BY SHEILA OSTROW
PITTSBURGH - From the day 4,500 workers at Wheeling- Pittsburgh Steel Corp. walked off the job October 1, local women's committees have played a very important role in keeping morale high and helping to organize outreach to other workers for support of the strike. The strikers at Wheeling-Pitt's mills in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). Their central demand is for the restoration of the type of guaranteed pension plan that exists at the other integrated steel companies in the United States.

The women's committees are made up of women strikers, along with spouses and others who support the strike.

Gloria Jones is an activist in the Yorkville, Ohio, women's committee. Over 700 steelworkers are on strike at the mill there, and Jones's husband is one of them. "Businesses and others in the area have been very gracious in donating items to be used for fundraising," she said. "This has helped raise funds for the kids. We recently were able to put together Easter baskets for all the children of strikers." The women's committee in Yorkville has also assisted strikers and their families to get donations from food banks and to ward off creditors breathing down their necks.

In the first week of the strike, this reporter was able to go with co-workers to visit USWA Local 1190 in Steubenville, Ohio. There, the women's committee had already drawn up a list of businesses in the area who supported the strike and were willing to give strikers discounts.

An important part of the work of the women's committees has been fundraising. Before Christmas, the committees in both Steubenville and Yorkville collected money for Christmas presents for the children. They each raised thousands of dollars through raffles and other events. Every child was able to get a Christmas present.

Recently a blow was struck against the state of Ohio and Wheeling-Pittsburgh steel, when the 3,700 strikers in that state won 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. Jones explained that this, combined with the stepped up solidarity from USWA locals has eased some of the financial burdens for strikers.

In some of the union halls, the women's committees have organized kitchens, where meals are available for strikers going on or coming off picket duty.

Members of the women's committees have helped on bucket collections at other locals, such as one at this reporter's work site. This gives them the opportunity to explain the strike to other workers. The strike activists have also spoken at union meetings to appeal for support for the walkout. And the women's committee in Yorkville helps to build the weekly informational pickets in front of the Wheeling-Pitt headquarters in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Individual members of women's committee also responded February 4 to calls by the union for emergency pickets when bosses at Wheeling-Pitt attempted to take a truck load of space compressor parts from the Yorkville tin plate mill.

Andrea Jones, a member of USWA 1843 in Pittsburgh, has been an active supporter of the strike from the first week. "After initially meeting Gloria Jones and the other women in the women's committee, I am not surprised that they are still going strong and raising money to help the strikers," she said.

Meanwhile, strikers face continued intimidation from Wheeling-Pitt bosses and WHX, the company's parent corporation. Negotiations between WHX chairman Ronald LaBow and USWA negotiators broke down in Pittsburgh March 25, according to the Wheeling News Register. At the same time, the company announced it would eliminate 350 jobs, including closing its Beech Bottom, West Virginia, a corrugated steel mill; the LaBelle, West Virginia, a cut nail facility; and a production line at the Martins Ferry, Ohio, galvanizing mill.

Recent contract talks have broken down and have failed to produce an agreement on a guaranteed pension for the 4500 steelworkers.

Steelworkers from locals around the country have been organizing bucket collections to support strikers. Many locals have organized buses and car caravans to visit the strikers on the picket lines and at the union halls. Gloria Jones said that seeing members from other locals "makes us feel that we can last one more day. It gives us a reason to keep going on."

Sheila Ostrow is a member of USWA Local 184 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  
 
 
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