Oil Workers Join Hands with Student

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Oil Workers Join Hands with Students and Community Activists Across US to Call for Sanctions against Burma's Dictatorship.


Friday April 18 1:00 PM EDT - Source: Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers
International
Union, AFL-CIO 

Oil Workers Join Hands with Students and Community
Activists Across US to Call for Sanctions against Burma's
Dictatorship.

Over 60 Campuses and Communities to Hold Actions

LAKEWOOD, Colo., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The 90,000 member Oil, Chemical
and Atomic
Workers International Union (OCAW) and the Free Burma Coalition (FBC), the
largest
U.S.-based group of student and community activists working to restore
democracy in Burma,
today called on its members and affiliates to "turn up the heat on the
Clinton Administration" to
impose economic sanctions on Burma during the "3 Days for Burma" campaign
mobilization set for
April 22, 23 and 24. 

The "3 Days for Burma," originally planned by OCAW as an internal union
action to educate and
mobilize workers to stop oil company support for Burma's military regime and
to call attention to
company attacks on U.S. workers, has grown rapidly with both community and
student groups
joining the initiative. According to an FBC spokesperson, in addition to
over 400 work places
represented by OCAW, it is estimated that over 60 campuses and community
groups across the
country will be engaging in actions to "educate, organize and speak out
against the Clinton
Administration acceding to multinational corporate interests by refusing to
impose economic
sanctions." 

"It marks one of the first times in recent memory that workers and students
have joined together to
protest corporate support for atrocities abroad," said Robert Wages, OCAW
President. "It shows
that there is a rapidly growing movement in this country to make oil
companies and other
multinational corporations accountable for their actions," he added. 

"At the same time that oil companies downsize or shut down their U.S.
operations and lay off
thousands of workers, they are expanding their operations in Burma and
elsewhere where workers
have no rights and the use of forced and child labor is routine," said Wages. 

Zar Ni, a Burmese exiled student who founded FBC two years ago, said "The
solidarity action
among workers, students and community activists shows that justice for
American workers is
connected to freedom for the Burmese people." 

OCAW members will be handbilling at work sites, discussing the situation in
Burma, and signing
petitions to President Clinton which call on him to impose sanctions on
Burma's military regime.
Community and campus-based activities will include teach-ins, rallies,
leafleting, petitioning, and
visits to local politicians to express dissatisfaction with the Clinton
Administration. In Denver,
Colorado and San Louis Obispo, California and other places, OCAW members and
students will
be conducting joint actions. 

OCAW has been involved in the campaign to restore democracy in Burma, since
Unocal locked out
union workers in Illinois. A retired OCAW member is sponsoring a Unocal
shareholders resolution
calling attention to alleged links between Unocal's operations in Burma and
heroin money-laundering
by Burma's military. 

The United Mine Workers of America are also participating in "3 Days for
Burma."