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NASHVILLE, Tennessee -More than 1,300 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1832 are entering their fourth month on strike at the Peterbilt truck assembly plant here. According to strikers, only three workers have crossed the picket line and two of those came back out and rejoined the strike.
The stakes in the strike, which began on May 3, were raised in mid-July when the company brought in "replacement workers" under a heavy police escort. The first day the company brought in these strikebreakers they were met at the main plant gate by more than 200 strikers. In response to a company request, a Davidson County Chancery Court judge put restrictions on union picketing.
Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ordered that the UAW may have only seven people picketing the main gate and three at additional gates. In addition, no more than 25 other striking workers can gather at each gate and they must stay 50 feet away. The judge also ruled that strikers cannot have mirrors at the picket line, which workers were using to disrupt company videotaping of the strikers.
Retiree benefits and pensions have become the key issues in the strike. Despite a record-breaking year in 1997, Peterbilt's owner, PACCAR, Inc., has refused to budge on the workers' appeal for a better life for retired Peterbilt workers.
According to a full-page ad by the UAW in the Nashville Tennessean newspaper, PACCAR posted a 50 percent increase in sales and a 71 percent increase in net income in 1997. PACCAR, which also makes Kenworth trucks, is the second- largest heavy truck manufacturer in the world. The company is refusing to negotiate with the UAW strikers.
Strikers' morale remains high and they are confident of victory. Striker Ricky Bates told Militant correspondents, "I've got six kids so you know how hard it is for me. I'll stay out for another two months!" On the issue of benefits for retirees, Bates added, "They're trying to separate us. It used to be whatever we got, they got." Bates said that he considered the use of strikebreakers to be a "scare tactic" by the company against the strikers.
Also from the picket line, Margaret Solomon said, "I don't mind striking for the right reasons and what we're striking for is the right reasons. If it's going to help these people retire and get out of here that's fine." Picket Terry Clem said there are some 200-300 workers at the Nashville plant who want to retire.
Strikers said the company is producing only about six trucks a day with the "replacement workers" and management personnel, compared to 54 before the strike.
Seattle port drivers join Teamsters union
SEATTLE - In a convoy of honking trailer-tractor rigs
covered with Teamsters posters and balloons that grew as
large as 70 trucks, port drivers slowly drove through
downtown streets June 24 along the Port of Seattle and past
the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe and Union Pacific intermodal
yards. Convoy participants, most of whom own and operate
their own trucks, distributed flyers that contained interest
cards to drivers going in and out of piers and rail yards.
Brochures, printed in English and Russian, urged owner-
operators and drivers who haul containers between ship and
rail to join the organizing campaign of Teamsters Local 174.
The convoy was greeted by many fists raised in the air, the waving of Teamsters and other union posters, and other signs of support from workers coming out of the piers, rail yards, restaurants, warehouses, offices, fabrication plants, and other worksites as it drove through this concentrated industrial area.
After the convoy started, Seattle police intervened aggressively, using patrol cars to block some trucks despite organized marshalling at intersections by the Teamsters. One Teamster driver was ticketed and at the wrap-up rally a collection was raised to help him pay it. Despite the intimidation, the visible, loud convoy completed its route.
The goal of the Teamster organizing campaign, according to a news release issued June 19, is to negotiate a master union agreement with trucking companies who work for the major shipping and rail lines at the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma. "In the past 15 years, most Teamster carriers have been driven off the Puget Sound waterfront," a Teamsters 174 flyer says. The current effort seeks to organize owner-operators and other nonunion drivers at the ports.
The Teamsters organized a smaller rally at the Port of Tacoma on July 1. Afterwards, some of the owner-operators leading the organizing effort talked to the Militant. The drivers explained that they are at the mercy of the trucking companies who lease their trucks, getting paid by the can moved rather than an hourly wage while they must pay for fuel, insurance, and the maintenance of their trucks. Owner- operators are considered "self-employed" and are not eligible for standard unemployment and health insurance benefits.
"I want everything on an even playing field," Ken Whitesel said, "I want to get what everyone else does." Whitesel was fired by the trucking company that leased his truck. The company claimed his truck wasn't up to their standards. Ken Scott, an owner-operator for 12 years and member of the Teamsters organizing committee, showed a Militant correspondent a petition signed by other drivers protesting Whitesel's firing, pointing out that his truck was properly certified after passing all regulations.
