BY FLOYD FOWLER AND JEANNE FITZMAURICE
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - "What do we want? A contract!
"When do we want it? Now!"
Striking Continental General Tire workers, members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 850, led the first- ever Labor Day parade in Charlotte, North Carolina. At least 3,000 rubber workers, machinists, truck drivers, electricians, tobacco plant workers, and others marched from downtown Charlotte to Independence Park.
"I didn't think it would be this big. It's beautiful! People are tired of the way corporations are running over people. This parade shows the whole South that you have to organize. This parade today sends a message to Continental General, no doubt about it!" said John Froneberger, a striker from USWA Local 850.
Earl Propst, Local 850 president, said at the rally that the rubber workers have been fighting for "351 days - into the 51st week" against Continental, fighting for their jobs and for a contract that limits overtime and subcontracting. Local 850 is also signing up strikers for a bus to the September 11 rally in Natchez, Mississippi, where tire workers are marking the one year anniversary of their strike against Titan Tire Co.
Members of Local 850 are proud of the strength of their long strike. Only 15 or 16 members have crossed the picket line and returned to work. "They're trying to break us but they're losing. I never thought we'd be out this long. I don't think anybody did. It's been hard, but you can't turn your back on the union," said John Chapman, a worker with 11 years in the plant. He went on, "I've seen from the beginning, this fight is about the unions getting stronger in the South."
The parade included trucks driven by members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and members of the United Auto Workers from a truck assembly plant in Winnsboro, South Carolina.
There were contingents from the Communication Workers of America, construction electricians in the International Brotherhood of Electricians, postal workers, and a float from Philip Morris tobacco plant workers who are organized by the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers in Concord, North Carolina. A marching band and precision dancers from Johnson C. Smith University, a historically Black campus, helped lead the parade.
A member of USWA Local 1133, Cise Thompson, said this was his first Labor Day off work, won by his local in their last contract. Thompson, who works at Firestone Tire in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, wore his hard hat and carried a sledge hammer as he marched.
Members of Distributive Workers Local 2828 at Merita Bakery came to support the Local 850 strikers. Ethel Roseboro, a member of 2828, said, "When we went on strike at the bakery it made the company look at us as people for the first time. They learned a lesson from us, that together there is strength."
Public service workers, including housekeepers at the campuses of the University of North Carolina, are organizing into Local 150 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. At least two students came to the rally from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.
The one contingent from the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) was from Whiteville, near Wilmington, North Carolina.
Also present were mechanics from the International Association of Machinists at US Airways. Their local has formed a strike committee and a phone tree, and are prepared to set up a strike kitchen if they are forced out on strike at the end of a 30-day "cooling off period"
"We've drawn a line in the sand," said Ken Corley, a mechanic at the US Airways maintenance base here, "and we have to have the resolve to cross that line. I believe we have it. We have to go out as one, and come back as one."
Jeanne FitzMaurice is a member of UNITE in Centreville, Alabama. Floyd Fowler is member of the USWA in Atlanta.