FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 11, 2000

Contact:

Jim Mohn, (201-861-7360)

Hally Abbott, Chair, Green Party of NJ (201-222-8348) habbot@aol.com

Jane Hunter, Communications Committee, Green Party of NJ (732-560-0276) janemhunter@att.net

Summary

GREEN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE MELIERE ENDORSES CWA WORKERS’ RIGHT TO UNIONIZE

Guttenberg, NJ, August 11 – Members of the Hudson County chapter of the New Jersey Green Party are actively supporting the 87,000 Communications Workers of America (CWA) who are on strike against Verizon Communications, formerly Bell Atlantic.  Green Party volunteers have been walking the picket lines with strikers in Bayonne and Jersey City. 

New Jersey Greens are not alone in their support for the strikers.  Today, Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader joined picketing CWA workers in Virginia, and called for unionization of the wireless phone industry.  “The strategy of Verizon is to undermine the union by making sure union efforts at new wireless business are obstructed," Nader said.  "One of key issues in the strike is to get Verizon to agree in writing that it will not interfere, obstruct or intimidate efforts of the (Communications Workers of America) to organize the growing number of workers in their wireless business divisions."  Other strike issues include forced overtime, adequate training of customer service representatives, and company policies on customer service quotas.

Claudette Meliere, New Jersey Green Party candidate for Congress in the 13th District and a union member, also endorsed the goals of the striking workers, saying, “I wholeheartedly support the CWA’s efforts to organize unorganized workers in the wireless industry, and to gain better working conditions.  No one should be forced to work overtime in order to keep a job.  The Green Party supports the right to organize and join and the right to strike.  Where are the Democrats in this strike?  Al Gore is not walking the picket line or supporting the strikers, even though the CWA endorsed him!  That’s because the Democratic Party can’t speak out against their big money supporters in big corporations.  The Green Party is not bought and paid for – we’re going to speak out for working people.”