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The security forces have arrived. On October 1st, two cars pulled into the parking lot at Westario. One parked, a camera mounted on the dash, facing the workers on picket duty. Recently I wrote an appeal to the governor of Para State in Brazil, as part of an Amnesty International world action, asking him to protect the life of the local Rural Worker’s Union President. She is threatened with death unless she stops defending rural workers. Earlier her husband and another union worker were murdered. Sadly, it appears, we need a Labour Net here. It is repugnant that the Board: Mark Kraemer, Glenn Sutton, Charlie Bagnato, Bill Roseborough, Ralph Kreutzwiser, David Burns, and Lynn Lowry, stoops to security and cameras. Such tactics are common in Columbia and Brazil. First, the security people arrive. The intimidation starts. They sit in their cars before picket lines or workers’ homes, often taking pictures. Next, homes may be sprayed with bullets. Then come letters and telephone calls threatening death. If the labour action has not yet ceased or members forced into exile, death often follows. The board members have taken the first step. What will be their second against ordinary workers in our communities? I read where Mark Kraemer was heard to say, “I don’t care if they (the workers) are out until Christmas.” What a display of moral bankruptcy! They say they need to be flexible. The words ‘flexible’ and ‘competitive’ have become meaningless words used by the greedy and the incompetent. It was employed in a Malaysian factory where men and women laboured under almost slave conditions. The board has not made the case to the public; it is possible it can’t. We do not know because they, all public officials, lack the integrity to speak openly with the public. When faced with workers, they hurriedly brush past desiring only to get away lest they be forced to face them and speak honestly to those they would attack. The board has the responsibility and the authority. Re-instate the former Letter of Understanding. It would be a step back from the third world.
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