Area workers for the American Red Cross have been working for almost a year without a contract.

Area workers for the American Red Cross, represented by AFSCME Locals 1205 and 1558, representing Red Cross employees in Wisconsin and Iowa, have been working for almost a year without a contract. So workers have joined in solidarity with them, and this week, on Wednesday from 10 to 2 in downtown Madison, and this morning at the Memorial Union on the UW campus, fellow union workers passed out leaflets at Red Cross blood collection drives, informing the public of the Red Cross workers’ demands. Labor Radio talked to some leafletters who were on MLK Boulevard in Madison as a rainstorm hit on Wednesday. Henry Brown of AFT Wisconsin was there.

Harry Richardson, of AFSCME Local 171, the local representing the blue-collar technical workers at UW, explained what he knew of the situation for area Red Cross workers.

Barbara Smith, a member of AFT Local 4848, explained why she was there, leafletting in the rain on Wednesday.

That was Barbara Smith of AFT Local 4848, speaking Wednesday while leafleting in suppot of Red Cross workers. Leafleting continued today on the UW campus. The South Central Federation of Labor, or Scuffle, has issued a statement saying, “The Red Cross is bargaining in bad faith. All workers deserve livable wages, decent benefits, and time off to spend with their loved ones.”

Reporting Courtesy of Greg Geboski 

Image courtesy of Arienne McCracken on Flickr