Members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA) Local 7468 and their families celebrated victory with a potluck dinner and party at their union hall March 18. Earlier in the day, union members held a meeting where the contract was reviewed and questions answered. The contract had been agreed to several days before, after company and union officials met in negotiations in Nashville.

"Everybody's happy to return to work," said Samuel Nicholson, a 51-year-old cold rolling mill operator, in an interview several days later. Nicholson was one of the first ones back in the mill after the lockout ended. The contract is "one of the best we've had during the 30 years I've been there. The company saw we pulled together and got stronger and wouldn't give in." All of the 420 union members stood together in this fight.

"This experience has brought us together," Nicholson continued. "People are speaking now who hadn't spoken to each other before. We're bonded together now. As long as we stay that way, we'll be strong. We may have to build a new union hall, if people keep coming like they have been!"

The lockout began last October 10, when the company broke off negotiations as the old contract expired and closed the gates on the union members. The owners had been running the plant with scabs since then.

Although almost all the scabs hired during the lockout are out of the plant, there are nine scab foremen still inside, Nicholson said, which is a source of some animosity. They were hired as replacement workers and promoted to foremen.

During the lockout, a strong spirit of solidarity developed among the Local 7468 Steelworkers, who were aggressive in taking their message to the local community and to other unions in this rural area of northeastern Alabama.

The union hall was a bustling organizing center where meals were served three times a day for anyone in a union family. The Steelworkers' fight was given a big boost in November, when wives of the locked-out workers started a women's committee, which became an important part of the union's efforts. The committee organized fund-raising activities to help with the local's relief fund and worked to bring the union's side of the conflict to the attention of the local media and politicians.

The new five-year contract includes a $1.75 wage increase, improved medical benefits for retirees, increased bonuses for meeting production goals, and other gains.

Scottsboro Aluminum is one of the largest aluminum rolling mills in the United States. It was bought last summer by Michigan Avenue Partners, which also owns McCook Metals, an aluminum plant near Chicago. The owners are out to eliminate several hundred jobs from the Illinois plant. Union members there have been following the fight in Scottsboro closely. "Our victory will help them," said one Local 7468 member.

Susan LaMont is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 2122 in Fairfield, Alabama.  
 
 
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