BY NORTON SANDLER
DES MOINES, Iowa - The National Labor Relations Board announced in a press release November 20 that some 1,100 rubber workers are entitled to get their jobs back at Bridgestone/Firestone tire plants in five cities.
"We are finally seeing an end in sight because of the solidarity of the union, working people, and religious organizations. We've received a lot of support because we are morally right," union member Don Barrell said in response to the NLRB announcement. "The word inside the plant is that the replacement workers are sensing they may be out of there soon. They are starting to see that the company's word isn't worth much."
Rubber workers went on strike at Bridgestone/Firestone facilities in Akron, Ohio; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Noblesville, Indiana; Decatur, Illinois; and in Des Moines in July 1994.
Management began bringing in "permanent replacements" in January 1995. The hard-fought ten-month strike ended in May with union members making an unconditional offer to return to work. Since then some 300 union members have been recalled by the company in Des Moines and just over 1,000 nationally. In Des Moines alone some 500 of the original strikers remain on the street, with about 1,100 out of work nationally at the plants that were struck.
The United Rubber Workers union merged with the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) last summer. Steelworkers union officials have been pressing a boycott of Bridgestone/Firestone tires as a major priority for former strikers and for the USWA membership.
In Des Moines this effort has resulted in leafleting of Sears stores and other outlets that carry Bridgestone products. Former strikers who have yet to be recalled receive checks of $130 to $140 weekly from the USWA if they participate in this boycott activity.
An NLRB press release states the actions of Bridgestone/Firestone converted the dispute from an economic strike to an unfair labor practice action when the company sent letters notifying strikers they had been permanently replaced when vacancies still existed in strikers' job classifications.
The NLRB release also states that the company violated labor law by refusing to reinstate strikers following earlier NLRB rulings favoring the union.
An NLRB official said the agency will press the company and the union to resolve their differences through negotiations. On November 6, union and company officials began talks on a contract after several months without discussions.
Bridgestone/Firestone spokesperson Trevor Hoskins told the Des Moines Register that the company will appeal the NLRB ruling. Union lawyers say they will press for back pay for union members but that it could take from two to four years to be resolved through the courts.
Boycott rally
On November 17, some 700 union members rallied outside
the USWA Local 310 union hall here across the street from
the sprawling Bridgestone/Firestone plant.
Many were former strikers here, including some union members who are working again inside the plant. The Steelworkers officialdom bused in hundreds of workers from some 10 Midwestern states to the rally and provided a catered lunch following the event.
Many participants held placards distributed by the union that read: "Boycott Bridgestone/Firestone tires," "The un- American Company, Bridgestone/Firestone," and "Permanently replaced by Bridgestone/Firestone." The company is owned by a large Japanese conglomerate.
"We are going to get our membership back to work with the pride and dignity they deserve," Jeff Doornenbal, newly elected president of Local 310 here, told the rally. District 11 director David Foster told the crowd that the boycott is having an effect on the company. Several local Democratic Party candidates also spoke or sent messages to the event.
One of the louder rounds of applause of the day was for Charlie Gibson, president of the Noblesville, Indiana, local, when he referred to the Japanese owners of Bridgestone/Firestone as "little slant-eyed SOBs." This comment was highlighted in the Des Moines Register's coverage of the rally. Several union members from the Oklahoma City local came to the event dressed in camouflage. One official of that local justified this "because we are at war with Japan."
A different view was put forward from the stage by Glenn Richard from Local 998 in Oklahoma City, who toured Japan with other union members in early September. He explained to the crowd that the "Japanese people stand real strong behind us, we received real solidarity. They are backing our boycott; these are strong union people there."
Several unionists present responded angrily to the anti- Japanese outburst from Gibson and urged the union officials to respond to it. A few days later, in a letter published in the December 6 Des Moines Register and distributed to many union members who participated in the rally, USWA District 11 director Foster wrote, "I want to make it clear to your readership that our union in no way condones those [anti-Japanese] statements.
"Earlier this year," Foster added, "two Des Moines families traveled to Japan to join with several Japanese unions in seeking to bring the Bridgestone/Firestone dispute to conclusion. In spite of enormous differences in language, culture, and history, our common problems as working people in a global economy are binding us ever tighter. I know I speak for the overwhelming majority of our members who see corporate greed, not race, as the root of our problem at Bridgestone/Firestone." The letter concludes, "Please let your readers know that the United Steelworkers of America does not and will not subscribe to intolerance."
Steelworkers activists from Des Moines and other cities are currently touring Spain, Italy, and Belgium to organize support for the boycott of Bridgestone/Firestone products.