CHATHAM, Ontario--Workers at the Navistar International truck assembly plant walked off the job the morning of August 16 after a company official indefinitely suspended assembler Bob Dickenson for refusing to train another employee.

The members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 127 went straight to the union hall to discuss their response to the continuing harassment by the bosses.

The workers have been back in the plant for about a month after waging a hard-fought six-week strike. By mobilizing support in the labor movement they turned back a company assault and attempt to run the plant with strikebreakers. Navistar settled the walkout, withdrawing concessions it had attempted to wrest from the workers.

The bosses had ordered Dickenson to train the worker and complete his regular job, at the same time and in different areas of the plant. He was called to the office without a union representative present and suspended. Before the strike last April the company had suspended four workers in similar circumstances, but then agreed to contract stipulations that a representative of the workers be present.  
 
Workers’ response
In response to this new attack, the workers downed their tools and surrounded the office, demanding that the suspension be revoked. The bosses refused and escorted Dickenson out of the plant. The rest of the workers were then told that their pay "would be suspended as of 9:00 a.m." At that point the workers walked out.

As a result of this action Dickenson’s suspension was reduced to one day. The strikers returned to work the following day for the mandatory Saturday overtime.

Earlier in the week almost all the workers had worn union T-shirts in response to a company attempt to pressure them into wearing clothes with Navistar’s insignia to commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary. The union shirt depicts the back of a school bus carrying scabs by a roadside sign that says, "Chatham: a scab-free community."

Rob McNiff, an assembler with 25 years at the plant, said in an interview that the union members are "showing the company what solidarity is all about. We showed them in the strike, and we’ll show them again."

When the workers returned to the plant July 22 following the strike, the company recalled 223 previously laid-off workers, bringing the workforce to more than 800. Workers reported that the company wanted to increase production because new emission controls on new trucks come into effect in the United States October 1. So the company cranked up the line speed and is now putting out 65 trucks a day, up from 35, to beat the deadline.

But when the recalled workers entered the plant they were handed a layoff notice for November, bringing to 500 the number of workers who have been informed they will be dismissed at that time. The layoff will affect workers with up to 25 years seniority.

CAW national representative Joe McCabe said that he doesn’t believe that layoffs will be anywhere near 500. He sees Navistar International chairman John Horne’s statement on the layoffs as "saber rattling" in advance of negotiations with the United Auto Workers Union in the United States. The contract at the truck assembly plant in Springfield, Ohio, expires in October.

The August 23 Financial Times reported that Navistar plans to cut 10 percent of its U.S. workforce "as it moves to reduce fixed costs in the face of increasingly tough market conditions."

"We’ve got a lot of overhead [cost] structure that we’re going to be taking out," John Horne, the company’s chief executive, told the paper. "It’s significant numbers of people." Horne said the company had cut wage and benefit costs from an average of $41 an hour in 1991 to around $30 today, and aims to further reduce them to $25 by the end of next year.  
 
Union solidarity
Some 300 workers and their families participated in a solidarity appreciation barbecue on Saturday, August 17 at the union hall, to bring together all those who helped win the contract fight. Workers from CAW locals in Kitchener-Waterloo, London, and Windsor, who had played a vital role in defeating the company’s attempt to bring in scabs and break the strike, were among those participating with their families.

A warm welcome was given to Pat and Mary Walker, the in-laws of Don Milner, who belongs to CAW Local 444 in Windsor. Milner was run down by a van driven by a security thug hired by the company. He has been in hospital since June 24 in critical condition. Mary Walker reported Milner’s present condition and said that he is making some progress.

"Don was out there to stop something from happening. And I’m glad to say that it stopped," said Pat Walker. "We don’t need scabs in Canada. We don’t need hired guns in Canada. Our son did not get run over in vain."

At the barbecue many workers talked about the strong solidarity and unity in the plant, and the crucial support given by other CAW members during the struggle. "Our resolve resulted from the active support of other CAW locals. People here are now willing to support other union causes," said Rob McNiff.

Tony Di Felice is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 175 in Toronto. Ilona Gersh, a member of United Auto Workers Local 174 in Michigan, contributed to the article.  
 
 
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