The strike outcome at Continental adds to a few other accomplishments this year that mark a strengthening of the union of workers in the South. One was the Steelworkers Local 8888 strike in Newport News, Virginia, where 9,200 workers stood up to the shipbuilding bosses and Pentagon in a 15-week walkout. That struggle displayed features of the new proletarian movement emerging in the United States today in both city and country. It became interconnected with struggles in the region by farmers for their land. Many workers and farmers in the South looked to the Local 8888 battle and gained confidence from it.

In June textile workers in Kannapolis, North Carolina, scored an important union organizing victory at Fieldcrest Cannon—the product of two decades of struggle.

The big-business media noted with alarm that solidarity was firm throughout the year-long battle at Continental General and that only 15 union members crossed the picket line. The unionists organized daily 24-hour picketing and several rallies by hundreds outside the plant gate.

This was the fourth strike at the Charlotte plant in the past 22 years and the longest and most fiercely fought. The company hired 900 strikebreakers and insisted they would be permanent employees. In the end, the company agreed that all the strikers will return to work over the coming months. The workers also won raises in their pensions to the industry average.

Strikers who voted both for and against the contract strongly opposed the six-and-a-half-year term of the agreement and the 12-hour shifts that undermine overtime premiums. But workers return to work on a stronger footing to continue the struggle over such issues.

The capitalist media gloats over the fact that North Carolina ranks last among the 50 states in the percentage of unionized workers, at just 4.2 percent. And the other southern states are not far behind. But the unity and solidarity shown by the steelworkers at Continental General is no fluke. It's an example of how working people will increasingly respond as the bosses continue their relentless drive against our democratic rights, living standards, and dignity. It bodes well for the future of all those who toil for a living.  
 
 
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