More than 300 strikers and supporters from around the South and beyond, including from a Titan plant in Uruguay, gathered at the steelworkers hall in this Mississippi town, one block away from the Titan Tire plant where USWA Local 303 went on strike one year ago to defend their union, working hours, and conditions. "One Year, But We Will Hold Out One Day Longer!" declared the flyers that advertised the rally.
The upbeat and confident mood of the strikers set the tone for the day's events. Unionists spent several hours during the hot afternoon sharing experiences and discussing how to strengthen their struggles. After listening to speeches the crowd marched to the factory for a peaceful protest. At the factory entrance there was chanting and a few brief speeches.
Workers chanted "union, union," and "Contract, contract," and when it became clear that the gates to the plant were unlocked several hundred workers took an impromptu tour of the plant grounds, marching onto the parking lot and into the plant for a few minutes chanting along the way. Local police arrived to ask the pickets to leave plant grounds. Everyone complied, moving back to the street on the other side of the gates.
In the days after, eight workers were arrested on trespassing charges, including the vice-president of the local, Harry Gaylor. The company and local cops and courts have joined forces to portray the striking unionists as having committed dangerous or threatening acts. But the comments of Taylor and the editorial in the local daily Natchez Democrat clarified that one of their biggest objections was to the large number of other workers who came out in solidarity with the Titan strikers.
The September 12 Natchez Democrat described the protest at the factory as a "mob scene.… And although no one with the union will ever admit it, we fear that many of the instigators at Saturday's fiasco weren't even locals." Under the headline "Union charges plant" the front-page article reported emotively that "Holding union signs high, members and supporters crossed the parking lot, entered the plant and began yelling at plant workers until police convinced the protesters to leave."
On Monday Police Chief William Huff obtained 10 arrest warrants and threatened more, citing video footage of the events in his allegations that protesters trespassed on company property. The next day Natchez police arrested eight Local 303 members. Titan International chief executive officer Maurice Taylor slandered the unionists as "a bunch of thugs … [who] aren't even from Mississippi."
Attendance at the rally was a roll call of USWA members engaged in battles at a number of plants across the country. Members of Local 164 in Des Moines, also on strike against Titan Tire, organized a bus for the three-day round trip to join the rally. In May of this year they marked the first anniversary of their strike with a similar event.
Local 850 members traveled to the rally by bus from Charlotte, North Carolina. On the weekend of September 18–19 they will mark one year on strike against Continental General Tire. Two weeks ago they led the first Labor Day parade in the town. "We were making history!" said Local 850 member John Froneberger.
Several of the Steelworkers locked out by Kaiser Aluminum in Washington State, Ohio, and Louisiana were also present.
Whether locked out like the Kaiser workers, or on strike like the Titan Tire workers, these unionists have said "enough and no more" to forced overtime and other attacks by the bosses on benefits, wages, and working conditions.
On Sept. 15, 1998, the 190 USWA members at the Natchez Titan Tire struck against the speed-up implemented in the plant during the previous year. "It was slavery," said Local 303 striker Willie Evans. Workers regularly put in 12-hour days and seven-day weeks, he explained. Titan Tire manufactures tires for agricultural, military, and other large-scale vehicles.
Like other the Titan Tire workers, Evans points an accusing finger at Maurice Taylor, Jr., the president and chief executive officer of Titan International. "In 1997 [Taylor] laid off the workforce of over 300 workers. He rehired 190 to put out the same production as before. 'You are gonna operate in this plant like bees,' he told us — that shows what he thinks about us!"
Workers were typically told to do several jobs simultaneously, said Evans, "and there were safety problems, like the lack of maintenance of equipment." Despite his protests, Evans himself was forced to drive a forklift with a defective tire, until the jolting ride damaged his back.
Of the 190 Steelworkers who went on strike one year ago, fewer than 30 have crossed the picket line. "I count that as a major plus," said Evans, who helps maintain a 24-hour picket outside the factory. Some Local 303 members have taken other jobs, he said, including at a large Fruit Of The Loom garment factory in the nearby town of Vidalia.
Titan Tire plant employees from Clinton, Tennessee, and Montevideo, Uruguay, attended the rally to bring solidarity. Workers at the Titan plant in Montevideo had come across the strike when they were sent to the company's plant in Des Moines in May 1998. They were told they would teach Spanish-speaking workers their jobs, Ruben Nieves told the Militant.
When the Uruguayan workers asked about the pickets outside, they were told that the strikers were making trouble. After the Uruguayan unionists found out what was really happening, they pledged their support, and are now working with the International Titan Council, formed in response to these events.
Workers at the Titan plant in Clinton are fighting to organize into the USWA there. They "put out an underground newsletter" said one worker, who asked that his name not be used. The union has appealed the results of a recent ballot which it narrowly lost. "They have fired a lot of people for trying to start a union" said the worker, a member of the committee that has spearheaded the unionization attempts.
The featured speakers at the rally were the Democratic Party candidates for governor and lieutenant governor of the state of Mississippi. Several USWA officials also spoke.
John Peno, president of Local 164 in Des Moines, raised cheers when he said "you defeated Morry Taylor. Morry tried to divide us. He tried to split your union." Taylor is in the process of selling Titan Tire to the Carlisle Companies, Inc., and many workers celebrate the humbling of this aggressively antiunion and rightist figure.
"I say wholeheartedly that he has been defeated," Willie Evans told the Militant.
The day's events finished with a jambalaya cookout furnished by USWA Local 5702, locked out from the Kaiser plant in nearby Gramercy, Louisiana.
Susan LaMont is a member of the USWA in Birmingham, Alabama.
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