[PEN-L:11789] Welfare Rights Union opposes use of homeless as strikebreakers

[Jim Davis <jdav@xxxxxxx>]

>August 13, 1997
>Contact: Cheri Honkala
>215.763.4584
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
>
>
>               HOMELESS RESIDENTS OF CITY SHELTER USED
>                   TO CROSS TEAMSTER=92S PICKET LINE:
>
>    Kensington Welfare Rights Union Stands United With Teamsters
> to Stop Use of City Shelters to Throw Other Workers into Homelessness
>
>Press Conference:
>3 PM Wednesday, August 13
>Ridge Shelter
>1320 Ridge Avenue
>
>Homeless residents at Ridge Shelter have come forward stating that a
>brown UPS van regularly visits Ridge Shelter to pick up homeless
>residents, sneaks them into UPS, and pays them $5 an hour to cross the
>picket line and work at UPS.
>
>The Teamsters and the KWRU demand an investigation by the Mayor as to
>why city-subsidized shelters and being used to recruit homeless
>individuals to break a strike and eventually throw striking workers into
>the ranks of the homeless.
>
>The UPS workers on strike are fighting part-time work, slashed benefits
>and the possibility of becoming homeless themselves.  The KWRU stands in
>unity with organized labor and the striking Teamsters and calls for an
>end to using welfare recipients and homeless people to replace union
>labor.  We stand together for the right of all people to have full-time
>jobs at a living wage with benefits and union protection.
>
>
>Speaking at the Press Conference:
>
>Cheri Honkala		Director, Kensington Welfare Rights Union
>
>Jim Merritt		    Sec/Tres Teamsters local 623=20
>                    (UPS Workers Greater Philadelphia)
>
>Henry Nicholas	    President, National Union of Hospital and=20
>                    Health Care Employees
>
>Jim Moran		    Chair, Labor Day Committee;=20
>                    Chair, Labor Party of Greater Philadelphia
>
>--
>Kensington Welfare Rights Union
>a statewide organization of the poor
>NUHHCE, AFSCME, AFL-CIO
>PO Box 50678
>Philadelphia, PA  19132
>http://www.libertynet.org/~kwru
>kwru@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>215.763-4584
>215.763-7575 FAX
>
>
>
>