Date of publication: June 17, 2008
Source: South Coast Today
Author: BECKY W. EVANS
NEW BEDFORD — Outside the same military bag factory where immigration agents loaded hundreds of handcuffed undocumented workers onto buses on a frigid March day in 2007, union organizers, community activists and workers rallied today for new plant owners to allow them to organize a union.
Eagle Industries, a Missouri-based military equipment manufacturer, took over the former Michael Bianco Inc. factory last November. Workers say that while the sweatshop conditions outlined by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in court documents have improved under the new ownership, they still need more rights. They want to see higher wages, paid sick leave and more affordable health care — and to do so, they say they need to form a union...