🚀 go-pugleaf

The following article is forwarded from misc.activism.progressive.
Opinions and analyses are those of the original author,
not necessarily mine.

 >From: Scott@rednet.org (Scott Marshall) 
 >Subject: PWW: Sprint workers still fighting

**Bay Area Sprint workers hold all-night vigil**

(Reprinted from the November 5, 1994 People's Weekly World. For
subscription information see below - all rights reserved.)

World N. Calif. Bureau

SAN FRANCISCO - "No, my mom did not think we would be here
tonight making world history when she took a job with Sprint. She
was thinking of food and clothes for us."

Rosa Lopez smiled with pride as her daughter answered the
interviewer's question. Twelve-year-old Israel, who had come with
his mother, was interviewing the children of fired Sprint workers
during their round-the-clock vigil on Oct. 26.

The family atmosphere was festive, but serious, among the workers
camped out with their tents, bedrolls, banners, baby bottles,
while barbecue and chilies roasted over the grill on the sidewalk
under San Francisco skyscrapers.

"This vigil is to tell Sprint to stop breaking the law and give
us back our jobs," said fired worker Jaime Alarcon. "They fired
us to stop our unionizing," said Edgar Posado. "Which," added his
brother, Raul Posado, "the U.S. government will not let them do."

Posado was referring to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
finding on Sept. 12 against Sprint in favor of the 235 employees
of Sprint's Spanish-language long-distance service, La Conexion
Familiar, all of whom were abruptly fired July 14. In a ruling
that Robert Miller, NLRB regional director, called "historic,"
the board found that Sprint has shut down the whole operation to
prevent its workers from organizing a union. A vote for
representation by Communications Workers of America (CWA) had
been scheduled for the following week.

A Sprint corporate vice president was found to have falsified
documents to give the appearance the shutdown was for some reason
other than to block the union drive. Sprint has since fired him,
too. He is not included in the request the NLRB filed in federal
court for an injunction against Sprint to get emergency relief
for fired Sprint employees. The hearing on the NLRB's request for
an injunction is set for Nov. 8 before an administrative law
judge in the Federal Court Building at 450 Golden Gate Ave., San
Francisco.

Miller said the Sprint workers' case is especially significant
because "it seeks injunctive relief to reinstate the operations
of a business, the interim reinstatement of over 200 employees
and a broad order restraining the employer from interfering with,
restraining or coercing employees from engaging in their rights
to engage in union activity."

"This is not just about us; it is for our children and workers
everywhere," said Sprint worker Alvaro Sarceno, echoing Joan
Moore, secretary of CWA Local 9410, which is spearheading the
organizing drive. Moore told the World, "This is not just a local
dispute. Sixty-three members of Congress have demanded in a
letter to [Sprint CEO] William Esrey that these fired workers be
reinstated and Sprint desist from interfering in workers' rights
to organize. The labor community throughout the nation as well as
their friends from around the world" are supporting these
workers.
##30##


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--
Nigel Allen                     ae446@freenet.carleton.ca