The 89 workers, who are mostly women, walked out January 7 after being without a contract since last August.

At the front gate, Connie Gibson and Cardella Schutt spoke to the Militant as they arrived at 6:30 a.m. for a three-hour picket shift. They would be back in the evening for another stint, they said.

Schutt, who has sewn at Libro for seven years, said that her husband plans to join her on the picket line. "He’s laid off without any health insurance, so this strike is important for us," she said.

Libro Shirt is owned by Leventhal Ltd., based in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Leventhal executive Leonard Springer had sent the workers a letter before the winter holiday break saying that he expected them to abide by the company’s latest offer when they returned in January, contract or no contract. The union had previously agreed to work under the old agreement until a new one was hammered out.

The company terms included a pay increase of five cents. Another provision would have the workers paying half their health insurance or forgoing it entirely. Up to that point the insurance had been fully funded by the company. Springer advised workers to sign up for the government’s paltry COBRA health benefits if they didn’t want to foot the bill.

"They are making it impossible to live," said Patti Verisch, who has worked at Libro for 23 years. "And just look at the situation at General Electric. The health insurance cuts are why the workers there are striking."  
 
Firewood, coffee, doughnuts
Springer had threatened to shut down the plant, said Connie Gibson. The boss had claimed that "you people are the ones who will suffer, not me," she said, adding that "he thinks that the workers are below him."

Strikers say they are getting a lot of support from other workers in the area. As we spoke, a truckload of firewood was dropped off for fire barrels as the wind whipped across nearby Wiconisco Creek. Supporters have also brought hot coffee and doughnuts, and hooked up two camping trailers.

At Hollander Home Fashions in Frackville, about an hour from Lykens, members of UNITE Local 133 took up a collection for their fellow members.

In the last week before the strike, said Schutt, some 60 workers marched into the plant office demanding their last paycheck still owed by the company. Ordering some pizza, they settled in to wait, determined to get satisfaction. "The bosses said the workers could wait ‘until hell freezes over,’" said David Greenlief, a regional UNITE representative. He added, "But then they gave out the checks after some television cameramen arrived."

The Libro Shirt bosses have threatened to put guaranteed pension contributions into a 401k plan, he said.

Over the past year the workforce has been reduced by layoffs from 171 to 95, all but six of whom are in the union. Some strikers said this coincided with the company’s use of a non-union plant in Tennessee. Some of the shirts made there are sent back to Libro to have the "union" label sewn in, said Verisch.

With the strike solid, a few managers are working machines inside the Lykens plant. But the county’s Sentinel newspaper reported that delivery truck drivers are honoring the UNITE picket lines. One driver declared his sympathy, saying that the company’s stance "almost makes you want to cry. Some of these women were here before I was born."

On January 15 more than 20 strikers traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend an organizing rally of Linens of the Week workers who were to vote on UNITE membership two days later.

Janet Post works as a sewer at Hollander Home Fashions in Frackville, Pennsylvania where she is a member of UNITE Local 133.  
 
 
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