Auburn Foundry is a major producer of gray-iron castings for the auto and appliance industries. The 675 members of GMP Local 322 walked out May 3.

The bosses agreed to call back 150 of the strikers within six months, and to take back all those remaining by the end of the four-year contract, May 2, 2003. The company will keep the 490 strikebreakers hired during the strike, as well as 190 former GMP members who broke ranks and returned to work. Auburn Foundry's two plants here will remain union shops, although none of the scabs now working there will be required to join the union.

The company and union also agreed to drop all legal charges against each other, including unfair labor practice charges the GMP had filed with the National Labor Relations Board, and charges the company had filed against some strikers for alleged violations of court orders restricting picketing.

"Some people wanted to stay out because they thought we could get more if we did," said striker Larry Chapman in explaining the November 21 vote. "But the International officials told us this was our last chance; that we'd all be out of a job if we didn't accept this deal."

One week after the agreement was reached, only five strikers had actually been called back to work.

"We face a long hard time, working to rebuild the union from inside the plant again," said striker George Paul.

The strikers faced a company determined to break their resistance. The bosses started hiring strikebreakers within days of the start of the walkout. Strikers responded with sizeable, determined picket lines. On May 29, however, the company got a court to limit the union to two persons at each picket site.

Strikers also reported incidents of harassment and physical attacks by the security cops hired by Auburn Foundry and by some scabs. On September 20 a picket shanty was firebombed; no one was on the picket line at the time. A few weeks later, the same shanty was burned to the ground.

The GMP organized several marches and rallies during the strike, drawing support from hundreds of workers in the region. In August members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 634 at the nearby Cooper Engineering plant launched weekly picket-line rallies in support of the strike. USWA members also backed the pickets by honking their horns when driving by.

The Steelworkers called for a bigger rally later in August, seeking support from unions in northern Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. Auburn police, however, soon cracked down on the strike supporters, issuing tickets to those honking their horns and bringing charges against union officials, allegedly for violating the court restraining order. Under this pressure, union officials called off the projected march.

After several negotiating sessions in mid-August, GMP officials said they had reached agreement on most issues in the contract. But the bosses still insisted on keeping all the strikebreakers it had hired. On August 28, strikers voted 344 to 4 to reject a company proposal that would have allowed 100 strikers to return to work within 30 days.

Harvey McArthur is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Chicago.  
 
 
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