Vol. 75/No. 13      April 4, 2011

Atkinson joined USW Local 7-669 president Darrell Lillie, union safety committee representative Steve Glidden, and union members Marcalene Holt and Rick McConnell March 16 at the union hall to share their views on their fight and the spreading labor resistance to union-busting attacks across the Midwest.

Workers at the uranium-processing plant here have been fighting the lockout since voting down the company’s union-busting “last, best, final offer” in June 2010. The bosses are demanding elimination of seniority and retiree medical benefits, along with pension cuts and a wage reduction of 10 percent over three years.

“We went to Madison, Wisconsin, February 26. We slept in the capitol and marched with people from a lot of the unions that have supported us and our fight,” said Lillie, a 20-year operator in the plant. “We felt this was the least we could do to pay them back and show solidarity,”

“Then last Thursday we went to Indianapolis to the state capitol with 70 of our members to back up the workers there,” Lillie continued. “And we’ve got a group heading to Keokuk, Iowa, on March 26 for the rally of the workers at Roquette who were locked out just three months after we were.”

Holt said that on April 25 the locked-out workers will also be going to the Honeywell annual shareholders meeting in Morristown, New Jersey.

“It’s no question our lives have changed in a big way these eight months,” said Atkinson. “I never thought I’d be traveling all over the country—to Wisconsin, to Iowa, to New Jersey.”

Just last week the union won a round against the company. A federal court in Benton, Illinois, issued Honeywell an $11.8 million fine and five years’ probation for knowingly storing hazardous waste without a permit, a violation workers in the plant have been trying to expose since 2002. The union also won the fight to have a union safety representative accompany inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in their upcoming investigation of the plant, Glidden noted.

“I’ve talked to a lot of older people who say they’ve never seen the labor movement like this before, not all over the country like this,” said Lillie. McConnell added, “There’s a lot of people waking up today.”

“I hope that we continue,” Atkinson said. “Even after we go back to work. I hope we keep on going to these rallies, keep on supporting other people, keep on fighting.”

Contributions can be sent to USW Local 7-669, PO Box 601, Metropolis, IL. 62960. E-mail: admin@usw7-669.com.
 
 
Related articles:
For 5th week, Wisconsin rally takes on union busting
Public workers, students protest government cuts
How FBI targeted teachers for firings in 1960s  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home