The strike "was prompted by the company's refusal to bargain in good faith and by threats to close the plant if workers did not agree to company demands," said a union press release. The workers voted 94 percent in favor of striking after Purico presented a "final offer" and then refused to even discuss the union's counteroffer.

The company's "final offer" was a five-year contract with an immediate 20 percent pay cut; wage freezes for the second, fourth, and fifth years; and a raise of just 2.5 percent in the third year. Insurance premiums would triple, and retirees would lose their medical coverage. Double-time pay for Sunday--which many production workers are scheduled to work twice a month--would be eliminated along with other premium pay. The maximum vacation time would be cut from six to four weeks, and vacation pay cut from 48 hours per week to 40 hours. And workers would no longer receive holiday pay for holidays they are not scheduled to work.

At the union hall and on the picket lines, one worker after another explained that there was no way they could accept these concessions demanded by Nat Puri, who recently bought the mill from P.H. Glatfelter. They estimate this package adds up to an overall cut of between 40 percent and 50 percent in wages and benefits.

Williamson, a maintenance worker with 34 years in the mill, said that PACE members had offered to work under the terms of the old contract with a wage freeze. But Puri "came in with an ax," giving workers no choice but to strike.

Pickets were quick to point out a number of lies that have appeared in the local papers, which attempt to discredit the workers at one of the few union-organized plants in the area. One is that the paperworkers earn an average of $65,000 a year--a figure workers say is impossible without working massive overtime all year. The press has also reported company claims that the proposed concessions are temporary and would be offset by profit sharing. Workers point out that there is no mention of profit sharing in the contract. And there's nothing temporary about a five-year contract. "Once you give it up it never goes back in there," Williamson said.

The mill, which mostly produces paper for tobacco products, opened in the 1930s, according to strikers. The union was formed in 1971, and a number of the workers on the picket line today were part of the one previous strike at that plant, in 1974. "That strike got us where we are now," said striker Cecelia Johnstone, one of the many women who work in the mill.

More than half of the people driving by the picket line honked or waved to show their support. In the community "the majority thinks we're doing the right thing," Johnstone said. In the kitchen of the union hall, there's a long list of local businesses who have contributed food and other aid to the strike. Another poster notes two retail giants--WalMart and Food Lion--who have refused to help.

Workers say that so far the company has been running some equipment and shipping out finished paper with salaried personnel, but is not running the paper machines. Several strikers said they expect the strike could go on a while, given the boss's intransigence. "It's a proving ground on both sides," one worker put it.

Naomi Craine is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 1501.  
 
 
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