6pm, Sunday, March 30th
Vermont Workers’ Center
294 North Winooski Ave, Burlington
Two fired United Auto Workers (UAW) members from Freightliner trucks in Cleveland, N.C. will be in Burlington on March 30. Allen Bradley and Robert Whiteside will speak about their campaign to regain their jobs and protect their union at the Vermont Workers Center this Sunday. Allen and Robert are part of the “Freightliner 5”, five members of UAW Local 3520 who were terminated April 3, 2007 by truck maker Freightliner after they led a legal strike of 1500 workers the day before. They are traveling around the country to build support for their campaign to regain their jobs, and to protect and extend union victories in the South.
Their solidarity campaign meetings elsewhere have been tremendously inspiring for local activists. Both Allen and Robert were leading members of the Organizing Committee that successfully won their union at Freightliner in 2003 in one of the most anti-union state’s in the country, “right-to-work” North Carolina. Their fight to win justice also will have long-term consequences for organizing the South, which continues to be the achilles’ heel of the U.S. Labor movement. The rank-and-file activism and solidarity campaign they are engaged in go to the core of the challenges and best traditions of the U.S. labor movement, lessons that we can all learn from.
More info:http://www.justice4five.com/
Sponsored by the Freightliner 5 Solidarity Committee. Endorsers include: Vermont Workers’ Center, UVM United Academics, Champlain Valley & Washington/Orange Counties Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, Vermont Livable Wage Campaign, International Socialist Organization.
Contact: info [at] workerscenter.org