Victory at City Council for Eagle Workers

Due to a significant one-on-one campaign of meetings with
city councilors, and a mobilization of local labor activists and
students, we won this part of the fight.

It was a chilly evening in front of New Bedford City Hall
with a rally featuring Eagle workers, the mayor, and UNITE
leader,Warren Pepicelli. A boss from Eagle even dropped
by to do a little surveillance. The mayor confirmed his
steadfast commitment to keep the plant here and his desire
for a "pristine" union election. Warren gave a rousing
speech about the fight for fairness and respect at the plant.
Several workers passionately highlighted conditions at
the plant.

Inside the City Council chamber, it was standing room only.
A group of us made it to the balcony, only to be
moved later. About an hour into the meeting, the Eagle
motion came up. Brian Gomes gave a very strong statement
that included confirming the bad conditions for the workers.
Several other Councilors spoke in support of the motion.
It was wrapped up by Republican Linda Morad reading from
a letter from the company confirming they are committed
to staying in New Bedford. A follow up comment from
Brian Gomes, was much appreciated, stated that is
was only from the worker and community mobilization that
the company reacted in the way we had hoped.


From the Standard-Times:
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll
/article?AID=/20081114/NEWS/811140339/-1/ARCHIVE

(You may need to cut and paste this in your URL box,
it's one line).