March on Wall Street

Bronx, N.Y.--After the Wall Street firm Brynwood Partners bought Stella d'Oro Bakery Co. in the Bronx, it tried to break the union by insisting on a contract that would have cut wages by 25% and destroyed many benefits. This provoked an 11-month strike by Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) in August 2008.

Brynwood hired scabs, and the union appealed to the NLRB. Activist groups and Stella d'Oro workers formed the Stella Workers Solidarity Committee (www.stelladorostrike.com). The NLRB finally ruled for the Union, directing Brynwood to take the workers back and negotiate in good faith.

Brynwood then announced it would sell Stella d'Oro to the anti-union company Lance, Inc. Lance plans to close the plant, which has been in the Bronx for 70 years, and move production to its non-union plant in Ohio, putting unionized workers here out on the street.

The Solidarity Committee organized a rally and march on Sept. 25 at the headquarters in Manhattan of Goldman Sachs, a major stockholder in Lance. The new AFL-CIO President, Richard Trumka, was at a forum in New York City on Sept. 21 and recognized the Stella d'Oro workers, but he neglected to announce the rally scheduled for Sept. 25.

Union leaderships have given money and published articles in their newspapers but they have failed to mobilize their thousands of members to participate in rallies and boycotts. The finance capital elite which controls both parties is being bailed out while the working class bears the brunt of capitalism's economic crisis.

Companies are downsizing and workers are losing their jobs and their homes, yet their union leaders, who are mostly wedded to the corporatist Democratic party, have been incapable or unwilling to mobilize their rank and file to fight back. As owners of factories, such as the Stella d'Oro company, seek ways to maximize profits by downsizing or moving to cheaper labor areas, only a united and massive response by unions will be able to resist these attacks on workers.

--Tom Siracuse

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