#strike breaking

Lovely DfE advice on heads as to how to strike break. This advice is transparently fake though because last time teachers went on strike schools didn't get to keep the money they didn't use to pay teachers.

Anyway, this year it will go on the heating bill.

New York City: SUPPORT RALLY FOR RAILROAD WORKERS

Wed. Dec. 7 - 5:00 p.m.

[Text: Errol: So should folks skip the Frosted Flakes? Kevin: Oh, yeah. I mean, they got to go. Leave the cereal in the store. We make the lowest cost of cereal in the United States right here in Memphis, Tennessee, along with my three other sister plants in Omaha, Nebraska, Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Battle Creek, Michigan. They talked about the $120,000 that we made a year but they didn't tell anyone that comes from mandatory daily overtime, fifteen hours a day, seven days a week non-stop. So we're fighting for our families, and we're here to stay. One day longer, one day stronger, and they’re threatening to bring scabs to replace us. We know during a lockout from 2013 they spent over almost $50 million in ten months to try to save $8 million with scabs. And we had scabs working in the plant that actually got tried and convicted and are in jail right now for urinating on the cereal belts. No one wants to eat “rice pispies”. You know what I mean? We want to eat Rice Krispies. End text]

Boycott Kellogg's.

“Group of Ninety Inmates Dissatisfied With Food Stage Sit-Down Strike,” Winnipeg Free Press. January 19, 1938. Page 01 & 12. --- Pent up resentment that had been kindling for considerable time, broke loose in Headingly Jail at the dinner hour, Monday night, and before order was restored, 90 snarling prisoners had been driven from the dining-room with tear gas bombs. Property damage was slight.

Tuesday, while official investigation into the riot - said to have been the worst in the history of the institution - was in progress, ringleaders of the rioting group were confined in punishment cells, and will remain on a diet of bread and water for several days, at least.

The battle broke when the 90 prisoners, many of them long term men, complained about the food that had been served them for dinner, and staging a sit-down strike, defiantly refused to leave the dining hall and allow other inmates to get in for their meal.

Realizing the futility of dragging the men from the room, the guards, as a last resort, hurled tear gas bombs amongst the men. This had the desired result, and before long the rioters were back under lock and key in their cells.

Not Serious, Says Downie Governor Downie of Headingly jail, intimated that the trouble had not been serious.

‘It is just the same old gang that is always making trouble,’ Governor Downie declared.

Following official investigation, Tuesday morning, A. MacNamara, chairman of the prison advisory board, who spent several hours at the jail, issued the following statement:

During the evening meal at 4.30 o’clock Monday, while the dining-room was occupied by some 90 men, a demonstration was staged by prisoners. In messing up the food, rather than eating it, in booing and screaming and remaining at the table longer than usual.

‘The demonstration lasted over one hour and after repeated instructions from Jailer Downie, for the men to return to their cells, had failed, two tear gas bombs were used to effect removal of the men from the dining-room.

Men Beat Retreat ‘When the bombs were used the men immediately left the dining-room, before even the effects of the gas were felt. Practically no damage was done. It consisted of one broken mirror and three or four panes of window glass. The damage came to no more than $10. No one was hurt and no violence attempted.

‘The men were returned to their cells, locked up and given Tuesday morning’s meal in their cells.

‘At noon Tuesday, most of the men voluntarily returned to their routine tasks and disturbance to all intents and purposes was over. About 10 men remained in their cells.

‘The officials have investigated to find the cause of the troubles because no declaration was made by the men and no demands registered.

‘It is a fact there are three or four men in the jail who are known agitators and maybe these men are responsible.

‘About six weeks ago in order to give a change in the diet, mutton was added to the list of meat to be served, it being the intention that this meat be served once or twice a week. The general opinion seems to be that the prisoners did not like this change, but whether this was the real cause of the trouble has not yet been ascertained.’

The chief complaint, it was learned unofficially, was over the food, not so much the quality as the way it was served. There have been protests in the past, it is said, over the work of the cook, and several attempts have been made by prisoners to get him removed. In this, however, they have been unsuccessful.

Governor Downie is continuing the investigation into the riot.

Tuesday was visiting day at Headingly, or at least it was for those who took no part in the riot.

By Stephen Millies 

The 1,400 workers on strike against Kellogg’s since Oct. 5 are fighting for all workers. Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) are battling the company’s two-tier system of wages and benefits.

‘Friends of labor’ and state repression

By Martha Grevatt

2017 marked the 80th anniversary of many important labor struggles. The victory of the Flint sit-down strike against mighty General Motors breathed confidence into the whole working class. There were over 500 other recorded sit-downs in 1937, most ending with the employer agreeing to union recognition. Millions of workers in auto, rubber, textile, retail, hotel and restaurant, agriculture, packinghouse and other industries flocked to unions affiliated with the militant Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Events of 1937 hold important lessons for workers today about the role of the state, even under a Democratic president. In 1936, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was seeking reelection to a second term, the Democratic Party made an appeal to “reelect Roosevelt — Friend of Labor.”