Olin has hired strikebreakers through its public temporary hiring center in Eastgate Plaza here. The unionists have opened a strike headquarters at the plaza, just a few doors down from the hiring center.

Olin manufactures brass coils and sheets for a variety of uses, including for Winchester shell casings. One of the three struck plants is Olin's Winchester plant.

For 15 years a company-sanctioned fund initiated by workers, called the Winchester Club, has sponsored an annual Christmas party for the workers' children.

Workers contribute to the fund to help pay for the party. This year the company canceled the party. But a nearby Edwardsville law firm, Hopkins and Goldenberg, which like many businesses in the area has been aiding the strikers, stepped in and provided a skating party, gifts, fruit, and a Santa for the 1,200 children of the strikers.

At a visit to the picket line, Militant reporters spoke with two of the 500 newer workers at Olin, who are presently working at 85 percent of full wages. A major issue in the strike is to get rid of the two-tier wage setup.

A worker at the brass mill with one year and seven months in the plant said forced overtime is also a big issue for the workers with less seniority. "It is not unusual for me to be forced over for three doubles in one week," he said. The worker, who asked that his name not be used, said he thought the company had tried to sway newer workers to vote for the contract with a $1,000 signing bonus. "But I voted to strike anyway. If they had gotten away with their proposal on health insurance, they would have gotten away with anything," he said.

The strikers plan a rally on Saturday, December 23 at 2:00 p.m. in Vanpreter Park in East Alton. Several thousand people are expected to attend, according to union officials.

Martha Ressler is a sewing machine operator and member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in St. Louis. Jay Ressler is a meat packer.  
 
 
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