a service of Campaign for Labor Rights
[Cicih Sukaesih is an Indonesian woman who was fired by a Nike contractor when she and 6,500 of her co-workers stood up for their rights. She currently is on a speaking tour in Canada and the U.S. The Canadian portion of the tour is being generously funded by the Canadian Auto Workers Social Justice Fund and the Alberta Federation of Labor. The tour is organized by Campaign for Labor Rights and Press for Change. See earlier postings for days 1 and 2. Day 3 was spent in transit.]
REMINDER: There will be an international mobilization on Saturday, October 18 in support of Nike production workers. Local organizations and union locals in the U.S. and Canada are invited to organize leafleting events at stores selling Nike products. If that particular date does not work for your organization or your community, feel free to pick another day in the same time frame.
On Monday, Cicih, her translator Saraswati Sunindyo and Campaign for Labor Rights coordinator Trim Bissell flew from Edmonton, Alberta to Fort McMurray, a town further to the north. This portion of the tour was funded by the Fort McMurray Labor Council, the local chapter of Save the Children and the Alberta Federation of Labor.
Our host in Fort McMurray was Lyn Gorman O'Connor, president of the local labor council. She works full-time as a school secretary and does her union work as a labor of love. We were overwhelmed with the care she had taken in planning our one-day visit to her city and work she has done in her community to promote consciousness about international solidarity.
We had a full day in this town of some 30 - 40,000. Cicih made presentations in four schools. Two other schools brought in students to hear her. Altogether, she addressed a total of 900 students, grades 4 through 12. This was a challenge for any presenter. In this case, the students had to listen first to Cicih speaking Indonesian and then to Saraswati translating. In every presentation, no matter the age, the students were entirely attentive and enthusiastically responsive.
Labor rights already were familiar turf for many of Cicih's listeners. A number had written letters to Disney CEO Michael Eisner in support of Disney's Haitian production workers -- after seeing the National Labor Committee video, "Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti." Also, a number of the students had seen a video about Craig Kielburger, the Canadian youngster who started Free the Children in response to child labor issues.
Fort McMurray has its own chapter of Free the Children, based in Thickwood Heights School but welcoming of participation by students from all area schools. In April, the project tied for first place for the "School Community Public Relations Award" from the Alberta Teachers Association. A member of the group, student Alicia Laureson, was selected as one of 40 participants from across Canada to attend the first national Free the Children Conference held in Ottawa in February.
Amid great controversy, the Edmonton city council, the Edmonton schools and the Oilers hockey tearm formed a partnership with Nike last year, leading to Nike athletic equipment donations for a street hockey program. Edmonton human rights activists protested the partnership because of Nike's labor abuses in Indonesia, Vietnam and elsewhere. Fort McMurray members of Free the Children went to their city council in January to say that they did not want a repeat of Edmonton. They asked that the city enter into partnerships only with companies which have high ethical standards. They also got the city council to agree not to buy soccer balls or fireworks which were made with child labor. Due to the students' recommendations, the city has committed itself to buying only soccer balls with the FIFA seal indicating that child labor was not used in their production.
The children also have shown a talent for graphic displays. They resurfaced a soccer ball with hexagons of paper, each one with some bit of information about child labor. Seeing a Disney Toy Story store display, they made a counterpart, The Real Toy Story, a 3-D display showing a worker chained to a wall. Lyn O'Connor proudly exhibited both items at an information table she set up at the Alberta Federation of Labor convention May 7-10. The table had reprints of newspaper articles and other handouts detailing the students' work in support of labor rights.
Many of the students Cicih met during the day said that they would help to spread the message she brought about the working conditions in Nike factories. The promise was no empty gesture. When we ate supper at a restaurant owned by one student's father, he came out of the kitchen to report that his son already had brought home the news of Cicih's presentation.
Between schools, we stopped off at two Safeway stores to meet with striking workers, who have now been on the picket lines for some six weeks. The overwhelming majority of Safeway's 10,000 workers in Alberta have refused to cross the picket lines. They are enjoying tremendous support in the community. In Fort McMurray, the stores are ghost towns, populated only by management and security guards.
In Alberta, Safeway profits were small in 1993 when the company asked workers to take a rollback. Workers gave up an average of $2.85 per hour and saved the company $45 million. Since then, Safeway has made consistent gains. Their operating profit has more than doubled, from $433 million to $891 million. The president and CEO of Safeway, Steve Burd, is making $22 million a year. Now that Safeway has reclaimed its market share and profits are up, Safeway refuses to restore the lost wage levels. Consumers all across the province (Safeway Canada signs contracts province-wide) agree with the workers that Safeway could and should do better.
Last year, a bitter strike in British Columbia kept workers on the lines for six weeks until they won their demands. That province, a stronghold of the New Democratic Party (NDP, which refuses corporate contributions) has no-scab legislation. In that struggle, Safeway was hard-pressed to keep its stores staffed, in addition to not having customers for the staff to serve.
In Alberta, Safeway appears determined to hold out much longer, hoping that the absence of no-scab legislation will break the strikers' will. So far, the company's bargaining style consists of throwing no-yield offers on the table and walking out. That refusal to engage in genuine dialogue has offended many, including relgious leaders throughout the province. Safeway told church leaders to mind their own business, a foolish move in this devoutly religious area.
At each store, labor council president O'Connor called picketers over to hear Cicih speak. Cicih, in turn, was fascinated to hear about their struggle. This tour is proving an eye opener for Cicih. She is particularly interested in learning about impact of the global economy on first world workers. It was inspiring to see Cicih and the Safeway strikers standing in those otherwise empty parking lots and learning from each other about the commonality of their struggle. International solidarity may seem mere rhetoric to some. To those Safeway workers and Cicih, it was very real indeed.
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