<a href="http://educationinthestreets.blogspot.com">Education In The Streets</a>

Monday, March 15, 2004

Solidarity

The clerical workers who struck University of Minnesota last fall are supporting 2,300 striking transit workers

Mary Brandl, a picket captain during the clerical workers’ strike last October, said she spoke for many clerical workers in thanking Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 members for their help.

“You feel like family – in the very best sense of the word,” she said.

During the clerical strike, Local 1005 members honked the horns on their buses, raised money and walked the picketline with the university workers, Brandl said. “No support stands out to me as consistently as the transit drivers.”

The walkouts also share a common issue – health care, she noted. University clericals fought off high premium increases that would have eaten up workers’ paychecks – or caused them to drop health care coverage altogether. Transit workers are battling to keep down health care costs for current members and save coverage for retirees.

Walker said unions are sending a message that “slashing health care will not resolve Minnesota’s health care crisis.”

¶ 9:57 PM

Smash Yale-[ comments.]

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