STURTEVANT, Wis. — “We have a life outside of the job. I have three daughters ages 1, 10 and 13. I need to spend time with them, to raise them,” Case New Holland striker and United Auto Workers Local 180 member Marques Lawson told the Militant on the picket line here Oct. 10. “The company wants us to work 12-hour shifts and more than one Saturday per month. Those hours cut into family life.”
There are 600 members of that local and another 430 UAW Local 807 strikers in Burlington, Iowa. The strike began over five months ago.
“The company is greedy,” shipping worker Rico Avila said. “They propose a higher premium for health care. They don’t want to give us a proper raise.”
“The company said they gave us their ‘last, best and final offer’ two weeks ago, but there was no real improvement,” UAW 180 President Yasin Mehdi told the Militant by phone. “No further negotiations are scheduled.”
These workers need help getting the facts about their strike spread far and wide, and solidarity to back them up. Contributions and messages of support can be sent to UAW Local 180, 3323 Kearney Ave., Mount Pleasant, WI 53403, and to Local 807, 9313 Koestner St., Burlington, IA 52601.