Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409300047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER NOTE: Below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I don't call it division," Wayne Friend, president of Rubber Workers Local 1023, said. "We're still as determined and focused as we have been. It's just two different sides of a particular issue - the way this company is trying to implement the seven-day workweek."
Wednesday, union workers rejected a proposed contract that called for alternating workweeks of three and four 12-hour days, which would allow Yokohama to run its plant seven days a week. The contract required all employees to work weekends.
The union vote was overwhelmingly against the proposal - 581-149. Veteran employees opposed the contract because it called for them to work 12-hour days and weekends. Younger workers, who already work weekends, found the contract fair.
Friend, who once had called the proposed contract "the best we're able to get at this time," did not support it.
"It may be the best we can get, but I still don't like it," he said Thursday.
Yokohama management asked to meet with union officers Thursday afternoon to discuss the rejection.
"We were disappointed to learn that the union bargaining committee did not support the proposal after they had told the company they would recommend ratification," Richard Switzer, vice president of manufacturing for Yokohama, said in a statement Thursday. "Mutual trust is the key to successful collective bargaining."
Letters from Switzer explaining the company's position have been sent to all employees.
"Our company cannot successfully compete without a full seven-day schedule," Switzer wrote. "Every major tire company we compete with operates key plants on a seven-day basis."
Switzer also wrote that Yokohama did not have another proposal for the union.
The full union membership will meet at 2 p.m. today at the Salem Civic Center to decide on its next course of action, Friend said. He declined to discuss any counterproposals.
"I'll go back to the people and let them steer us to where they want to go," he said.
Billy Amos, a 19-year employee, stood on the picket line at a plant entrance early Thursday with two fellow union workers. All three agreed that Wednesday's vote, though tinged with flaring tempers, was the right one. And they dismissed notions of a union divided.
"We want it to be clear to everyone that this union is still strong, still together," said Donald Elliott, a 20-year employee. "When you've been out of work for two months, people get real emotional and upset."
Shouting and scuffles erupted after the vote tally was announced Wednesday. Some workers threatened to cross the picket line, saying they no longer could afford to stay off work.
So far, no union employees have crossed the picket line. But one non-union employee who had supported the strike did return to work Thursday.
"I don't care what his reasons were, he's wrong," said Jerry Bayne, a 19-year employee. "We're fighting for him just as much as union people."
Bayne, whose children are grown, said he felt sorry for union workers who had families to support. Although the URW pays $100 a week in strike benefits, it is much less than the average $17.50 an hour those union members earn for 40 to 45 hours of work a week, a union official said.
The longer the strike continues, the greater the likelihood that workers will cross the picket line, said Bob Stauffer, an associate professor of economics at Roanoke College who has taught courses on labor-management relations.
"As the strike goes on, some workers under financial pressure will start returning to work, particularly the younger workers who have big mortgages and heavy debt payments and may be interested in getting back to work," Stauffer said. "It's crucial for the union to maintain solidarity, for both the image of it and the reality of it. If union workers start crossing the picket line and going back to work, the union's in big trouble."
The real question, Stauffer said, is how long management can hold out.
"It's sort of an economic battle," he said. "Here the company is being hurt, but they're willing to put up with it. And workers' personal finances are really under pressure."
Stauffer said creditors in the Roanoke Valley have a history of cooperating with striking workers by offering some payment flexibility. "It's the railroad heritage," he said.
Yokohama continues to operate the plant with salaried employees, non-striking employees and temporary workers. The company declined to say how many temporary workers had been hired.
"There's the danger for the strikers," said Stauffer, who passes the plant every morning on his way to work and has watched the number of cars in the plant parking lot increase week by week.
"If the management can get enough replacement workers in there to keep things going for a while and if they can build up their production to a level that will help them, overall it could be big trouble for the union."
The 762-member union has been on strike since July 23.
by CNB