For nine days, a group of strikers at the University of Miami have been on a hunger strike. Three strikers have been
hospitalized, including Felician Hernandez (who tells his story of employer anti-union harrassment
here).
They have a simple demand for Donna Shalala, President of the U of Miami-- assure the janitors a fair chance to join a union through a card check procedure rather than forcing them through the meatgrinder of George Bush's NLRB procedures.
But President Shalala has just been hitting the high points of anti-union rhetoric,
referring to the demand for card check recognition as an attempt to "bully us into forcing UNICCO [the janitorial contractor] into recognizing the union without an election." More than
40 senators and
200 representatives in Congress have called for
changing labor law to make card check procedures the RIGHT of every employee, but Shalala is using stock anti-union attacks against union demands.
No wonder so many folks don't trust liberal leaders. Donna Shalala ran Medicaid under Bill Clinton, but won't do the right thing here. If they won't fight for individual workers who need health care, why trust them to deliver it to the whole population?