Among the guests were two locked out Steelworkers from Armco/AK Steel Corp in Mansfield, Ohio. The story they told was not a pretty one. Armco/AK Steel(symbol AKS) has brought in hundreds of scabs and hundreds of thugs to protect the scabs.
One story, and I believe it, is that a Steelworker having cashed a check in a Mansfield bank was jumped and beaten in the bank parking lot by three of the thugs employed by AKS's to break the strike.
The Steelworkers who belong to this locked out local in Mansfield haven't had a labor dispute in nearly three decades! Three decades of labor peace and they are repaid for their reasonable actions by a steel corporation using armed thugs and scabs.
When I was a kid I would sometimes listen to my grandfather and his friends talk about the bad old days when they were trying to form the union. One thing that I remember was hearing about how the coal&iron police would wait around grocery stores in order to beat them up---it's like we are back there again now!
There Local is USWA #169 376 W. Longview Ave. Mansfield, Ohio 44902 419-522-9375 or 419-522-9385
TL