Hunger strike for union rights

Janitors, housekeepers and groundkeepers at the University of Miami have been fighting for the right to join a union. Their employwer, the company UNICCO, is threatening and intimidating workers fighting for this recongnized basic human right. Worker have pleaded with the President of the University, Donna Shalala, a former Clinton administration official, to intervene, but she has refsed to do so.

The struggle became more intense when, two weeks ago, several workers and half dozen university students (in solidarity) started a liquids-only hunger strike. Four of the hunger strikers have already been hospitalized. For video footage of the strike go here.

Civil rights leaders, politicians and labor leaders have showed their support for the hunger strikers and, mst importantly, for the workers right to join a union. Workers are asking for expressions of solidarity, and directing supporters to write Donna Shalala.

Workers are simply asking Shalala to allow them to join a union through the card check procedure, whereby if enough cards signed by workers wanting to form a union are collected, the union must be recognized. The procedure is not formally recongized yet. Workers wanting to form a union must undergo several bureaucratic steps supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which tend to favor the union busting tactics employed by company owners. For this reason, more than 40 senators and 200 representatives in Congress have called for a new labor law, the Employee Free Choice Act which would make card check procedures the right of every employee. These hunger strikers are on the forefront of the fight for Union and Workers Rights in the US.