Workers voted to be represented by the IUEC in June 2000 but they have been working without a contract since. Union officials say the company has refused to negotiate in good faith because they do not want to recognize the IUEC as the bargaining agent.

According to John Matos, a member of IUEC Local 1, the vote to join the union last year was only 23 to 20, but in June the vote to strike was more than 90 percent in favor. Matos and several other strikers, who were on the picket line on a recent Sunday, explained that the main issues in the strike were not about money, but about how workers are treated on the job.

"The company has replaced workers who were out on disability," said Matos, "They fired one worker who refused to bring a train into the yard without clearing it--checking the train for people or belongings. This is part of the company's own standard operating procedures."

"They treat us like we're dirty rags," said Kyle Strand, "Promotions are based on who you are buddies with and if they like you." Strand explained that since the strike began, the company has only been running half the number of trains that they are contracted to run, using nonunion workers.

Strikers were forced to move their picket lines from the airport terminals where they were visible to the general public. They are now confined to a small area near the building they work at, which is off a cargo road exit. But the workers maintain a lively spirit in their present location and have been visited by a number of other unionists. On the morning of September 1 the union organized a caravan to drive slowly around the airport, tying up traffic for two hours on the first day of Labor Day weekend, in order to bring some publicity to the fight.  
 
 
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