Victory on the Immigrant Strikers Picket Line Against Equity Firm Worth $16 Billion

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/08/victory-on-the-picket-line/

Victory on the Picket Line

by Lee Sustar and Orlando Sepuldeva / August 16th, 2007

The remarkable struggle of immigrant strikers at South Chicago’s Cygnus Corp., a nonunion soap factory, ended August 10 as improbably as it began two weeks earlier — with dozens of workers jammed into a temporary staffing agency’s office, voting on the spot to accept the agency’s offer to send more than 100 back into the plant without penalty — and with the threat of termination withdrawn.

The Mexican immigrant workers prevailed over a plant management backed up by its parent company, Marietta Corp., a large manufacturer of private-label soaps and detergents for huge retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens. Marietta, in turn, is controlled by Ares Management, a private equity firm worth $16 billion.

Striking Cygnus therefore meant striking Corporate America, a struggle with impossibly long odds.

Nevertheless, there was no hesitation when workers decided to strike over management’s plan to terminate anyone whose immigration status couldn’t be verified by August 10.

Cygnus had used Social Security “no-match” letters — notification from the government that the Social Security numbers on file don’t match those given by employees — to threaten the jobs of Cygnus’ few permanent workers.

For their part, the temps were told that the company was switching to a new agency, and workers would have to reverify their status. Similar threats loom for immigrant workers across the U.S., as the government implements new rules in which no-match letters can be used as grounds for termination of employment, or worse.

FULL story at link.