Racist Threats Led to Fresno Strike

Racist Threats Led to Fresno Strike
By Mike Rhodes

Workers at a Fresno manufacturing company went on strike yesterday. Today they held a press conference at the job site to explain why workers had walked off the job. “This strike is for dignity and respect,” said Angel Gomez an employee who has worked at CMC Rebar for more than ten years. Douglas Ballis, general organizer for the Ironworkers International union, said a company supervisor threatened to have one of the Latino workers killed by the Aryan Brotherhood. Ballis said that was “the straw that broke the camels back.”

A majority of workers at CMC Rebar were on the picket line today. They are demanding that the company stop the supervisors from making racist and violent threats against union members. Gomez said the workers were also upset about what he described as an unfair seniority system. Gomez also said that the company is now threatening to fire any of the workers who have gone out on strike.

In a vote certified by the National Labor Relations Board last year a majority of CMC Rebar workers voted to join the Ironworkers Union Local 509. According to the striking workers, the company has refused to recognize the union and is now threatening to fire them.

Gomez said the workers at CMC Rebar provide building materials that go into the construction of highways, schools, and hospitals.

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