Striking coal miners in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, dynamite barracks housing Pinkerton management thugs - 1892
After seven years of labor by as many as 2,800 construction workers, the Triborough Bridge opens in New York. Actually a complex of three bridges, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. Construction began on Black Friday, 1929, and New Deal money turned it into one of the largest public works projects of the Great Depression - 1936
A nine-year strike begins at the Ohio Crankshaft Division of Park-Ohio Industries in Cleveland. Overcoming scabs, arrests and firings, UAW Local 91 members hung on and approved a contract in 1992 with the company—now under new management—that included company-funded health and retirement benefits, as well as pay increases – 1983
Working Class Heroes-- via -- www.unionist.com
A nine-year strike begins at the Ohio Crankshaft Division of Park-Ohio Industries in Cleveland. Overcoming scabs, arrests and firings, UAW Local 91 members hung on and approved a contract in 1992 with the company—now under new management—that included company-funded health and retirement benefits, as well as pay increases – 1983 ~De
UAW Local 91 stuck the Ohio Crankshaft Division of Park Ohio Industries in Cuyohoga Heights, Ohio over major contract takeaways, UAW members today have voted unanimously to accept terms of a new agreement which provides over $8.5 million in retiree benefits and gives all strikers the right to return to work with full seniority. The contract struggle was the longest strike in UAW history.
"We salute those members of UAW Local 91 who had the faith, the determination and the courage to fight for nine long years for the contract which they so justly deserved and have now achieved," said UAW President Owen Bieber and Region 2 Director Warren Davis.
"This comprehensive settlement, which covers all areas of concern by returning all members to work who desire to do so and settling all outstanding legal matters, is a tremendous achievement, not only for Local 91 members and the entire UAW, but for the labor movement as a whole," they continued.
"The intensity of this struggle, and its victorious outcome, clearly indicate that workers and their unions can make progress even under the difficult conditions faced by unions today," Bieber and Davis added.
The strike, which began on July 11, 1983, featured the use of replacement workers by the company; frequent arrests and firing of union picketers; demonstrations by strikers at annual company board meetings; countless bargaining sessions, some under the auspices of federal mediators; NLRB charges; and federal court litigation. UAW members maintained a picket line at the facility through the entire nine-year period of the strike. Local 91 members were visited on the picket line by UAW President Owen Bieber and other union officials. Region 2 Director Warren Davis was arrested and jailed as a result of picket line activity.
The three-year contract settlement which was ratified on May 31, addresses key issues of concern for UAW Local 91 members including pension benefits, health care, and the return to work of strikers despite the presence of striker replacements. Over $8.5 million was gained to be applied to retiree health care and pension improvements and $100,000 will be paid for retiree out-of-pocket expenses. Three hundred thousand dollars was set aside for back-pay settlements of unfair labor practice discharges.
Under terms of the agreement all active workers will receive nine years of pension credits and fully paid health insurance, a Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB) plan and two wage increases. All strikers will be given an opportunity to return to work, as will workers at a nearby plant closed by Ohio Crankshaft.
"Nine years of heroic efforts by members of Local 91 and their supporters in the Ohio labor movement and throughout the UAW laid a solid and unbreakable foundation for this success," Bieber and Davis stated.
"At the same time, nine years is far, far too long for workers to be forced to struggle in order to achieve a fair contract," Bieber and Davis said.
"The unnecessary suffering of Local 91 members is all the more reason for congress to pass S.55 banning the use of permanent striker replacements so that other workers need not go through such an ordeal," they concluded.
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