Work report on Morgan for Mumia

On Thursday, September 23, a group of rank and file postal workers and union stewards calling ourselves Morgan for Mumia defied US Postal Service management to promote justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in Manhattan, one of the world's largest postal facilities. The event, timed to be part of Mumia Awareness Week, was a solid success. This report is being written to encourage other workers to take the issue of Mumia into their unions and workplaces.

The Idea

In late summer, a handful of postal workers who had attended the April 24 March for Mumia in Philadelphia began talking to one another about what could be done to deepen consciousness about Mumia among our co-workers. The two unions in our facility, Mailhandlers Local 300 and the New York Metro local of the American Postal Workers Union, are both on record as calling for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The smaller of the two, the Mailhandlers local headed by President Larry Adams has been a very important labor presence in the Justice for Mumia movement for years.

Still, the fact is that many of our co-workers do not know who Mumia is or, in response to being told about the case, might say things like "Oh, I remember seeing that on t.v. He killed a cop, right?" Even many folks who know about and are sympathetic to Mumia do not have a sense of the urgency of speaking out as the government's railroad rolls down the tracks toward his execution.
We decide to try and mobilize the people with a relatively advanced awareness of Mumia's case to create a presence and a stir within our station. The national call for Mumia Awareness Week, September 19-25, provided us with a good target date. The idea was not grandiose. We wanted to get as many people as possible to wear Mumia buttons on one day and to try to and hold an educational activity in the cafeteria during lunch on all three tours (shifts).

The Conditions

We had some favorable conditions going for us, created in part by previous struggles. As mentioned above, Mailhandlers Local 300 had passed a series of resolutions, after sharp debate at general meetings, starting in 1995. These have been continually criticized by a few members who oppose Mumia or argue that his case has nothing to do with postal unionism. But Local 300 has been bold, marching in NYC's Labor Day Parade as well as at Mumia demos with their "New Trial For Mumia Abu-Jamal" banner. This means that among the stewards and more active members of Local 300 there is a core of people already hipped to the case.

After several attempts over the years to pass New Trial resolutions in the New York Metro Postal Union, which were tabled by the leadership, one was adopted early this year. There is some speculation that this was in part an effort to appear more active and responsive in the face of a challenge being mounted just then by a slate of rank and filers in local union elections. The old leadership lost anyway and the stir of interest in union matters created by the contentious election has helped increase attendance at union meetings and revive rank and file attention to union matters. (The core of Morgan for Mumia includes both Metro stewards who had been aligned with the prior leadership and members who had supported the reform "Candidates for Change" slate.)

Another favorable condition is the make-up of Morgan itself. It is a huge mail processing facility, occupying several floors of work space covering two city blocks of Manhattan. There are over 5000 workers and the place runs 24/7/365. The basic workforce is pretty stable and so the average age is probably over 40, meaning a lot of folks have memories of upsurge of struggle of the '60s and '70s. This workforce is very diverse, but African Americans and, to be more precise, African American women are the largest single grouping. Hundreds of people from Morgan attended the Million Man and especially the Million Woman Marches a few years back. On any given day, you are likely to see at least one co-worker wearing a t-shirt from one of the marches.

Finally, there is the fact of being in New York itself. There was, for example, a strong, diverse Mumia contingent in a big community parade in Harlem right at the beginning of the Mumia Awareness Week which several workers mentioned having seen. The NYPD torture of Abner Louima and murder of Amadou Diallo have deeply affected people's view of the cops.The Black media, like the Daily Challenge newspaper, have covered Mumia's case and some progressive workers listen to WBAI, the local Pacifica outlet, on their walkmen at work.

All conditions were not favorable, of course. Official union support for a new trial for Mumia does not automatically translate to education or mobilization on the shop floor. That's why we decided to hold the event in the first place. The weakness of progressive activism in the '90s has hit NY as well as the rest of the country. A telling symptom is that it has been at least five years since any left group has distributed its newspaper at Morgan. And arbitrary attacks by postal management, typified by the removal of workers' right to wash up on the clock at the end of our tour, which wind up caught in a seemingly endless grievance procedure, have increased workers' feelings of powerlessness in the face of the bosses and their cynicism about the unions and collective activity.

Morgan for Mumia

After we selected our target date, Thursday, September 23, at a small meeting held between Tour 2 and Tour 3 (day shift and evening shift), we prepared a flier announcing that the event would be held and calling on other workers concerned about Mumia to join us. These were posted around the facility. Contact individuals from all three tours were identified.

We were disappointed that no one came forward from this, but the flier proved to be valuable nonetheless. At the monthly meeting of the New York Metro local of the APWU held the week before, it was distributed to the over 100 people in attendance. A steward from Tour 1 offered a resolution that the local support the activity by publicizing it in a "News Flash," the one page bulletin that the union puts up on union bulletin boards throughout the facility to communicate announcements to the members. Two other Morgan for Mumia people spoke for the resolution, as did an influential sister from another facility who was hearing about the idea for the first time. The motion passed.

