Vol.64/No.19 May 15, 2000
Iowa rally marks two years of Titan strike
RAY PARSONS
DES MOINES, Iowa—A lively rally of 700 strikers, other unionists, and supporters was held here April 29 to mark the two-year anniversary of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 164 strike at Titan Tire.
The strike, involving 670 workers, began May 1, 1998, in a fight against mandatory overtime and two-tier wages and for pension and health-care benefits for retired workers.
Thirty-four members of USWA Local 303L from Natchez, Mississippi, joined the rally. Some 500 Steelworkers there went on strike in September 1998 when Titan bosses refused to negotiate with the union as the purchase of that plant was finalized.
Titan is running the struck plants with scabs. Only a handful of union members have crossed the picket line.
The Titan fighters remain determined. Their confidence was captured in chants, picket signs, and T-shirts, including the slogan, "Hey Titan, settle or sell!"
Craig Spencer, a mold changer at Titan for 12 years, said the April 29 action showed that "we're stronger than when we first went out. We're telling these corporations that they're not going to treat us the way they do."
The rally brought Titan strikers together with other unionists on strike, workers with experience in past union battles, and workers anticipating future struggles.
In the weeks leading up to the rally, Local 164 members participated in other union rallies around the Midwest. Eight Titan strikers attended the 4,000-strong March 25 rally in support of USWA Local 169, locked out at AK Steel in Mansfield, Ohio. In April they joined with other unionists at a rally in Kansas City supporting workers locked out at the MEI foundry in Duluth, Minnesota. In Des Moines, the Titan strikers have been supporting Teamsters Local 147, whose members walked out December 30 at Smurfit-Stone Container.
This outreach has paid off handsomely. Among others, unionists from Mansfield and Kansas City, and Teamsters Local 147 strikers, joined the April 29 event.
One of those at the rally was Tim Risinger, a member of USWA Local 169 who worked 12 years as a pipefitter at AK Steel in Mansfield before the bosses locked out the union in September. "I'm here because we've had a lot of support, and it needs to reach out around the world," he explained.
Workers from tire and rubber plants from several states came to the action. Contracts affecting 24,000 rubber workers around the country have expired or come up for midterm "reopeners" in the last few weeks. Some 75 workers came from Bridgestone/Firestone (BSF) in Des Moines, and a busload of BSF workers arrived from Bloomington and Decatur, Illinois. Fifty USWA workers from Goodyear plants in Topeka, Kansas, and Lincoln, Nebraska, were there as well.
Greg Lewis, a member of USWA Local 310, has worked at BFS in Des Moines for two years. He came to the rally because "it's important we show solidarity, show we're all rooting for the fight at Titan." He said he'd like to see the new contract at BFS include changes in the onerous attendance policy, end the two-tier wage setup, and go back to eight-hour shifts. Most rubber workers around the country work 12-hour shifts three or four days per week.
Twenty-five college students from the University of Iowa in Iowa City came to the action. This came about after USWA officials organized workers from Des Moines to rally with students during a campus protest in early April. Ned Bertz, a leader of the Students against Sweatshops, spoke at the rally.
Randy Jasper, a dairy farmer from Muscoda, Wisconsin, and another farmer decided to come to the union rally because, he stated, "labor unions need farmers and farmers need the labor unions. We're fighting the same companies. We have the same enemies." Like most dairy farmers around the country, they have been hit hard by the steep drop in milk prices paid to producers.
Ray Parsons is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 310 at Bridgestone/Firestone in Des Moines.