The company is a manufacturer of pillows, comforters, mattress pads, and other home products. Most of the 125 members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) walked out on May 1, joining strikes underway at two of the firm's plants in Vernon, California, and workers in Tignall, Georgia, who are honoring a picket line set up by the California workers.

On Friday, May 4, a busload of strikers joined with supporters from the Philadelphia area to visit the North American headquarters of IKEA in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. They distributed leaflets to shoppers that read, "We make products for IKEA under unsafe conditions. We are on strike against poverty wages and no retirement plan." Workers at Hollander currently earn between $5.75 and $8.50 per hour. Strikers also met with a representative of IKEA management, who promised to arrange a full meeting with company executives next week.

Several cars full of strikers who had been on the IKEA trip returned to the picket line in front of the plant Friday evening. "We passed out flyers to anything that was breathing," reported Mary Ann Subick to an impromptu meeting that was organized on the line to report back on the day's events. "We had to be out there in force for them to see us," added Geraldine Dyszel, chief steward for the Frackville plant.

Alice Davis, who had been on the line all day, reported that members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3879 brought hoagies to the picket line. Members of the Pennsylvania Social Services Union (PSSU) and workers from the nearby City Shirt sewing factory, who are also members of UNITE, joined strikers on the line as well. Congressman Tim Holden also visited the strikers.

Most truck drivers who normally deliver materials to the plant continue to honor the picket line. The few who have come through have been held up by the strikers for as much as two hours before entering the plant.

Subick said the Hollander plant has been here for 10 years. "This is our first time on strike, but I was for striking three years ago over our last contract," she said. "It's as if they're saying to us that this is a depressed area. If you don't like what we're paying, you can leave." The Frackville Hollander plant sits in the middle of Pennsylvania's anthracite coalfields, where tens of thousands of miners and other workers were thrown out of work as coal production declined dramatically beginning in the 1950s.

The company is trying to get production going by using office personnel, temporary workers, and the few workers who didn't join the strike. Some of the temporary workers who crossed the line the first two days of the walkout have not been back, but strikers report that a bus from New Jersey transported scabs into the plant. Subick explained, "This would normally be their busiest season, with mandatory overtime of 56 hours per week."

Gina McGinnis added, "It has made us stronger to be out here on strike. We're all meeting people we never spoke to in the plant. Hollander has created a Frankenstein!"

The union began 24-hour picketing May 5. "There's trucks at night, and we're going to picket around the clock," said David Greenlief, an organizer for UNITE.
 

"This is good for us all. We are stronger now," said Rosalio Mercada at the Boyle Avenue plant as strikers took turns beating drums and chanting, "I went on strike because I don't like injustice. Now I feel stronger to confront it."

"It makes us stronger," said Bennie Chandler, picketing at the Seville Avenue plant, who was commenting on the spreading of the strike. "It sends a message to the company when we all come out."

"I changed a lot during this strike. I was a member of the union but I wasn't involved before," said Martina Vasquez who has worked at a job filling pillows for five years. "Now I know you have to fight for what's right. With the Pennsylvania strike we are getting stronger every day."

Vasquez spoke at a recent rally in Boca Raton, Florida, in front of Hollander's headquarters and also traveled to Tignall, Georgia, to picket the Hollander plant there where 80 workers are honoring the strikers' picket line.

Antonia Velasquez, a sewing machine operator for five years, enthusiastically described the trip she and 100 other strikers made to Ikea home furnishing stores in Los Angeles this week. "We went to tell people not to buy Hollander pillows and comforters," she said. "We were chanting 'No Justice, No Peace' and giving out flyers. One man came out and after he read the flyer he went back in to return a pillow. Then a lot of police came. They had helicopters overhead and at first some were nervous that it was immigration, but then we felt good. We went to another Ikea store too. It's too bad we have to fight but we have to."

Gabriel Paniagua, 23, also said the walkout is stronger now. "We never had a strike before and we didn't know what it was all about. But we are motivated by a good cause."

Elizabeth Lariscy is a garment worker in Los Angeles.
 
Correction
In the article on the strike in Frackville in the May 14 issue of the Militant, "Workers at Hollander walk out in Pennsylvania," the quote, "I'm for the strike. I'm a single mom. But if I crossed I'd be supporting the company and I can't do that," was incorrectly attributed to Mary Ann Subick.  
 
 
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