Right To Free Speech On The Job Forum

Bay Area Workers Democracy Network Forum

Workers Rights To Free Speech On The Job
Fighting the Bosses and For Strong Unions

Sunday August 12, 2001
3:00 PM
Fellowship Of Humanity Hall
390 27th St/Broadway St.
Oakland, CA

$3.00-$5.00 Donation Requested

The continuing attack on workers rights on the job has led to two important cases. Ray Quan, a BART SEIU 790 mechanic was recently fired by management for a newsletters he and another worker publish. The newsletters "Odds & Ends" and "Oak Town News" both expose the union busting by management and also the role of the union leadership in allowing contracting out and concessions to the bosses.
BART management not only fired Ray but sought a court order to prevent him from going back on the property because he was accused of threats of "workplace violence" because he put a picture in his newsletter of a BART truck parked in a manager's home.
The judge threw this out and said that this was an attack on his "First Amendment rights" and a "government vehicle parked at a private residence is itself worthy of comment."
Despite the ruling BART continues to fight Ray's return to work. BART workers are without a contract and a strike is likely and this is precisely the reason BART wants him off the property. You can support his case by going to rayquandefense [at] yahoo.com
Also speaking will be Carolyn Lund who is an autoworker and trustee of UAW Local 2244 in Fremont. Carolyn puts out a newsletter called "The Barking Dog" at the NUMMI auto plant which is a joint venture of GM and Toyota. UAW administration caucus members in her local have threatened to sue her and shutdown her newsletter in the past and now the company is accusing her of "racism" because she used the term Black workers. This, is despite the fact that the UAW magazine and other UAW literature use the same term. Her web page is at http://www.geocities.com/abarkingdog/

Both these cases expose the importance of defending the right to free speech on the job and the growing use of the courts and "workplace violence" to silence workers who speak out and organize against the bosses and union officials who collaborate with management.

Please join us for this important forum.

The Bay Area Workers Democracy Network was organized to defend workers rights on the job, to build solidarity and to fight labor-management labor collaboration. It has organized support for the Henderson UAW workers, Carpenter David Johnson and SEIU workers in Canada, The Korean labor movement and is working to build support for the Charleston 5 Longshoremen.

For Further Information Call
(415)661-1371 or (415)641-4440
Or Email sfactive [at] aol.com or united [at] igc.org

Solidarity Has No Borders