Everyone,
Nabisco announced this summer that it will be closing its bakery in the East Liberty section of Pittsburgh, putting some 350 people out of work. The company also recently announced that it will be closing a plant in Seville, Ohio. There are rumored to be scheduled plant closings in Houston, TX; Philadelphia, PA; Ilsie, IL (near Chicago); and Buena Park, CA. The source which predicts plant closings in the latter four locations predicted the two already-announced closings.
A community group called the East End Forum has been working on getting a boycott of Nabisco going. It has been remarkably successful locally; Nabisco's sales in southwestern PA are reportedly down 34%. Our hope is to make Pittsburgh a springboard for a nationwide boycott of Nabisco, especially in the targeted cities. Nabisco clearly has a long-term plan for downsizing, outsourcing, and general union-busting at its operations, and while boycotts may seem like a stopgap measure, it may be possible to hold this corporation at least marginally accountable for such behavior.
However, the East End Forum is a woefully underfunded and understaffed organization, lacking even in Internet access. My group, Students in Solidarity, is a University of Pittsburgh-based student group which has been working with the East End Forum on this issue. We've set up a "Boycott Nabisco" web page at:
www.pitt.edu/~aefst11
I'd like to ask everyone, first of all, to refrain from buying all Nabisco products, including RJR tobacco products (which are already on the official AFL-CIO boycott list anyway, by the way). Second, I'd like to invite everyone, especially people in or near the targeted cities, to visit the website, and hopefully get in touch with us or with the East End Forum. We need info on whatever might be happening in your towns regarding Nabisco, and we also have protest cards which we've been sending to the Nabisco CEO in droves, so we could get you some of those materials. It would really help the situation if Nabisco started getting cards from all over the country. The company already has to worry about RJR lawsuits; the last thing they need is some national exposure on this issue, as well.
Which is, I guess, where all of you come in. If you can, just let people know about this, spread the word, forward this e-mail, etc.
Thanks a million,
John Lacny
Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)