Columnist George Hohmann commented in the Charleston Daily Mail that what happens in this dispute may set a precedent, pointing to the fact that Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated has 7,000 employees, of whom only 520 are union members.

Striker Bruce Adkin told the Militant that, as a loader, he gets $1.50 less an hour at the Huntington plant than union workers here at St. Albans. The company justifies this by arguing that it's in a different area, although it is a 30-minute drive on the interstate highway. Adkin explained that Charleston workers can retire after 30 years of service while Huntington workers have to wait until they are 65 to get the full pension, yet they work for the same company. Coke is also proposing to hike health insurance premiums.  
 
Workers resist strikebreaking
Workers are resisting a determined company effort to break their strike. Early on the bosses brought in a union-busting security outfit, which strikers noted was the same strikebreaking agency used during the Ravenswood Aluminum strike in the early 1990s. The company is continuing operations with scabs and management personnel. Security guards accompany scab drivers on their routes with a guard in the truck and one following. Adkin explained that strikers follow the trucks, picketing their deliveries, and explaining to the company's customers the issues in the dispute.

In one frame-up against the unionists, the company blamed strikers for shooting up a three-truck convoy that left the St. Albans plant just outside Charleston in late March. Pickets told the Militant that the morning of the shooting, the delivery trucks did not go in different directions as normal but all headed in the same direction.

Teamsters Local 175 president Ken Hall said he found it "extremely odd" that the first incidence of violence in the strike "comes at a time when the company has brought in out-of-state professional strikebreakers and hired a notorious union-busting law firm."

The FBI was brought into the investigations after being contacted by the company. Lauren Steele, vice president of corporate affairs, accused the union of "a pattern of intimidation, vandalism, and threats of violence." The union responded to company efforts to use the news media against the strikers by challenging the company to a debate.

A further frame-up attempt against the workers occurred when a small grass fire at the gate to the St. Albans Coke plant was blamed on pickets. The Charleston Gazette reported that security guards at the plant told firefighters the blaze apparently jumped from a picket's burn barrel to a nearby pile of firewood.

Strikers told the Militant that pickets had damped down the fire hours before and that the company "wants something to happen," pointing out that a ruling on unemployment benefits for members of Locals 505 and 175 is pending.

At hearings on the unemployment benefits, Coke bosses claimed that the strike is severely affecting West Virginia operations. Union lawyers pointed out that corporate officers had previously claimed the strike has had little impact. More than 90 Teamsters attended these hearings in early May.

When challenged in the court hearings on the different conditions for Huntington workers, Coke's chief negotiator said the Huntington plant just happened to be the first place to make these changes. He added, "The days of free health care are over."

In a victory for the strikers, Judge Robert Smith ruled May 26 in favor of unemployment benefits for the Teamsters backdated to March 14, when the strike began.

Local 175 members have also been involved in a number of successful organizing drives in West Virginia. They helped secure the first contract for more than 500 workers at a hardwood factory in April.  
 
 
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