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On February 16, 2001, 180 autoworkers at Star Metal Manufacturing in Windsor, Ontario, occupied their factory, led by Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 195, to protest a proposed $1 per hour wage increase spread over three years, with workers earning just over $11 an hour, as stated by union spokesperson Dan Sins, who said "Our goal is to get back to the talks, we want to go back to work, but we can’t live on what they are paying us."
50 years ago, on February 22, 1976, the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and Socialist Party (PS) reached an agreement with the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) to disband worker committees, betraying the revolutionary upheavals that had rocked Portugal since the April 1974 "Carnation Revolution", with Álvaro Cunhal, general secretary of the PCP, and Mário Soares, leader of the PS, playing key roles in stabilizing capitalist rule.
The occupation of the Star Metal Manufacturing plant and the agreement in Portugal highlight the ongoing struggle for workers' rights and fair wages, with the autoworkers' action drawing widespread community support, including from workers at Ford, GM, and Chrysler facilities, who joined the picket lines and honked in solidarity, as reported by the World Socialist Web Site.
