The battle in Hapeville (1)

Life after Ford, part II

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/atlanta_pp/uncategorized/steve.jpg

He’s alone in the hall.

The jet engines thunder overhead.

“Hey, Big Steve,” says Jesse, coming into the union office. “I passed out all of those fliers.”

He’s another worker.

Organizer.

One of the retirees still tied to the union hall.

“Good,” says the boss.

It’s an important time.

“We’ve got some events downtown planned in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day,” Big Steve explains. “He supported labor. It was with him that we came into the Civil Rights Movement, and later, made the natural transition to labor.”

There’s still a fight going down, a union fight.

Striking Goodyear workers staged an action in Atlanta at Perimeter Mall last month, as they continue to seek good pension benefits for retirees. A few days later, transit workers who were also worried about pension benefits demonstrated outside the Greyhound bus station downtown. Musicians picketed outside the Atlanta Ballet, which is using recorded music now, not the real thing.

But getting into a strike in these times is like throwing a right hand at the empire, with union-busting companies consolidating everywhere.