BY JEANNE FITZMAURICE
NATCHEZ, Mississippi - Early on the morning of September 15, members of the United Steelworkers of America Local 303L began picketing Titan Tire International here. Workers at Titan's Des Moines, Iowa, factory have been on strike since May 1.

The Natchez plant had been Fidelity Tire Manufacturing Co., owned by Condere Corp. That company filed for bankruptcy in 1997, and in late August of this year Titan Tire owner Maurice Taylor bought Condere's assets.

One of the striking Steelworkers, Mitchell Rushing, described some of what workers had gone through since Fidelity Tire had filed for bankruptcy. There were 500 workers but Rushing and hundreds of others were laid off in April 1997. Only 200 were working as of September 4, the last day of work under Fidelity.

Rushing added that the Fidelity bosses had taken payroll deductions in the last months before April 1997 but that the workers' money had not been sent to pay health insurance premiums or to pay child support payments.

Because of this some workers had debts for medical expenses, and some were even arrested for nonpayment of child support. "If you look in the dictionary under `thievery,' it says when someone takes something from you against your will, that's thievery," Rushing said. "The way I look at it, one thief sold this plant to another thief."

Fidelity closed on September 4, and it has not resumed production since.

Workers on the picket line say that all they are asking is that Titan agree to the same contract that they had with Fidelity.

A federal district judge has ruled that Titan should accept the previous contract. Taylor claims to have accepted the Fidelity collective bargaining agreement, but Steelworkers say the Titan boss is demanding substantial changes.

Titan wants to rehire only 70 percent of those working as of September 1, and 70 percent of the workers who were laid off in April 1997. The company wants to recall workers by job classification rather than plant seniority. The union is fighting to limit the workweek to no more than six days and no more than 56 hours. Some workers on the picket line say that they would rather work 40 hours a week and that overtime should be voluntary rather than forced. Titan wants to take certain jobs in the plant that were union, including final quality technicians, trash truck drivers, and inspector- classifiers, and classify them as nonunion, as well as shorten the length of time a worker has to train and qualify on a new job.

There are no negotiations at this time, Titan has placed full page ads in the Natchez Democrat that ask for job applicants and claim that "the plant is operating under the Local 303L contract." As of September 19 only three workers had crossed the picket line.

At this writing there is no production at the plant. Picketers say there is support for their picket line by the truck drivers and postal workers.

Jeanne FitzMaurice is a member of USWA Local 1013 in Fairfield, Alabama.

Ray Parsons is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 310 and the Socialist Workers candidate for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. Joe Swanson contributed to this article.  
 
 
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