Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991 TAG: 9103100088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
"On Strike Against Volvo."
It's the union's first walkout at Volvo-GM Heavy Truck Corp. since the Pulaski County plant opened 17 years ago.
"All I can say is, we're out," said Joe Parah, president of Local 2069, which represents about 1,000 workers. "We didn't meet on our benefits and wages, and we're just going to take it on."
Volvo executives met at the plant Saturday afternoon but could not be reached for comment.
Company and union officials had negotiated daily for five weeks to renew the union's three-year contract. Talks broke off just an hour or so before the Friday midnight deadline when the contract expired.
"They made an offer, but it wasn't what we wanted," Parah said.
Workers at Volvo earn an average of $13.50 an hour, one of the highest paying manufacturing jobs in the New River Valley.
About 100 workers were at the union hall at midnight when officials broke the news. "The reaction was basically shock," said the local's financial secretary Richard Stoots. "We expected to get a contract."
UAW officials scheduled a meeting for today at 1 p.m. at the hall to go over the negotiations and the company's proposal with the rank-and-file membership, Stoots said.
There were no immediate plans to resume contract negotiations, he said. "That's up to the company. We've told them we're available."
Half a day into the strike, spirits seemed to be running high at the union hall where roughly two dozen workers talked and joked in small groups. None would speculate on how long they would be out of work.
"No idea," said Barry Hunter, a Volvo employee for four years.
"We want a contract. We did not want this strike," said Hunter. His school-age son stood nearby, wearing a yellow T-shirt with the union's machine gear logo.
Hunter said he ended his shift at the plant at 11:30 p.m. Friday and went across Slaughterhouse Road to the union hall.
Half an hour later, he was one of the first workers to hoist a picket sign and go on strike. "It's not a pleasant circumstance," he said.
Several workers, when asked how they felt about being on strike, echoed the sentiments that many Americans held during the Persian Gulf War.
"You gotta do what you gotta do," said one. "We're just standing up for what we believe in. You got to stand somewhere," said another.
One striker on the picket line in front of the Volvo factory said that if the company hired replacement workers, "It'll be Operation Dublin Storm."
The five union members working the noon-to-2 p.m. strike shift said they'd gotten a lot of "thumbs-up" and honks of support from passing drivers.
A temporary shelter made of two-by-fours and plastic, along with a stack of firewood and a few bales of hay, was set up at the plant's entrance in case of rain.
Stoots said the members would be striking around the clock, on two-hour shifts. He said the UAW has a strike fund but would not say how much it is or when workers could collect payments.
It was unclear whether laid-off workers who are still union members would be eligible for the strike funds.
Volvo has laid off 383 workers over the past five months, leaving about 680 hourly workers at the plant. The company cut production during that time from 60 trucks to 36 trucks daily, citing sluggish sales due to the recession and uncertainty about the Persian Gulf crisis.
Volvo also has plants in Ohio and Utah, which reduced their combined daily production in December from 30 trucks to 23 trucks.
by CNB