BY FLOYD FOWLER
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina - "Do you see a discouraged face
out here? Does anyone look defeated? Do you see any signs of
downbeat feelings? No!" With these words Rose Sanders, a
member of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 850 on
strike against Continental General Tire here, captured the
determination and fighting spirit evident at a April 24
solidarity rally. Held in front of the struck plant, the
rally attracted a large number of unionists, especially USWA
members from across the South and as far away as Illinois.
More than 1,400 members of USWA Local 850 have been on strike for seven months. "It's very inspiring to see all the support out there," said striker Nellie Stevenson. "There was a time I thought we were alone, but now I know we're not. There's more unity in the membership than ever before. We're standing firm."
In 1995 the workers at this tire plant accepted a contract that gave the company significant wage and benefit concessions. Now they are resisting new demands for increased production rates, mandatory overtime, 12-hour rotating shifts that would mean some workers losing their jobs, and lowering wages for new hires. The local is also fighting for improvements in the company's complicated three-tier pension plan.
Continental General is keeping the plant running with 700 strikebreakers as well as supervisory personnel, all working the rotating 12-hour shifts. Two or three scabs are quitting every day, according to pickets. After seven months on strike only 30 workers have crossed the picket line, and only 14 union members are among them. Local members staff the picket line at the plant gate around the clock, with other unionists frequently stopping by to help out or leave donations of food or funds. One unionist from the USAirways maintenance base here has been picketing regularly since the start of the strike. More strikers turn out at shift changes.
As part of the corporate campaign of the USWA International, the striking local has been organizing informational leafleting at tire dealerships in the region where Continental General tires are being sold. Articles in Steel Labor, the USWA magazine, focus on this campaign, chauvinistically highlighting the statement that Continental General AG, which is German-owned, is "savaging American workers."
Under the nervous gaze of Vance Security agents, hundreds of unionists at the rally filled the street in front of the plant and spilled onto the lawn of the corporate office next to it. Teresa Jenkins, a tire builder at the plant for 16 years, came with a homemade `No Scabs' sign that attracted a lot of attention. "I'm proud of our local, and I'm proud of the support we're getting worldwide," she said. Her husband Ronnie, also a striker, agreed and laughed. "We wrote the book on hanging tough, the company just hasn't read the last page yet."
Speakers at the rally included USWA Local 850 president Earl Propst; USWA District 9 director Homer Wilson; USWA International vice president Dick Davis; and James Andrews, president of the North Carolina AFL-CIO.
AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka was the featured speaker. Officials from several unions at Continental General plants in Europe spoke at the rally. Union T-shirts and jackets, especially from other USWA locals, abounded. Groups of Steelworkers arrived in carpools or buses, including from Local 915 in Huntsville, Alabama; Local 753 in Opalaka, Florida; and Local 1055 in LaVerne, Tennessee. Forty Goodyear Tire workers from USWA Local 831 in Danville, Virginia, came as did 11 workers from the Georgetown Steel unit of Local 7898 in Georgetown, South Carolina, who won a strike five months ago. As Windell Canloon put it, "We had to come." Eight additional Local 7898 members, all women, from the Eagle Electric plant there danced their way up to the rally site. They had just won a 4 percent wage increase and better benefits after a short strike at the beginning of April.
Twenty-five workers came from the USWA organizing committee at Continental General's plant in Mount Vernon, Illinois, and groups came from the USWA locals at Continental General's Bryan, Ohio, and Mayfield, Kentucky, plants. Steve Johnson from Mount Vernon said they "are leafleting at tire dealerships up there to show our support. This strike means a lot to us."
A carload of strike supporters came from Atlanta, Georgia, with a member of USWA Local 3944 bringing a check for the strike fund contributed by local members along with a placard signed by 40 of them reading "Solidarity with the Continental General Strikers." Twenty United Auto Workers Local 5285 members from the big Freightliner plant in Mount Holly, just outside Charlotte, served as color guard around the speakers platform during the rally.
Dan Fein and Jill Fein contributed to this article.