BY RAY PARSONS
DES MOINES, Iowa - United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 164 has called a solidarity march and rally for November 5 to build support for their six month strike against Titan Tire. The action will take place at noon at Local 164 headquarters in Des Moines.

The 670 unionists began their strike May 1 against forced overtime and two-tier wages and for the restoration of pension and health-care benefits for retirees. In September, 500 members of USWA Local 303L in Natchez, Mississippi, joined the walkout when Titan demanded concessions from the union following its purchase of bankrupt Fidelity Tire Manufacturing Co.

On October 23 Titan owner Maurice Taylor, Jr. agreed to resume negotiations with the two union locals. A company press release announcing the decision protested union efforts to link the two strikes in negotiations, and was filled with Taylor's characteristic vitriol against the strikers.

"While the [USWA] International is gambling with their lives, Íd like to point out that maybe these former rubber workers should have joined the miner's union, because then they'd know when they're getting the shaft," Taylor huffed.

But this bluster comes just two days after news reports detailed a dramatic slide in company earnings due to the strike. Titan's third-quarter net income was $400,000, compared with $3.6 million for the same period in 1997.

Local 164 strikers are continuing to reach out for support. A growing number of strikers have become "road warriors" who speak before other unions and elsewhere. Recently a team of Local 164 strikers spoke before International Association of Machinists Local 2048 whose members work at Titan Wheel in Walcott, Iowa. Two Local 303L members distributed flyers about their strike at the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition in Moultrie, Georgia October 20- 23.

Local 164 "road warriors" will speak November 5 to students and faculty at Iowa State University in Ames.

Ray Parsons is a member of USWA Local 310 and is the Socialist Workers candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture.  
 
 
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