Kevin Merriott is an owner-operator working for McMillanPiper, a company that leases 60 trucks. He works 70 hours a week. Much of that time is spent waiting. "I want to get paid for the time I sit," Kevin said. More than 1,000 owner-operators work in the Puget Sound. After expenses, many owner-operators barely make the minimum wage.
Health-care strikers win support in Rhode Island
CENTRAL FALLS, Rhode Island - Members of District 1199
Health Care Employees Union are winning support for their
strike against Cartie's Health Center, one of the largest
nursing homes in the state. The 185 union members walked off
the job July 1 to fight company demands for an across-the-
board 7.5 percent pay cut, unspecified changes in health-care
coverage, and reductions in bonus pay. The health center is
owned by Caruinato Associates, a large real estate company in
Rhode Island.
"If we go back we would have to take the pay cut and God knows what would happen after that," said Anne Marie Edouard, a nurse's aid with more than two years at Cartie's. "If we give up and go in we'll never earn our self respect. I'm not that cheap. So no matter how long it takes we'll be out here."
Sandra Goncalo, a housekeeping worker, added that the company "would get away with anything if we ended the strike." Strikers say entry-level work starts at $6 an hour; nurses earn between $17 and $18 an hour.
In a major attempt to break the union just prior to the strike the company orchestrated a petition to the labor relations board asserting that nurses should be considered supervisory personnel and be removed from the union, according to 1199 official Patrick Quinn. The company said nurses had the power to hire and fire. Despite union objection, the board ruled in favor of the company after the strike had begun and ordered the nurses out of the union. "This will have a domino effect if it is upheld," said Bob Monse, a nurse and union member on strike. "There are a lot of hospitals with contracts coming up around here with many nurses in the union. "
Walter Lanoue, a janitor, said that members of the glass workers union from a Sylvania light bulb plant down the street have given donations and support on the picket lines, along with other unions in the area. The union has started a strike support fund and set up a food committee to assist families of strikers. "We're trying to take care of the people here, and the company wants to take everything back from us," Lanoue said.
Steelworkers rally to back Titan strikers
QUINCY, Illinois - Forty members of United Steelworkers of
America (USWA) Local 164 from Des Moines, Iowa, joined forces
with other unionists to protest at Titan International's home
base here July 29. Since May 1, 670 Steelworkers have been on
strike at Titan Tire in Des Moines in a fight against forced
overtime, two-tier wages, and for pension and health
benefits.
USWA members from Bridgestone/Firestone tire plants in Des Moines, and Bloomington and Decatur, Illinois, were part of the action. A warm welcome was given to five union fighters from Buda, Illinois, members of USWA Local 1113-11. The 31 members of their local have been on strike at Van Packer, a producer of industrial chimneys, since May 4.
Chants of "We demand a contract! We will win!" rang out as the crowd of 65 rallied outside the Titan wheel plant and corporate headquarters. Titan owner Maurice Taylor, Jr., was clearly disturbed to see Local 164's fight brought to Quincy. An injunction restricting the scope of the protest had been obtained from a local judge ahead of time. A dozen city and state cops were called out. Taylor milled about as the rally took place, trying to upstage the unionists in interviews with radio and TV reporters that had come to cover the action.
Local 164 member Dave Strock spoke for the protesters declaring, "We are going to go one day longer. We will do what ever it takes!"
The same morning as the Quincy action, five Titan strikers were fired for so-called "strike misconduct."
On July 30 Local 164 scored a victory when Polk County District Court Judge Larry Eisenhauer decided to not impose any penalties against the union after ruling against the local on contempt of court charges in early July.
On June 21 some 200 strikers and supporters had turned out to reject a company ultimatum ordering strikers to return to work or face replacement. Titan had charged Local 164 with violating court-ordered restrictions on picketing at the struck plant.
The USWA is launching a drive to unionize workers at the Titan wheel plant in Quincy.
Another showdown between the USWA and Titan is drawing closer in Natchez, Mississippi. Taylor is seeking to buy the Fidelity Tire plant there, but is demanding changes in the existing contract with USWA Local 303, including gutting seniority rights in the recall of laid-off workers. The unionists recently approved a strike authorization vote and held a rally August 2.
Rich Stuart, a member of the United Steelworkers of America, and Meg Novak in Birmingham, Alabama; Chris Rayson, a member of the UTU in Seattle; Greg McCartan, a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Boston; and Ray Parsons, a member of the USWA in Des Moines, contributed to this column.