Unions set March 15 solidarity rally with MSI strikers

By Denise Winebrenner & Wally Kaufman

This article was reprinted from the March 7, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

MARIETTA, Ohio - When Dewayne Nixon voted to strike to force Magnetic Specialty Inc. (MSI) to recognize the results of a National Labor Relations Board election, he had no idea that it would escalate into a test of the labor movement's drive to organize the unorganized. But that's the way it is, as union members in four states are mobilizing to descend on this town of 25,000 for a noontime rally March 15.

The march through Marietta, led by AFL-CIO Secretary- Treasurer Richard Trumka and Leo Girard, secretary- treasurer of the Steelworkers, will end with a rally at the Washington County Fairgrounds.

In a statement urging support for the rally, Trumka said the strike was a story of how "young, low-wage workers face fierce corporate opposition as they fight for a decent wage, basic benefits and for the right to belong to the Steelworkers union."

Calling the strength and courage of the 100 MSI strikers - about one-fifth of them women - "an inspiration to us all," Trumka says the strike is "an important story for all Americans."

Nixon, 41, and the father of a 9-year-old son - "my two daughters have left home" - spoke proudly of the MSI workers who have been walking the picket line since March 2, 1997. "We celebrated our first anniversary with hot dogs and the fixings. In all that time no striker's family has lost their home, their car or had their utilities cut off," Nixon said.

Nixon said the first hurdle was cleared in November when MSI agreed to sit down and talk. "So we won our first battle - they finally agreed to recognize our democratic right to choose a union to represent us."

Nixon said there had been several meetings, the last on Feb. 18. "But it's still pretty much around the bush. We've got a long way to go before we reach a settlement."

Scot Dunigan, another striker, feels overwhelmed by the response of other unions to the fight at MSI. "There aren't words to describe what all the support for us has accomplished. People in hospitals and other factories are calling the union because they want to organize. They have seen the rallies and trucks, cars and caravans from all over, especially at Christmas. It's really a strong message."

Jeff Hill, president of Steelworkers Local 14200, helped raise the $18,000 that went to "make Christmas Christmas" for the 67 children of MSI strikers. "There are seven grandchildren as well," he added.

Local 14200, with only 250 members, paid for the first picket signs and has since been one of the more than 700 local unions that have supported the strike. "We give them $500 a month," Hill said.

Hill, who said he's been with the MSI folks since March 1995, described them as "a group of people who were strangers to each other when the strike began. The company kept them isolated but that's all been overcome."

The battle with MSI began in earnest in August 1995 when workers voted overwhelmingly for the Steelworkers union in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) representation election.

When Gary Murphy, MSI owner, persisted in his refusal to recognize the election results, the workers voted to strike and walked out March 2, 1997. In the year since, MSI has applied every lesson in corporate America's union-busting text-book as they have tried to intimidate and starve the strikers into submission.

One-third of the strikers have been fired for picket line activity, scabs brought in, security goons recruited and at least three orders of the NLRB ignored.

And just to underscore the message, gunshots that missed union pickets but hit their strike headquarters - dubbed "Fort Hangin' Tough" by the strikers - on June 20, 1997, came from the direction of the MSI plant where scabs and "security" guards were located. Small wonder that Girard calls the MSI workers' determination "as heroic as any that came before them."

The Steelworkers union has several organizing campaigns underway and, if union President George Becker has his way, there will be others. In a Feb. 27 speech to the more than 1,000 union leaders from the United States and Canada, Becker said he was going to embark on a drive to convince local unions to commit 30 percent of their operating budgets to organizing the unorganized. Although the Steelworkers union represents about half of the workers engaged in the production of steel, the non-union sector of the industry, spurred by the growth of "mini-mills, has grown rapidly in recent years. According to Norman Samways of the Association of Iron and Steel Engineers. mini-mills account for approximately one-third of the nation's steel production. Today Nucor, with facilities in seven states - all of them non-union - is the nation's third largest steel producer.

Inside Fort Hangin' Tough steaming hot coffee takes the chill off a rainy February day. Meanwhile, MSI union workers have been on the road, taking their story to AFL- CIO labor councils from Charleston, W.Va. to Ashtabula, Ohio.

They have visited MSI customers in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania where they have discovered that scabs cannot make quality magnets or deliver them on time to the electronic, appliance and medical supply industries.

For more information about the march and rally, call (614) 695-4632.

Fred Gaboury contributed to this article.