Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER NOTE: above
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Cheering erupted when union President Wayne Friend smiled and announced the vote tally - 581 workers voted against the contract; 149 workers supported it - but moments later, Friend was verbally attacked.
Carl Gilmore, a 27-year-old Yokohama worker who supported the new contract, began tossing insults at Friend, but he was quickly drowned out by Angela Erickson, whose husband has worked at the plant for three years.
"I've got a family; I've got to feed my children," she cried out in frustration.
Erickson's outburst triggered minor scuffles among veterans at the plant, who opposed the contract because it called for them to work 12-hour days and weekends, and younger workers, who already work weekends and say the contract was fair.
The shouting, which ended less than 10 minutes later, was the first public sign of division among the 762 union members who have been on strike since July 23, when Yokohama's three-year contract with the United Rubber Workers union expired.
Most of the fisticuffs centered around Gilmore, who said he has had to begin delivering pizzas at $4.25 an hour to take care of his wife and two young children.
"My family has got to come first," Gilmore said. "I think Wayne Friend screwed us."
Gilmore said he's considering crossing the picket line and going back to work.
Jerry Aldhizer, a 22-year plant veteran, said Yokohama's younger workers don't realize that the plant's wages are so high only because older workers have bargained for good contracts in the past.
"We established the jobs that they have," he said. "They are the ones that should be opposed to this." Aldhizer said he could retire in a few years, but if a poor contract is ratified, some of the younger workers could regret it for decades.
Not all of the plant's younger workers were upset with the vote results.
"The majority has spoken," said Jamie Robbins, who has been working at the plant for less than a year. "If people can't take it, then they should not be in our union."
Robbins' wife, Melissa, said she also has a young child to take care for, but she was pleased that the contract was rejected,
"We don't have any money left, but I don't want them to go back in there to work and kill themselves," she said.
John Lambert, a spokesman for Yokohama, said the company was disappointed with the results but hopeful the dispute can be resolved soon.
Most workers who voted against the contract said they were bothered by a proposal for 12-hour workdays. The rejected contract called for alternating work weeks of three and four 12-hour days, which would allow the company to run the plant seven days a week.
"You have to hold out; it's better than going back to slavery," said Clifford Fountain, a 16-year-veteran at the plant.
The rejected contract required all employees to work weekends. Earlier, the company had proposed that the approximately 175 workers hired since Jan. 1, 1984, be required to work Saturdays and Sundays.
Another 150 employees hired since 1991 - like Gilmore - already were working weekends under terms of the union's last contract with the company.
Union leaders told the membership they had agreed to bring the proposed contract to a vote because of company accusations that the workers had no say in the outcome of the strike.
Wages have not been an issue in the talks. Under the old contract, Yokohama workers earned an average of $26.63 an hour in wages and benefits, of which about $17.70 was wages.
Yokohama has said the new contract calls for a raise in benefits and wages of $2.50 over three years.
The contract includes a cost-of-living raise and increases in the extra pay for night and weekend work but no increase in base pay.
And while the pay of Yokohama workers is high for the Roanoke Valley, Friend says it is low for the tire industry. Union workers who make Goodyear tires, already making $4 an hour more than Yokohama workers, got a $4.50 increase with their new contract
Friend said the union will meet Friday, presumably to discuss a counterproposal.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***