Women of Steel support the Cuban Five
• Meetings in Pittsburgh and Boston
•
THE
case of the Cuban 5 is known by unions across
Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries
because on several occasions the mothers and wives
of the Five have been invited to speak at labor
conferences in those countries. And now in the
United States, for the first time, hundreds of women
from the United Steelworkers (USW) got to hear about
the injustice committed against the Five and their
families.
The
United Steelworkers (USW) 2013 Women of Steel
Conference (WOS) took place in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania from March 9-13. It included plenary
sessions, and workshops with a wide range of themes
including trade, media and communication, health
care, along with legislative and political related
issues.
On
the last day of the conference, during the plenary
session with international guests, Karen Cole from
UNITE, the British union, addressed the audience and
thanked the USW for giving them space to have a
table with information about the case of the Cuban 5
at the conference. When she mentioned that two of
the wives of the Cuban 5 have been denied visas by
the U.S. government to visit their incarcerated
husbands, a woman from the audience loudly shouted
“Shame”. Cole then proceeded to raise an ‘Obama Give
me Five’ postcard and asked those at the plenary to
send one to Obama when they got home.
The
fraternal relations between the USW and its sister
union UNITE in the UK made the presence of the Cuban
5 possible at this women’s caucus conference. Last
May the case of the Cuban 5 was raised at the 25th
International Convention of the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) meeting in Denver,
Colorado.
(From the International Committee for
the Freedom of the Cuban 5)
