Some 4,000 people filled the town square March 25 in a serious, upbeat, and determined action. Buses of unionists came to the rally from Michigan, Indiana, Chicago, and Missouri. Workers wearing steelworker jackets from cities all over Ohio and other midwestern states were present.

The lockout, now in its seventh month, is taking a toll on both sides. AK Steel's profits were down by $17 million in the fourth quarter of 1999 and another $10 million to $12 million in the first quarter of 2000. Its stock closed at $21.12 on September 1, when the lockout began; in the first week in March it was trading around $9 a share.

For the workers, who are members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 169, unemployment benefits have run out, although the union is trying to get the state to extend them. Union officials say about 250 of the local's 620 members have found other jobs since the lockout began.

The central issue in the struggle remains the company's insistence on forcing unlimited mandatory overtime on the workers. In addition to the hardship this would cause, it would also enable AK Steel to eliminate nearly 20 percent of the jobs at the plant.

The company continues its offensive against the union on the legal front, with a battery of lawsuits and charges. AK Steel settled a lawsuit with the city of Mansfield and the mayor. The city in return agreed to restrict the union's ability to organize effective pickets. The local authorities approved the use of federal marshals to remove picket shacks the union has built near AK's gates and to create a no-walk zone around company gates when traffic is entering or leaving the plant.

Recognizing that this agreement would not sit well with the steelworkers, Mansfield mayor Lydia Reid withdrew as a speaker at the rally. Referring to discussions she had with USWA officials, Reid said, "None of us felt it would be wise if I attended the rally. They did not want to see me embarrassed by people cussing at me or yelling at me."

Although this agreement has yet to be signed by a federal judge, a steelworker who asked not to be identified, said, AK Steel "is getting everything it wants done through attorneys and lawyers and the courts."

On the other hand, he pointed out, "Our big hope is the local unions that are supporting us." He said United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 549 at the GM plant in nearby Ontario, Ohio, have taken up four collections, each of about $8,000. "When you see that," he said, "you know the local people are behind you. That's what is keeping us going."

Many members of the UAW local came to the rally. Steve Noble, a UAW member and toolmaker with 16 years at the plant, said, "This rally is a communication tool. Now they [the company] want to take the picket shacks down and stop us from even standing or walking by the gates. We have to get the message out, especially to the youth: 'See for yourself. Visit the [USWA] Local.' "

USWA-organized tire workers came from Iowa, Mississippi, Illinois, and Ohio. Twelve strikers from Titan Tire attended the rally from Des Moines, Iowa, and Natchez, Mississippi. A leader of that strike announced a rally April 29 in Des Moines to mark the second anniversary of their fight.

A steelworker at Bridgestone/Firestone in Iowa spoke at the rally and presented a donation from his union local. A number of unionists from the Mansfield area exchanged names and phone numbers with the Titan workers. Union members also got out information about an April 8 protest against a plant closing in Ravenswood, West Virginia.

Veterans of other labor struggles in Ohio, like steelworkers from WCI in Warren and auto workers from General Motors in Dayton, joined the rally. Fifty workers from RMI Titanium in Niles, Ohio, rode to Mansfield in a bus organized by their local. Heather Barrass, who was one of 11 workers fired by the company during the seven-month struggle there that ended in April 1999, reported that she had started working again last month after waging a fight to win her job back.

Three members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE) came from the Hugo Boss plant in Cleveland, as did a dozen others from plants in Toledo, Galion, and Findlay. A contingent of workers from the Communications Workers of America came from the University of Toledo.

Other unionists present included members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union; the International Association of Machinists; the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; the American Federation of Teachers, and various unions in the construction trades.

A group from Oberlin College, called Student Labor Action Coalition, came to support the locked-out workers. The coalition is seeking ways to link up with and offer solidarity to workers in struggle.

Speeches from the stage, under a banner that read "Local 169 Locked Out 207 Days By AK Steel," lasted more than two hours. The embattled union local reported it received $50,000 in donations during the day.

The main speakers at the rally were USWA District 1 Director David McCall; George Becker and Edward Fire, the presidents of the USWA and the International Union of Electrical Workers respectively; and AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka.

After the speeches rally participants held a short march past the Villager Lodge Hotel, where AK Steel houses both strikebreakers and security guards.

The turnout for the rally reflects the widespread support for the locked-out steelworkers in Mansfield. Even the president of the Mansfield-Richland County Chamber of Commerce, Kevin Nestor, had to admit to the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Mansfield has a history of organized labor. A large portion of the population is either a member of organized labor or has relatives or friends who are. Certainly there's a lot of support for the steelworkers in this community."

In contrast, Alan McCoy, the spokesperson for AK Steel, conceded, "If we have support in Mansfield, it's been silent."

Joe, a young USWA member at Bunting Bearings in Mansfield, said that the support for the locked out workers is so universal in his plant that even the foremen post union updates on the lockout on the bulletin board in the plant.

Tula Fedochak, a member of the USWA at U.S. Steel's Gary Works for the past 33 years, came on a bus from Indiana. She was familiar with AK chairman and CEO Richard Wardrop. "He was the head man at Gary Works in 1986-87 when we had a lockout there for six months," she said. "That's why we sympathize with the workers here in Mansfield. At Gary Works, Wardrop built a spa on plant property for supervisors and management, with a swimming pool, a sauna, the works. The union made him take it down."

Local 169 activist Bonnie Rooks was staffing a busy information booth in the rotunda on the square. On the main table was a big plastic jug full of paper money, much of it in large bills. She reported that she had gone to an AFL-CIO Women's Conference in Chicago two weeks before, where she raised $675 for the fight.

Many informal discussions took place among the rally participants during the course of the afternoon, ranging from the current stage of the fight at AK Steel to broader political questions. Capitalist politicians campaigning for the fall elections worked the crowd, supporters of ultrarightist presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan circulated ballot petitions, and many workers looked over and discussed socialist literature.

Commenting on the importance of strengthening labor's fight against the bosses' attacks, Pauline Pirtle-Gary, a member of USWA Local 1657 at Acme Steel in Chicago, said, "Clinton doesn't want affirmative action. They don't want the unity of the workers. We have to learn that we are at work for the same purposes, we live for the same reason. Affirmative action makes us stronger."

Tony Prince is a member of UNITE in Cleveland. UNITE member Mike Fitzsimmons and USWA members Henry Hillenbrand and Ray Parsons contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home