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Midcon SteelUse of this excerpt from Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks may be made only for purposes of promoting the book, with no changes, editing or additions whatsoever and must be accompanied by the following copyright notice: copyright ©1997 by Terry Brooks. |
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The strike at Midwest Continental Steel had been going on for one hundred
and seven days, and there was no relief in sight. This was bad news and
not just for the company and the union. The mill employed twenty-five
percent of the town's working population, and when twenty-five percent of
a community's spending capital disappears, everyone suffers. MidCon was at
one time the largest independently owned steel mill in the country, but
after the son of the founder died and the heirs lost interest, it was sold
to a consortium. That produced some bad feelings all by itself, even
though one of the heirs stayed around as a nominal part of the company
team. The bad feelings grew when the bottom fell out of the steel market
in the late seventies and early eighties in the wake of the boom in
foreign steel. The consortium underwent some management changes, the last
member of the founding family was dismissed, the twenty-four-inch mill was
shut down, and several hundred workers were laid off. Eventually some of
the workers were hired back and the twenty-four-inch was started up again,
but the bad feelings between management and union were by then so
deep-seated and pervasive that neither side could bring itself ever again
to trust the other.
Then, one hundred and seven days ago, the union had struck the fourteen-inch and the wire mill. The strike soon escalated to include the twenty-four-inch and the twelve-inch, and then all of MidCon was shut down. At first no one worried much. There had been strikes before, and they had always resolved themselves. Besides, it was springtime, and with the passing of another bitterly cold Midwest winter, everyone was feeling hopeful and renewed. But a month went by and no progress was made. A mediator was called in at the behest of the mayor of Hopewell and the governor of the State of Illinois and with the blessing of both union and management, but he failed to make headway. A few ugly incidents on the picket line hardened feelings on both sides. By then, the effect of the strike was being felt by everyone--smaller companies who did business with the mill or used their products, retailers who relied on the money spent by the mill's employees, and professional people whose clientele was in large part composed of management and union alike. Everyone began to choose sides. After two months, the company announced that it would no longer recognize the union and that it would accept back those workers who wished to return to their old jobs, but that if those workers failed to return in seven days, new people would be brought in to replace them. On June 1, it would start up the fourteen-inch mill using company supervisors as workers. The company called this action the first step in a valid decertification process; the union called it strikebreaking and union busting. The union warned against trying to use scabs in place of "real" workers, of trying to cross the picket line, of doing anything but continuing to negotiate with the union team. It warned that use of company people on the line was foolhardy and dangerous. Only trained personnel should attempt to operate the machinery. The company replied that it would provide whatever training was deemed necessary and suggested the union start bargaining in good faith. From there, matters only got worse. The company started up the fourteen-inch several times, and each time shut it down again after only a few days. There were reports by the union of unnecessary injuries and by the company of sabotage. Replacement workers were bused in from surrounding cities, and fights took place on the picket line. The national guard was brought in on two occasions to restore order. Finally MidCon shut down again for good and declared that the workers were all fired and the company was for sale. All negotiations came to a halt. No one even bothered to pretend at making an effort anymore. Another month passed. The pickets continued, no one made any money, and the community of Hopewell and its citizens grew steadily more depressed. Now, with the summer heat reaching record highs, spring's hopes were as dry as the dust that coated the roadways, and the bad feelings had burned down to white-hot embers. |
The bad feelings had come to a head six months earlier, when the union had
entered into negotiations for a new contract. A yearly cost-of-living
increase in the hourly wage, better medical benefits, an expansion of what
qualified as piecework, and a paid-holiday program were some of the
demands on the union's agenda. A limited increase without escalators in
the hourly wage over the next five years, a cutback in medical benefits, a
narrowing down of the types of payments offered for piecework, and an
elimination of paid holidays were high on the list of counterdemands made
by the company. A deadlock was quickly reached. Arbitration was refused by
both sides, each choosing to wait out the other. A strike deadline was set
by the union. A back-to-work deadline was set by the company. As the
deadlines neared and no movement was achieved in the bargaining process,
both union and company went public with their grievances. Negotiators for
each side kept popping up on television and radio to air out the
particulars of the latest outrage perpetrated by the other. Soon both
sides were talking to everyone but each other.
