The rally marked the one-year anniversary of the lockout by Armco Steel, now AK Steel, against 600 workers. The company wanted to impose a contract that would have forced unlimited mandatory overtime on the workers, and it locked them out when it became clear they would not accept this.

Many other workers echoed Green's sentiments. Lucian Wyant, one of a group of Steelworkers from Titan Tire in Des Moines, Iowa, who have been on strike since May 1998, said, "The companies are trying to break the unions. But as long as we stand together no one is going to break us. As long as the AK Steel workers stick together they are going to win. We're too strong and powerful when we stick together."

Lorraine Fairchild, who works in a nonunion factory making electrical contacts, was at the rally from 8:00 a.m. serving soda pop. "My husband has been at AK 31 years today," she said. "I've never had to deal with anything like this. I've never worked for a union. This has been a whole new thing for me."

"As far as unlimited mandatory overtime is concerned, it's downright ridiculous," Fairchild said. "I'm sure that [AK Steel vice-president Alan] McCoy doesn't work that. It's unreasonable. And they don't work two hours overtime or four hours overtime. It's a double shift. My husband got one weekend off a month."

A group of about 10 USWA members from Kaiser Aluminum in Newark, Ohio, attended the rally. They anticipate going back to work shortly as part of the settlement of their two-year struggle against that corporation's lockout.

Paula Bingman, one of the unionists at Kaiser, explained that the Newark plant had voted against the proposed settlement, but that they were in the minority. "We were disappointed at first, but we've learned to accept it," she said.

"We're most definitely a stronger union now, and we are going to continue getting stronger. We all have to stick together. We've been to every one of these rallies in Mansfield. They have awesome rallies. Not just the Steelworkers, but every union should have rallies like this."

Also attending the event were members of other unions, including the United Auto Workers, Laborers, Communications Workers, and Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).

John Fraley, a young warehouse worker and member of UNITE from Columbus, Ohio, explained, "I've only been in the union six months. This is the first time I've been to a rally like this. I like it." He added, "We brought up some canned goods that we collected among the workers. It's not much, but we brought up what we could."

Asked about his workplace, Fraley said, "There are a lot of immigrants in the warehouse, from places like Somalia. A lot of them don't speak English, but I always find an interpreter to make sure they understand. We work great together."

A number of young people took part in the rally. Clark Ainsworth, part of a group of students from Oberlin, Ohio, explained, "The father of one of the students at Oberlin belongs to Local 169, and he came up to the college and told us about the lockout. We decided it was a good cause, and we have about 30 people here. There's definitely a lot of unity and support at the rally. We need to continue to educate other students and spread awareness about things like this."

Speakers at the rally included USWA District 1 director David McCall, Ohio AFL-CIO president William Burga, USWA International secretary-treasurer Leo Gerard, and NAACP vice president Marcia Webb.

Tony Prince is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Cleveland.  
 
 
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