Strike Begins at OSU

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

May 1, 2000
Columbus, Ohio

For more info, contact Yoshie Furuhashi (at 614-299-3313 / 
furuhashi.1 at osu.edu) or Mark D. Stansbery (at 614-252-9255 / 
walk at igc.org).

Strike Begins at OSU;
Faculty and Students Pledge Support

On April 30, about one thousand members of Local 4501, Communications 
Workers of America (representing service and skilled trade workers at 
the Ohio State University) and supporters held a candlelight vigil 
for the impending strike from 8 PM, in front of Bricker Hall (the OSU 
administration building).  Don Slaiman of AFL-CIO spoke to workers: 
"you are fighting not just for you and your families, you are 
fighting for all the working people in Columbus and beyond.  If you 
win this strike, you'll be pulling up everyone in the area with you." 
Local 4501 is demanding living wages and a fair contract that treats 
all CWA members equally (in contrast to the OSU proposal that will 
give a separate, lesser settlement to the CWA members who work at the 
OSU Hospitals); the union also opposes the "merit pay" system that 
will give supervisors a power to exercise favoritism and to punish 
workers arbitrarily.

At the vigil, faculty and graduate students pledged support for Local 
4501.  Dr. Claudio Fogu, professor of history at the OSU, highlighted 
the importance of unity among workers, faculty, and students.  Many 
graduate students, some of whom are grad union organizers themselves, 
spoke at the mike, emphasizing the need to get the entire campus 
organized, "because that's the only way to bring justice and 
democracy to the OSU."  Faculty and grad students who support the 
strike will be wearing yellow ribbons to signify solidarity and 
holding classes in the union hall and other alternative locations, so 
as not to cross picket lines.  The sit-in at Bricker Hall, which 
began on April 26, will continue until the OSU will meet the demands 
of Local 4501.

After the vigil, unionists and supporters moved from the main campus 
to the University Hospitals, chanting "no contract, no work," to the 
rhythm of African drums.  Workers who just finished their shift 
walked out of the Hospitals and joined the protest, to thunderous 
cheer and applause from the crowd.  The strike began at midnight, and 
unionists and supporters will walk the picket lines today.
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