Protesting Corporate
Abuse of Mexican Workers
PITTSBURGH
Mexican
employees of Alcoa perform work similar to those of UE members, assembling electrical components for the auto industry. But the company
pays them $1.20 an hour, only 7 percent of what the average Alcoa worker earns in the United States. Low wages and the high price of
necessities condemn Alcoa workers to miserable poverty.
When workers began to organize, Alcoa fired 236 of them, and filed bogus criminal charges and a million-dollar suit
against union activists.
So when Alcoa stockholders met in Pittsburgh on April 19 they were greeted by three Mexican Alcoa workers, Pittsburgh
union activists and puppets created by University of Pittsburgh theater students.
Speaking at a rally outside the stockholders’ meeting, UE Genl. Sec.-Treas. Bruce Klipple condemned Alcoa’s abusive
treatment of workers and called for solidarity across borders. Genl. Pres. John Hovis led the UE delegation at the rally. At left, ‘the
two faces of Alcoa’ are vividly depicted by students under the direction of Tavia LaFollette (left).
UE News - 4/02
