Union Holds Rally

In a display of solidarity with the international labor movement, members of Harvard's unions held a rally yesterday to raise money for workers on strike in Illinois and Quebec.

At an event co-sponsored by the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, the Harvard Trade Union Project and the Harvard Labor Law Project, more than 40 workers and labor organizers gathered at the Cronkhite Center to listen to eyewitness accounts of three labor stop pages.

"We let the managers be the managers, but the managers couldn't manage," said Gary Garner, who is on strike against Caterpillar Tractors in Decatur, Ill. "The strike is destroying Decatur, Illinois. They're closing business; they're closing schools; people indirectly are losing their jobs."

Royal Plankenhorn, a member of the United Paperworkers International Union, described a strike against the A.E. Staley Company, which operates a corn processing plant in Decatur, Ill.

"This is not just my future. It's you children's future," Plankenhorn explained his reasons for striking. "People want nothing more than an honest day's work with a little bit of dignity."

Claude Trembly, leader of a group of grain workers on strike against ADM/Ogilvie in Montreal, said through an interpreter that workers in both Canada and the United States face similar problems.

"The main issues of the labor dispute of ADM and Ogilvie are quite the same as those of Decatur," said Trembly, who is a French speaker. "We will continue to develop solidarity with workers of the U.S. It gives us hope to come to you to fight to keep our dignity at work."

Garner said workers must remember that they are different from management and should not work too closely with management in negotiating labor contracts.

"We bought into sleeping with the company," Garner said. "They called that employee satisfaction in the workplace."

Tom Canel, a member of HUCTW's executive board, said it is important for Harvard workers to be united with other workers because of changing economic conditions.

"One of the things that every group of workers and employees learns is you need to work together to be successful," he said.

Canel said Harvard workers need to provide strikers with not only "moral and spiritual support," but also financial assistance. He said Harvard workers have raised more than $1300 to help the strikers in Decatur and Quebec.

"Justice doesn't come overnight," he said. "People have to hang in there."