BY RAY PARSONS
DES MOINES - At midnight April 30, 650 members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 164 went on strike against Titan Tire after failing to reach a new contract agreement.

The night shift marched out with clenched fists in the air and were greeted by more than 400 cheering members of the local and supporters from other unions.

Titan Tire is a manufacturer of agricultural, industrial, and military tires and is a subsidiary of Titan International, a leading producer of off-highway wheels. Titan has contracts with major equipment manufacturers including John Deere, AGCO, and New Holland.

Around 11:00 p.m., steelworkers assembled outside the Local 164 union hall. Their excitement and confidence grew as the afternoon shift drove up from the nearby plant.

Workers shot off fireworks, brought out picket signs, and a banjo player led a chorus of "Solidarity Forever" from atop a pickup truck.

Twenty members of USWA Local 310 from Bridgestone/Firestone joined the rally with picket signs reading "USWA 310 Supports Local 164." Another said "310 plus 164 equals solidarity." In the days before 164 equals solidarity." In the days before the strike deadline, Local 310 activists leafleted at their plant urging "Let's show our support!" During the 1994-95 strike at Bridgestone/Firestone, workers from Titan staffed the Local 310 pickets during union meetings.

At 11:45 p.m. the crowd, now numbering about 400, massed in the street and marched up to the plant entrance. Workers cheered, hooted, and banged frying pans in anticipation of the midnight deadline as company security looked on. Chants of "We will win!," "No contract, No peace!," and "Take it to the streets!" echoed off the walls of the plant. A little after midnight the nightshift workers emerged to a roar of welcome. The fight was on.

A rally was held on the spot. Speakers included officials of USWA Local 164, the Iowa AFL-CIO, and Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO. Jeff Doornenbal, president of USWA Local 310, pledged the support of unionists at Bridgestone/Firestone.

LeRoy Kinart, a 19-year veteran of the plant, was among those who walked out. "We went out with dignity, with our heads held high," he said. "All the new workers still on company probation came out, too."

Tom Gift, who has worked at Titan two and a half years, explained, "The union has made every new hire a member, and we've told them that if you walk out with us, we won't go back until you go back." For Gift, the strike was needed because "we have no time with our families. We've been working 26 days straight with only 2 days off, for over two years."

The owner of the plant, Maurice Taylor Jr., angered workers throughout Des Moines when he raged in a televised interview hours before the strike, "They're stupid! They're stupid! If they think walking out is going to change anything, they're nuts! Every one of their wives should smash them over the head with frying pans!"

Many workers brought frying pans to the rally, and pounded them together as the strike began. A picket sign read, "Why would I beat my husband? The one I should beat is Morry Taylor!"

In the same interview Taylor had fumed that in the failed contract negotiations "I've given them everything but free beer and girlfriends." The unionists took great offense at this. One worker said, "He thinks we're dumb, not even human!"

In 1994 the union accepted a pact that imposed deep concessions, slashing wages as much as $4 an hour. A two- tier wage scale was imposed for some job grades. New hires in those job grades never rise to the same pay as long-time workers.

The pension plan was eliminated and workers were forced to begin paying for medical coverage. Incentive pay was also eliminated, lowering wages even more on some jobs. The contract mandated a workweek of up to 60 hours, and allows for only one weekend off per month.

In the recent contract talks, Titan offered a 1.5 percent wage increase, "which is only 22 cents per hour," explained Gift. "We are demanding a fair wage." Other union members reported that Titan sought the right to unlimited overtime. On the day before the April 30 strike deadline, John Peno, president of Local 164, reported, "We cannot get an agreement on overtime, pension, affordable retiree medical [coverage], or a one-tier wage structure."

Titan has waged a propaganda campaign against the strike in the big-business media. On May 1 a company spokesman claimed that some workers in the plant make $100,000 per year, and that overtime is voluntary. Tom Ballard, who has worked at Titan just over one year, has taken this on in discussions with neighbors and others around town. "I was in a donut shop when someone asked me, `if you're making $100,000, what are you doing on strike?' I set them straight on our strike."

Ballard added, "I think we should get groups of us together to go out to the supermarkets and other places and explain about our fight." The union has begun to organize a solidarity rally for May 16.

The Steelworkers strike at Titan comes amidst another area labor battle. Contracts covering more than 2,500 construction workers in central Iowa expired April 30 and picket lines have been set up at building sites around Des Moines by the carpenters, painters, bricklayers, and operating engineers unions.

Taylor has taken his antilabor program into the political arena. In 1995 he campaigned for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. His rightist views, printed as a full page ad in USA Today, include raising the retirement age, sterilizing welfare recipients, televised whipping as punishment for misdemeanors, and solitary confinement for felons. He painted his candidacy as that of a "shop floor populist." But when Taylor announced his campaign to workers on break at Titan Tire, he was met with jeers and pelted with cups and soda cans.

Currently, management personnel are trying to maintain some production inside the plant. In a press interview Taylor declined to say if strikers would be replaced but threatened, "What do you think we're going to do? We have to keep it operating."

Linda Burgess, a veteran of 18 years at Titan, said, "I've been waiting three years for this strike. Taylor didn't expect us to go out, and he looked awful tired and worn out on TV."

Striker LeRoy Kinart added, "Working-class people are on the upturn, fighting for a decent living, and that's all we ever wanted."

Ray Parsons is a member of USWA Local 310 at Bridgestone/Firestone in Des Moines.  
 
 
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