Members of the two locals of the American Flint Glass Workers Union (AFGWU) at the plant rejected a contract offer 263-63 after the company proposed a five-year pact which would freeze wages for two years, followed by increases totaling only 4.5 percent over the subsequent three years.

"Despite management's threat to mothball the plant in the event of a strike," union officials said in a statement, "our members recognized that the contract was concessionary in all major areas, and that working under it would have been intolerable."

On the picket line workers said two of the main issues are the company's attack on seniority rights and its demand that bosses be allowed to schedule mandatory overtime for up to eight hours a day. One female striker who had worked in the plant for more than 20 years said many of the workers in the plant were single parents and at least half of the workforce is women. For most workers, she said, the overtime demands would make it very difficult to arrange child care at the whim of the company and with no notice.

Sonny Poor, president of AFGWU Local 501, is a 27-year veteran worker at Indiana Glass. "They're calling for up to eight hours mandatory overtime," he told the Muncie Star Press. "On any given day you could work 16 hours. Low man in a department could wind up working over every day if the need arises. And if you work in the hot end--the temperature is ungodly during the peak of summer--it could be a major safety issue. Hot, tired, fatigue factors, you could get hurt. We want a place to work, but we want to be treated like human beings too."  
 
'Unlimited interchangeability'
In its assault on seniority rights the company is seeking "unlimited interchangeability within departments," according to the rejected contract. Wage rates, job descriptions, and job evaluations could be changed by the company at any time. In a letter to the glass workers the Indiana Glass Company explained that "in order to better compete" it needed greater "flexibility in assigning people efficiently within the plant," and the ability to fill needed jobs and positions due to unplanned absences and last minute needs of customers.

In place of seniority, the company wanted to create a "bonus system rewarding teamwork and group success." A picket explained this was the company's attempt "to manipulate people and move them around, double your work, and cut your pay."

AFGWU Locals 501 and 151 had been on strike for about a month in 1974 and 1992 against Indiana Glass Company. The company has cut the workforce from 1,000 in 1974 to 400 today. "Where before there were four workers doing a job, there are now one or two," a worker on the picket line explained. "If you are doing the job of two or three people by the time you leave the plant you are dragging."

The company has received several tax abatements from the city of Dunkirk, but strikers say there has been little investment in new machinery in the plant, which is over 100 years old. On October 10 the Star Press wrote that "there was speculation that Indiana Glass's parent company, Lancaster Colony, might shut down the Dunkirk plant within 18 months." Three weeks before the end of the contract, the company moved machinery to the sister plant in Oklahoma.

Despite possible plant closure, workers steadfastly refuse to accept the mandatory overtime and attacks on seniority, safety, and working conditions. "We have everything to lose with this strike," one striker said, "but it's better to fight than die on your knees. They are trying to bust the union." No one has crossed the picket line, effectively shutting down production. The company is shipping material produced before the strike.

Indiana Glass quickly won a court order limiting to four the number of pickets at the plant's main gate, and to two the pickets at Indiana Glass outlet stores in Muncie and Dunkirk, and stating that the unionists must refrain from "harassing and intimidating" the bosses and traffic coming in and out of the plant.

Commenting on President George Bush's instruction to law enforcement authorities nationwide to be on "high alert" in anticipation of more terrorist attacks, Jay County's chief deputy sheriff said that his officers had been on high alert since the strike started at Indiana Glass. "With this strike, we are about as high as you can get for being on alert," he said. The letter issued by the company also referred to the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon: "We have a plant that is running well below any possibility of profit, and has been since February of 2001. The slowdown of the economy, begun before terrorism attacks made Americans even more cautious about discretionary spending, put us in a very difficult position, as well."

Noting how the company has used the attacks to further push its antiunion drive, a striker said, "they try to blame it on bin Laden. But he doesn't have anything to do with this place."

Arrin Hawkins is a meat packer in Chicago and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.  
 
 
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