This meant that the event would have a stamp of support from the union and would more readily get attention from union-minded rank and filers. Additionally, the local's leadership provided us with extra copies of the News Flash, entitled "Mumia Abu Jamal Awareness" in case some stewards were slow in getting it posted, as sometimes happens.

Two days before the 23rd we did our first mass leafletting, with a flier which spoke briefly about the details of Mumia's case and called on folks to wear a button which we would be selling, to come to the cafeteria Thursday to educate themselves, to write Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge and to take part in the citywide march on Saturday, the closing event of Mumia Awareness Week. The leaflet also reprinted the resolutions from both local unions calling for a new trial for Mumia. One response it got was anger from postal police who railed about "cop killers" and tried to force us away from the entrance, saying we were blocking it. The two leafletters stood their ground.

By this time we were meeting briefly almost daily in Local 300's in-plant office, a small group ranging from three to eight people. We kept in touch on the workfloor during breaks and tour changes as well. On the day before the 23rd, two important things happened. First, we became aware that green ribbons imprinted "New Trial 4 Mumia" with pins attached were available at a quarter each and we bought 300.

Also, we learned that management had targeted us. A letter from top management was faxed to the officers of both locals saying we were not authorized to conduct talks or a video showing in the cafeteria. The letter cited lack of advance notice (we had given none--the leaflet had worked its way up the chain of command), then cut to the chase: "This issue has nothing to do with the administration of your respective bargaining agreements." We consulted quickly and cut back the cafeteria plans. We had not been able to work out getting a television and VCR anyway, so we decided to set up an information table and talk to those who came to it.

We also wrote and reproduced a new leaflet for the next day. The back was a condensed version of our earlier one. The front declared in bold letters " Morgan for Mumia Asks: WHAT IS MANAGEMENT SO SCARED OF?" and ripped their attempt to suppress our basic democratic rights.

The 23rd itself was quite a success. Over a thousand leaflets were distributed. The ribbons proved very important. We could afford to give them out whereas we had to sell our buttons. This had two advantages. Since the unions sometimes give out buttons about local issues like the washup grievance, people expect them to be free and want to haggle over it. Also, as folks are rushing to hit in at the time clock, they don't have time to fish out money and buy a button. All 300 ribbons went, and all through the day they were a very visible presence throughout Morgan. We probably could have unloaded a couple hundred more.

Another fax from management went to Local 300 that morning, followed by a telephone threat to the union office , which was communicated to us. They said that anyone conducting an activity in the cafeteria would be removed. Again, quick consultation resulted in a cautious approach. We weren't clear on such short notice how much union backing we could get and, more important, the question of a cafeteria meeting was not really an issue most workers knew or were concerned about. We decided that a showdown over a full cafeteria meeting could take place on a later occasion.

What we did was to take over a couple tables right by the cafeteria entrance during lunch, sit at them with a range of literature arrayed before us and talk to folks who came up or whom we called over. This went well and, despite the presence on Tour 2 of some unfamiliar suits checking things out, no steps were taken against us. Over the course of the day we also sold a bunch of buttons on the workfloor and distributed other literature, including a piece on labor and Mumia, to interested co-workers.

Everyone who was openly identified with Morgan for Mumia was in conversations throughout the workday with interested and curious co-workers. There were negative responses as well. A lot of folks just didn't want to hear about it. Others had already formed anti-Mumia opinions, typically though not exclusively more conservative white skilled technicians. Even these divided into two groups, the actively hostile and those who were willing to listen to arguments about the sham of a trial Mumia had and about how even the "official" version on the incident he was arrested for doesn't justify a death sentence.

Two days later on Saturday, at least a half a dozen postal workers we know of took part in the citywide march, and one of the Morgan for Mumia activists was asked to give a speech to the hundreds at the demo on the importance of building support for Mumia in the trade union movement.

Morgan for Mumia plans further activities to educate and mobilize our co-workers in the struggle to win justice for this courageous fighter. With people we met in the course of this initial campaign, we have a larger potential core for our next activity.

A Few Points of Summation

This report may seem awfully long, considering the modest scale of what we did. On the other hand, few workers in the US are in a position to emulate the incredible one day general strike staged by the longshore union on the West Coast for Mumia on April 24. That gave heart to many of us, but inspiration only counts for so much unless you are inspired to actually do something.

Some lessons from our experience with Morgan for Mumia:

•A small, informal group can make the question of Mumia a broader issue in a workplace.
•While most unions will not make Mumia a central concern, union support and the struggle to win it are important components of an effort like this.
•Being ready to wage a tit for tat campaign with management, as we did with the one day turnaround time on leaflets, keeps the issue sharp.
•Having a way for sympathetic co-workers to be involved, as we did with the green ribbons, expands your base and maximizes your impact.
•Have a good plan and a backup plan for more direct education and distribution of material. This was one of our shortcomings.

This paper was written to encourage workers in other shops to try something similar. If you do so, please sum it up and spread your experience. The workplace is a key battlefield for building support for Mumia in the coming months. If you have any questions, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it