BY RAY PARSONS
DES MOINES, Iowa - Thirty-five Grinnell College students
turned out December 11 to hear a first-hand report on the strike
by United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 164 at Titan Tire.
The presentation was given by Local 164 member Mike Bolten and a
lively discussion followed his remarks.
"The issue is pride - not being treated like a door mat," Bolten said of the strike. Some 670 USWA members walked out May 1 against mandatory overtime, two-tier wages, and for the restoration of pension and health-care benefits for retired workers. In September 500 members of USWA Local 303L walked out at another Titan Tire plant in Natchez, Mississippi. They are standing firm against concessions Titan has demanded as part of its recent purchase of that facility.
The meeting at Grinnell, about 50 miles east of Des Moines, was organized by two student groups, the Campus Democrats and the Grinnell Socialists, with help from the political science and sociology departments. In November a dozen students visited the Steelworkers picket line in Des Moines following a demonstration organized by the Grinnell Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu- Jamal is a former Black Panther and prominent Black journalist currently on death row in Pennsylvania following a 1982 frame-up and conviction in the shooting death of a Philadelphia cop.
Joseph Feinberg, a leader of the Grinnell Socialists, helped organize the event because, "It's important for students to know what's going on in the labor movement. We can learn a lot from people involved in strikes."
Bolten was asked what the unionists will do as the strike, already in its eighth month, continues. He described the strike fund and unemployment benefits strikers receive and added, "We get lots of support [from other unions and community groups] because people think if Titan gets its way, it will snowball elsewhere." A December 8-9 gate collection at the Bridgestone/Firestone tire plant in Des Moines, where workers are members of USWA Local 310, netted more than $2,800 for Local 164.
In other outreach efforts, Local 164 members spoke before the Des Moines Interfaith Network, an area religious group. On December 2, the Des Moines Register published a letter signed by more than 400 strikers answering point-by-point assertions made by Titan owner Maurice Taylor in a lengthy letter to the editor printed November 24. Following the union response, letters from four readers were published, all supporting the union.
"I've heard the Titan workers' side and I've heard Morry Taylor's. I believe the workers," said one reader.
Meanwhile, Titan has failed to pay a monthly medical reimbursement to retirees that was due December 1. The payment, owed to some 300 retirees and their spouses, covers deductions made in retirees' Social Security benefits.
Ray Parsons is a member of USWA Local 310 in Des Moines.