Night of the Living Dead (1968) dir. George A. Romero
On this day, 17 August 1985, workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota went on strike in protest at a 23% wage cut which came following 8 years of a pay freeze. The strikers held firm through the winter, until the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) negotiated a compromise involving a two tier workforce with lower pay for new hires and a smaller pay cut for existing staff. A majority of members rejected the union deal, however the International union ordered its members to return to work, and some union officials in the plant joined some others to begin working as scabs while the rank-and-file workers kept up pickets. Authorities instituted martial law and brought in the National Guard to work alongside police in beating, harassing and arresting strikers and ensuring that scabs could get to work. The strikers in the union local P-9 set up roving pickets, to try to spread the strike to other plants, which had some success but was fought tooth and nail by the International union, which denounced P-9 as “fascists” and eventually deregistered the local. The Communist Party joined the union leadership in attacking the strikers, and the AFL-CIO refused the strikers’ request to call a boycott of Hormel foods. So eventually by June 1986 the strike was defeated. More info here: https://www.iww.org/about/how-iww-differs-business-unions/TWetzel1 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1786998111485331/?type=3
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has tried to bar mask mandates, has tested positive for COVID-19.
“Governor Abbott is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in good health, and currently experiencing no symptoms,” his office said in a statement Tuesday.
The release also said Abbott is receiving Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment and will isolate in the governor’s mansion while continuing to test daily.
The positive test comes as COVID rates soar in Texas, driven by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. As of Monday, more than 11,000 people in the state had been hospitalized, up 53% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times analysis that compiles the data from state and local health agencies. Though “breakthrough cases” among vaccinated people can occur, the shots overwhelmingly protect people from severe illness, hospitalization, and death.
Abbott on Tuesday said on Twitter that, “Right now I have no symptoms such as fever or aches and pains.”
Abbott has been fighting with local Texas officials about mask mandates, which he has sought to ban through an executive order. Some cities in the state have tried to institute mask mandates at public schools anyway, as schools reopen while the virus surges; the state Supreme Court on Sunday at least temporarily sided with Abbott.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ®, who enacted bans on mask and vaccine mandates in the Lone Star State, tested positive for COVID. Abbott is fully vaccinated.
