Bowman has been a sewer at the plant in this town for 18 years. "Before this strike, when I drove by a picket line I would say, ‘I could never do that.’ But now I know I can, and from now on when I see a picket line I will always support those strikers," she said.

Bowman is one of 89 members of Local 317-C of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) who went on strike at Libro Shirt January 7 after the company said it would unilaterally impose its demands and stopped negotiating.

The contract expired August 31, with one of the key issues being the attempt by the owner, Leventhal, Ltd., to make workers pay half their health insurance costs. Other issues include wages and pensions. The garment workers have been picketing throughout the winter.

Tammy Ossman, who works as a marker at the plant with 18 years seniority, said, "We’re a pretty good, tough group. We’re all survivors and we are not going to give in. We say, don’t let the company keep taking from you. We’ve been hearing their sob stories for the last 12 years." Striker Sue Snyder added, "Yes, we’re freezing our buns off out here, but we’re in this to the end."

Leventhal executive Leonard Springer has given a 60-day notice to the mayor of the Lykens, which expires March 7, saying he intends to close the plant.

The strikers have been watching the loading of company equipment onto tractor-trailers bearing Tennessee license plates and accompanied by police. "They have been loading machines, buttons, thread--they even packed up the toilet paper," said striker Sheila Michaels. On February 7 the union won a federal court ruling that ordered Leventhal to stop sewing union labels in shirts made in nonunion shops. It ordered that all union labels inside the Lykens plant be handed over to the striking workers.

On February 25, union members held a picket-line rally and then entered the Libro factory to drag many boxes of union labels to the rally. To the cheers of strikers, Local 317-C president Faye Shutt held up a union label, saying, "They’ve been taking union shirts, making them at a nonunion plant for much cheaper and sewing union labels on them."

Work being sent to nonunion plants is cited as one cause of the layoffs at Libro Shirt over the last two years. In January 2001, there were 171 workers at the plant but by June 2002 the workforce had been cut to 95.

Union members say that the strike has received a lot of support from fellow workers in the area. They stop and give money, hugs, food, and wood, reported Ossman. The local Russian Orthodox church is allowing the strikers to use its facilities.

Bowman pointed out that the families of strikers have been very supportive. "My family doesn’t want to see me treated like a fool," she said.

Ossman said, "We have a saying in the plant: the cows get treated better than the people. They thought that because we were mostly women we would just go belly-down. But they were wrong. If we’re out here a year, so be it. We’ve come this far and we intend to go all the way."

Janet Post works as a sewer at Hollander Home Fashions in Frackville, Pennsylvania, where she is a member of UNITE Local 133.  
 
 
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