BY NORTON SANDLER
DES MOINES, Iowa - Following the rubber workers' decision to call off the strike in Decatur, Illinois, union members here are demonstrating their resolve to stand firm against Bridgestone/Firestone's takeback and union-busting demands.

At informational meetings May 10 and 11, union members reviewed developments in their 10-month strike. United Rubber Workers (URW) Local 310 president Bernie Sinclair told the press, "This is not something we enjoy, this is something we do out of necessity." Sinclair said the strikers are fighting for "a fair and equitable agreement" that would allow them to "return to work with pride and dignity."

More than 850 union members remain on strike in Des Moines against the tire-making conglomerate. Last July, 4,100 URW members struck the company at its plants in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Noblesville, Indiana; Decatur, Illinois; Akron, Ohio; and Des Moines. Less than 2,000 union members remain on strike at these plants, with the biggest concentration of them in Des Moines at the company's agricultural tire plant.

On May 14, 60 union members and their supporters demonstrated in a Mother's Day protest at the Iowa governor's mansion. The action focused on Gov. Terry Branstad's refusal to meet with members of the striking local.

Paul Gnade, co-chair of the union's family support group, told the crowd, "I'd like to ask him why he's never gotten involved in this and why he's allowed the company to dictate to him what he's going to do.

"Wives and husbands work long hours for low pay, while the chosen few receive the lion's share of the profits generated by our labor. We, the working people, make up the largest section of the population. It's us, the working people, the laboring people, that you [Branstad] have turned your back on," Gnade said.

Members of Local 713 in Decatur voted May 7 to unconditionally end their strike. The company responded by saying jobs in Decatur are filled by replacement workers and Bridgestone will call back the unionists one by one, when and if they are needed.

"We agreed to go back so that we can vote [in any future decertification election] to salvage the union and live to fight another day," said Randy Gordon, vice president of Local 713. Some members of the Decatur local are claiming that the decision to return to work should be thrown out since union members were not given proper notice that a strike vote meeting had been called.

The union received official notice May 12 that the National Labor Relations Board dismissed the URW's unfair labor practice charge that the company had failed to carry out good-faith negotiations on a new contract.

The union contended the company forced the workers on strike and imposed a last and final offer with steep takebacks that include pay cuts, mandatory 12-hour shifts, gutting of seniority and vacations, and cuts in company paid health-care coverage. Similar claims by the company of "bad faith bargaining" by the union were also thrown out by the NLRB. Other unfair labor practice charges by the union are still pending.

Last month, Federal Judge Ronald Longstaff found the union guilty of violating court injunctions and ordered a tightening of the limits on picketing at the Des Moines plant. Local 310 was forced to pay nearly $3,000 to mail a copy of the new injunction to every member of the union.

In another development, the URW's international executive board recently approved a merger with the United Steelworkers of America.  
 
 
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