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From a Dec. 2, 2011 WI AFL-CIO email:

Since Nov. 15, nearly 200 Machinists have been out on strike at Manitowoc Cranes.  At issue is not wages or benefits but the fundamental right to a union.

Executives at Manitowoc Cranes have taken a page from Scott Walker’s Union-Busting Hand Book.  At the last minute, the company slipped union-busting language, similar to Gov. Walker’s collective bargaining bill, into the contract.

Workers at Manitowoc Cranes voted overwhelming (180-2) to reject the union-busting proposal in the contract.

Click here to sign the petition in support of workers at Manitowoc Cranes.  Both Machinists on strike and the company need to know that the Wisconsin labor movement and its supporters stand with the workers.  

As we head into this holiday season, Machinists at Manitowoc Cranes are taking a stand for the middle class.  They are taking action and providing an essential check on corporate power and corporate greed in order to bring justice to the workplace.

Workers at Manitowoc Cranes are fighting for all working people and the entire middle class.  Without unions, who will continue to fight for good American jobs?    Who will insist companies pay workers a living wage?  Add your name to the petition to support the striking workers.

Machinists at Manitowoc Cranes manufacture a wide variety of cranes which have been utilized to build power plants, sports stadiums, hospitals and infrastructure throughout the United States and overseas.  The World Trade Center was built with a crane manufactured in Manitowoc and the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center was put up using cranes built at Manitowoc Cranes.

In Solidarity,

Phil Neuenfeldt, President

Stephanie Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer

P.S.  There will be a solidarity rally in support of striking Machinists on Saturday, December 10 at 1:00 pm in Manitowoc.  Check your email early next week for additional information.

http://www.wisaflcio.org/

http://wisaflcio.typepad.com/

Striking IAM members & supporters on the picket line at Manitowoc Co.

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From an SEIU Local 1 Flyer:

The janitors at 875 E. Wisconsin Avenue have been told that a new cleaning contractor will take over on December 1.

The owner has decided to replace the union contractor with a non-union contractor that pays poverty wages with little or no benefits.

The current janitors work hard to keep 875 clean, safe and comfortable for a modest wage and benefit package.

Call Dan Crowe of Wangard Properties at 414-777-1200 and tell him to keep the current staff and protect the standard of living of the hard working men and women at 875 E. Wisconsin Avenue.

Save Our Jobs!

Call SEIU Local 1 at: 414-223-0090

SEIU members and allies march on Wangard Properties in Milwaukee Dec. 1.

SEIU members and allies march on Wangard Properties in Milwaukee Dec. 1.

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https://wibailoutpeople.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dec-3_wi_bopm_media_release.pdf

Dec 1, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     

Contact Bryan G. Pfeifer: 313-559-7074

www.bailoutpeople.org  / wibailoutpeople@gmail.com

Occupy The World! Occupy 4 Jobs!

Regional Organizing Meeting To Demand Jobs &

Moratorium On Foreclosures

MILWAUKEE: Leaders from union, student and community organizations will be comingtogether in Milwaukee on Saturday, Dec 3 to host a regional organizing meeting in the face of a  worsening economic downturn in Wisconsin, the Midwest and nationally. The meeting, Occupy the World: Occupy 4 Jobs! will be held at the Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 998 headquarters, 734 N. 26th Street (& Wisconsin Ave.) in Milwaukee from 1-4 p.m.

Local activists from the Occupy Wall Street movement, organized labor, students and many community groups will be joined by speakers from Detroit, Chicago, New York and Boston who will be focused on unifying many different struggles into a broad movement for jobs and social justice. Speakers at the meeting will address the need for a federal jobs program, a moratorium on foreclosures, the immigrant rights movement, police brutality, student rights and other issues that are affecting poor and working people.

“The Wisconsin people’s uprising sparked by Wall Street’s attack on public sector unions, has led the way for many in the progressive movement nationally in how to fight back for union rights, higher wages and jobs,” said Gerry Scoppettuolo a community organizer from Boston’s Bail Out the People Movement who has come to Wisconsin this week to help organize the meeting. “This meeting will show just how broad the progressive movement is that is fighting back against poverty, racism, war and austerity. We need a moratorium on foreclosures and a massive WPA-style jobs program in this country to put millions to work at union wages.”

Speakers on Dec. 3 will include representatives from: Africans On The Move, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), AFSCME, Bail Out The People Movement, the Committee To Stop FBI Repression, Decolonize The Hood, Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST), the International Action Center (Chicago), the Latin American Solidarity Committee, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, the Moratorium Now Coalition (Detroit), New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy The Hood, Occupy 4 Jobs, the Pan African Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Pan African News Wire, SEIU, Stonewall Warriors (Boston), Students For A Democratic Society (SDS), the United National Anti-War Committee (UNAC), Workers World Party & more.

There will be a special Troy Davis presentation by Milwaukee cultural artist Mr. Eric Disambwa.

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https://wibailoutpeople.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dec-3_wi_flier_2.pdf

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