BY JEANNE FITZMAURICE
NATCHEZ, Mississippi - Inside the main plant gate, on a big
signboard where ordinarily there might be a job safety notice,
the Titan Tire bosses have placed the message "What goes
around, comes around." Despite company attempts like this to
cut across the morale of striking Steelworkers here, the
walkout remains solid.
Members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 303L began picketing the plant September 15, eleven days after Maurice Taylor, who acquired the plant in August, closed the gates and fired all the workers. Several local union officials were terminated a few days before the strike started, including a grievanceman who was fired for attending a grievance meeting.
Workers at Titan's Des Moines, Iowa, factory have been on strike since May 1.
"We couldn't wait to get to the picket line," said one striker. "We waited to get to this point for 18 months - it got so we could hardly keep people inside the plant!"
Shortly after the strike started, Taylor began to try to restart production, using a contractor to hire the scabs instead of Titan doing so directly. Despite company claims, workers say there are only about 150 tires a day being made at the Natchez plant, about a tenth of normal production.
Local 303L members report that the contractor has been calling strikers and offering them jobs - a thinly veiled attempt to interfere with their ability to qualify for unemployment benefits, on the basis that they refused work. Strikers know they have a right to refuse such work and are continuing to draw unemployment.
There are about 500 members in Local 303L, but only 200 were working on September 4. Most union members were laid off in April 1993 after the former owner of the plant filed for bankruptcy. The Natchez plant had been Fidelity Tire Manufacturing Co., owned by Condere Corp. That company filed for bankruptcy last year. In late August of this year Titan Tire owner Maurice Taylor bought Condere's assets.
About 10 union members have crossed the picket line here, strikers report.
The Titan strikers are winning support for their fight. Local merchants such as Kroger's have begun to donate groceries that are being distributed from the union hall near the plant. Members of other unions in the area have also stopped by to offer support, and the Teamsters are honoring the picket line.
Also at the union hall is a notice about the October 25 rally being held in St. James Parish, Louisiana, for USWA Local 5702 on strike against Kaiser Aluminum (see article on this page).
Local 303L has named their main picket area "Camp Wiley" in memory of local member Jerry Wiley. About a month before the strike started, Wiley committed suicide after facing inhuman pressure from the company to return to work shortly after heart surgery.
Jeanne FitzMaurice is a member of USWA Local 1013 in Fairfield, Alabama. USWA Local 2122 member Susan LaMont contributed to this article.