BY FRANK FORRESTAL
AURORA, Illinois - As United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 145 members enter their 12th month on strike here, they continue to hang tough in their battle against Caterpillar, the world's largest earth-moving equipment company.

Some 13,300 UAW members in eight plants covering three states walked out last June to halt the company's attempts to bust their union. Prior to the strike, about 2,000 UAW members worked at the Aurora plant. Touted as one of the most modern in their system, the facility manufactures excavators and wheel loaders - two hot-selling products used in the construction industry.

The union organizes around-the-clock picket duty and every Monday a rally is held in front of the main gate at the crack of dawn. At the beginning of the strike, these rallies were larger, numbering more than 100 strikers and their supporters. In the recent period, the rallies have tailed off to a few dozen strikers. Support from other unionists has also dropped off.

Despite this, many passersby honk and give the thumbs up to the pickets.

Strikers estimate that some 500 members have crossed the picket line and returned to work. The line-crossers are overwhelmingly young and a large proportion are female. In addition, a fair number of UAW retirees have crossed the line. One striker reported that a trickle of members had recently crossed after a long period where few had. He said he is the only person left in his car pool that hasn't returned to work. On the other hand, a few workers have quit their jobs and joined the strike.

The April issue of Contract Action Times, published by the UAW in Peoria, reported on a new hire at the Aurora plant who decided in March to come out and join the strike. This reporter met a young woman, also a new hire, on picket duty who had just decided to join the walkout.

One of the key operations in the plant is welding. Many of the scabs were brought in to do this job by Worldwide Labor Support Inc., a company based in Mississippi. These temporary workers "are a major part of the makeshift workforce now running the facility," reported the Contract Action Times.

According to some reports, such as Stark's Off-Highway Ledger, Caterpillar is manufacturing only 20 machines a day here, down from 28.5 when the workforce was UAW.

Spirits were picked up by reports that Caterpillar workers went on strike in Gosselies, Belgium. This has special significance here since the Gosselies plant is considered a sister plant, making the same construction equipment.

One of the picket signs leading into the plant says, "Don Fites: Robber Baron of the Year Award 1994." This was in response to Caterpillar cheif Fites being chosen by Financial World magazine as the winner of the CEO of the Year Gold Award. A copy of the magazine was mailed to all strikers.

The Fox Valley Labor News, a local union paper that covers the strike weekly, printed several responses from Local 145 members.

"I am disappointed to see that Cat management still would rather employ destructive attempts to control employees' minds than to engage in constructive negotiations that could put an end to this disastrous labor dispute," said one.

"Am I supposed to be impressed because a bunch of sharks decide Fites is the best shark of the pack? I don't think so," said another.

The Financial World article painted a glowing account of Fites and Caterpillar. "If anyone, including the United Auto Workers, couldn't get on board, they had better get out of the way," said reporter Jennifer Reingold.

"He's a leader of a three-year war against his own employees. He's caused unnecessary tension and dissension in our communities," said Jerry Brown, president of UAW Local 974 in East Peoria, Illinois. "I don't think that's the kind of record that deserves a reward."

Frank Forrestal is a member of UAW Local 551 in Chicago.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home