BY JEFF JONES
ST. PAUL, Minnesota - About 300 Teamster strikers and supporters rallied February 10, across from Honeywell's heating controls plant in Golden Valley, Minnesota. This factory, which employs 1,500 members of Teamsters Local 1145, and two other area plants of the aerospace controls manufacturer have been shut since the strike began on February 2.

The first speaker at the rally was John Senum, who last August was a local rank-and-file leader of the Teamsters strike at United Parcel Service (UPS). "We're proud of your fight against the two-tier, for workers not even hired yet," Senum said. One of the central issues in the strike is the company's demand to pay new-hires a substantially lower wage. "We'll stay with you on the picket lines one day longer, 'til we win."

Other speakers, including from five other Teamster locals, referred to the successful strike at UPS. The daily newspapers have also pointed to this as a factor in the rejection of the proposed contract. A February 4 article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that during the meeting to vote on the proposal, union members repeatedly chanted "UPS, UPS." Strikers on the picket line confirmed this.

The same article gave a picture of the worker dissatisfaction that had been building up. Honeywell reported $471 million in profits last year, up 69 percent. Gary George, a valve assembler, told the Star Tribune, "The more Honeywell downsized, the more work we had to do. I went from 800 parts to 1,200 parts (per week). People in management were getting all these bonuses, and we weren't going anywhere. We got a memo on the bulletin board saying, `Thanks for the hard work.'"  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home