L.A. Unions Send Caravan of Food, Hope to Locked-Out Rio Tinto Miners

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/02/25/la-unions-send-caravan-of-food-hope-to-locked-out-rio-tinto-miners/

by Mike Hall, Feb 25, 2010

Several hundred Southern California union members rallied at a Dodger Stadium parking lot yesterday before sending off a caravan carrying more than $30,000 worth of food and other supplies for locked-out borax miners at Rio Tinto’s Boron, Calif., mine. The mine is about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

The caravan was organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to support the nearly 600 members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 who are fighting the international mining conglomerate’s move to outsource jobs, convert full-time jobs to part-time temporary work, slash retirement benefits and gut grievance protections and other workplace rules.



Last month the workers rejected the contract offer and Rio Tinto locked them out Jan. 31.

Locked-out miner Randy Laursen told the rally:

You know we got big corporations trying to push all the laborers out, make nothing….This is America. We all have a right to make a decent living.

ILWU spokesperson Craig Merrilees says the small high desert town of 2,000 is rallying around the workers.

People here are tough and willing to see this through to the end. It’s not just about Rio Tinto but all the companies doing this to people across the country. In this little town, people are drawing the line.

FULL story at link.

[aquart]

1. I use borax. It's good stuff.

Looks like it's the 1870s all over again.