On June 11, workers at the Stock Roofing Company went on strike. The workers also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to demand the right to unionize, a prevailing wage and safe working conditions.
Stock Roofing, a subsidiary of Tecta America Corporation, is receiving $5.3 million in public funds for a “green roof” contract for Minneapolis’s Target Center.
The workers there are subjected to unsafe conditions, like working in the dark without safety harnesses and breathing hazardous dust. From 2005 to 2008, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Stock Roofing for numerous violations. Stock Roofing has also underpaid workers by as much as $20 per hour.
Without union protection, workers have been penalized for speaking out. Celso Alvarado, a former Stock Roofing worker, was dismissed in retaliation for wage and safety complaints and union organizing activity.
Capitalists have forced the burden of the current economic crisis onto workers. One method used is intense union-busting activity. Union organizing and militant struggle in fighting layoffs and cuts in wages and benefits are the only way to push the bosses back.
