31 December 21
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Corporate greed is running rampant as the people on top become richer than any time in history, while working families struggle to pay for health care, housing, food, education and other basic necessities.
Corporate power is undermining American democracy as the big money interests spend hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to defeat a legislative agenda strongly supported by the American people.
The greed, arrogance and power of the big money interests has never been more apparent.
And working people, with incredible courage and determination, are fighting back.
Time and time again, I have stressed that real change never occurs from the top down. It always happens from the bottom up.
Real change only happens when people demand it and are prepared to challenge the status quo — in the voting booth, in peaceful demonstrations and at the workplace.
This year, in the midst of a terrible pandemic, we have seen workers standing up for basic rights and dignity on the job in a way that we have not seen for years. And we have stood with them. We have supported workers on strike against the corporate greed of the John Deere company and Kellogg's. We have supported nurses on the west coast who stood up to an unfair contract offer from Kaiser Permanente. We have supported the brave employees at Starbucks who, for the very first time, organized a union shop in that giant corporation against enormous opposition.
As a result of your generosity over the last year we have raised more than $150,000 in small-dollar donations to support workers who have been out on strike. We've helped get food, health care and other basic necessities to desperate families who suddenly found themselves without income.
That's what SOLIDARITY is all about. And that's the SOLIDARITY we must continue.
Today, I am writing to inform you about three important strikes that the corporate media has largely ignored, and then I am going to ask you to do something to support these workers.
These are strikes against outrageous corporate greed. These are strikes where workers are taking on some of the most powerful and wealthy special interests in the country. These are strikes that have gone on through Christmas where families have not been able to adequately provide for their kids.
Steelworkers striking at Special Metals in Huntington, WV
Right now, there are 450 steelworkers at Special Metals in Huntington, West Virginia who have been engaged in a major strike for almost 100 days. These highly skilled employees produce critically important materials for space crafts, airplanes and submarines.
Precision Castparts purchased Special Metals and was acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in 2016. It was an extraordinarily lucrative purchase, as the company made $1.5 billion in profits last year.
And what did they offer the workers who made that company profitable? An outrageous and insulting contract that includes zero pay increase for this year, and a totally inadequate 1% pay raise next year while making major cuts to employee health care and reduced vacation time. With inflation over 6 percent right now, this amounts to a very significant pay cut, despite the company's profits.
BCTGM workers striking at Jon Donaire Desserts in Santa Fe Springs, CA
About 100 Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union workers are currently on strike against the appropriately named Rich Products Corporations at the Jon Donaire Desserts production plant in California. These workers are about 75% Latina women who do extraordinarily difficult and labor-intensive line work. They are often forced to do up to 16 hours of mandatory overtime with little to no notice before the end of a shift. Many of them are paid little more than the minimum wage in California, despite working for the company for years.
Bob Rich Jr. is the Chairman of Rich Products Corporation. He has an estimated net worth of $7.5 billion, and the corporation is extremely profitable.
Yet, despite Mr. Rich's extraordinary wealth and the profitability of the corporation, the “best and final offer” of the company is a $1 an hour wage increase, which just is totally inadequate for the Los Angeles area and its high cost of living. Further, in just a few days, Rich Products is going to kick the striking workers off their current health care plans, leaving them uninsured in the midst of the pandemic.
Mine workers striking at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, AL
About 900 workers at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, AL have been on strike since April of this year. These are workers who have worked seven days a week, up to 16 hours per day. The mines they work in are up to 2,100 feet deep, are extremely dangerous, releasing toxic, flammable and explosive methane gas. In 2016, coal miners agreed to a 20 percent reduction in wages and benefits as part of a restructuring agreement that kept the company alive.
Fast forward five years, and between January and September of 2021, Warrior Met had $630 million in revenue and $12 million in profits and its share price is up over 250 percent since the start of the pandemic. Executive officers have received raises between 3 and 10 percent and over $3 million in bonuses.
Yet, Warrior Met offered workers an insulting $1.50 raise over 5 years. They did not offer to restore the pre-restructuring health benefits, and the company is demanding the power to fire workers who engage in their right to strike.
The workers' demands are reasonable: now that Warrior Met is a very profitable company, it’s time to reverse the cuts they bravely and graciously took to save the company.
So, given the ferocious struggles these three unions face, what do we do?
We stand with them:
That is why I am once again asking for your support of striking workers — this time at Special Metals, Jon Donaire Desserts and Warrior Met Coal. I am asking for you to help them sustain their strikes and win the wages, benefits, and workplace protections everyone deserves:
It is critical we show solidarity in these moments because these workers are not only striking for themselves and their co-workers, but for all of us.
There are millions of other Americans in exactly the same position as these workers who toil for obscenely profitable corporations, yet have to fight tooth-and-nail and risk their jobs simply for adequate wages, health care, benefits and safe working conditions.
And in a world where everything is connected to everything, it is often the struggles of the working class in one industry and community that ultimately determines the quality of wages, benefits and the ability to retire with dignity in other seemingly unconnected industries and communities.
That is why it is so important we support the workers at Special Metals, Jon Donaire Desserts and Warrior Met Coal today.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
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PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611
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