BY JOHN SARGE
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - Nearly 200 unionists gathered in Detroit the early morning of March 15 in sub-freezing weather. That began a day of solidarity with the 4,500 members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), who are on strike against Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. The workers gathered to begin a caravan of over 75 vehicles, taking more than two tons of food and thousands of dollars raised for the striking workers.

The caravan was organized by USWA District 2. Each vehicle carried signs "Caravan For Justice - Real working people, helping hard working people." The Wheeling-Pitt strikers are fighting for a guaranteed pension plan on a par with plans now in place at unionized integrated steel mills organized by the USWA.

Unionists involved in the solidarity action came from USWA locals across Michigan, along with a few from Wisconsin. The largest contingent was from Local 1299 at Great Lakes Steel, National Steel's Detroit area mill. Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union from at least 10 locals in Region 1A, Southeast Michigan, took part, and were joined by small groups of workers from other unions. About a dozen workers who had been on strike against Detroit's two daily newspapers for 20 months turned out bringing donations of food. The newspaper workers, whose international unions had proposed an unconditional return to work in February, are still locked out of both newspapers. No workers have been recalled.

When the caravan arrived here in Steubenville, the Michigan participants were joined by workers who had traveled from Columbus, Ohio, and the Chicago area. They marched together to the front gate of the steel mill for a short rally.

The visiting unionists then recessed to USWA Local 1190's hall for lunch and an indoor rally of about 400 people. Speakers at the rally included a local union official, the chair of the USWA's negotiating committee, the USWA director of District 2, Harry Lester, the UAW Region 1A director Bob King, the president of the Detroit Metropolitan Council of the AFL-CIO, and a locked-out Detroit newspaper worker Kate DeSmet, who invited the steelworkers and others to come to Detroit on June 20 and 21 to protest against the newspaper bosses.

A major aspect of the rally was presentations of the donations brought by the visiting unionists. Steelworkers from Manistee, in the northern part of Michigan, had brought over a ton of food and $2,000. They had left nothern Michigan at 2 a.m. to join the Detroit caravan. Local 1299 had also collected over a ton of food and is on a campaign to raise a dollar a week per member for the strike fund. Steelworkers from the Bethlehem Steel Works in Gary, Indiana, brought a check for $6,394 raised in their mill, and promised more.

Meanwhile, Wheeling-Pitt and its parent company WHX were dealt a major set back March 3. Judge Jennifer Sargus of Belmont County Common Pleas Court overruled the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services, granting over 3,700 strikers working in Ohio benefits effective Oct. 1, 1996, the first day of the strike. The company had earlier won rulings against unemployment compensation for the strikers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The ruling by Sargus was immediately appealed by WHX, but denied. That means strikers should receive checks while the company's appeal works its way through the courts. In her decision, quoted in the Steubenville Herald-Star, the judge found that "uncontradicted testimony establishes that in 1994 [contract talks with the company] recognizes a commitment `to discuss a renewed defined-benefit plan.'" Ron LaBow, chairman of WHX, and now currently engaged in direct negotiations with the USWA, has falsely claimed in his anti- union media campaign that a guaranteed pension plan was never a negotiable issue and has refused to discuss one.

Morale was high on the picket line the day after the decision. Paul Crowe, a maintenance worker at the Mingo Junction, Ohio, mill said that all along the company was preventing an end to the strike. "We're not the ones keeping us out," Crowe said. In addition to strikers feeling vindicated by the ruling against WHX, Crowe welcomed the visible solidarity now joining the fight. The strike gets a lot stronger "when you don't feel like your alone," Crowe added.

One example of the steady flow of support coming into the mill towns in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia was reported in the Herald-Star March 9. The day before, some 40 steelworkers showed up in a bus, including veterans of the 1984 Danly Machine strike from Cicero, Illinois; workers from Kenosha, Wisconsin; and other workplaces in Chicago. "The Chicago-area Steelworkers spent about an hour at the Follansbee plant gates before moving south to meet with pickets at the Beech Bottom plant," the article reported.

Meanwhile, the same day that the unemployment decision was handed down, WHX posted a $34.6 million loss for the quarter. According to the WHX release on its l996 fourth quarter loss, it "includes the effects of three months of the strike at its Wheeling-Pitt operations. The results reflect the loss of revenue and production from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31," the Herald-Star reported.

John Sarge is a member of UAW Local 900 in the Detroit area. Tony Dutrow, a member of USWA Local 1557 in Pittsburgh, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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