> >From the Militant, Oct. 2 (newspaper of the Socialist Workers Party)
>
> Florida miners strike to defend union {pre-publication version}
>
> BY RACHELE FRUIT
>
> PALATKA, Florida--Workers at a surface mineral mine
> here are waging a determined fight to defend their union. The members of
> International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 1098 have been on
> strike for two years against Iluka Resources, Inc.
>
> They are fighting against company practices such as "threatening an
> employee with legal action for making a safety complaint to the Mine
> Safety and Health Administration," as their fact sheet explains.
>
> On August 2, a group of workers and one farmer returning to Florida from
> an Active Workers Conference in Ohio visited the picket line. We were
> from Plant City, Land O'Lakes, St. Petersburg, and Miami. One team
> member, Rachele Fruit, was a member of IAM Local 1126 in Miami and had
> been part of an effort by unionists there to send a contribution to the
> toy fund for children of the strikers last Christmas.
>
> The picket line is located five miles north of Bostwick, between Palatka
> and Jacksonville, with a blue school bus for a strike headquarters
> surrounded by hand-stenciled plywood signs. One of the signs says,
> "Those who thought we were down for the count will have a rude
> awakening. UNION WINS."
>
> Strikers Dyal Bowman and Greg Looney greeted us warmly and explained
> that their strike is about defending the right of workers to a union.
>
> Workers at the Iluka mine excavate minerals such as zircon or zirconium
> silicate and ilmanite and rutile, both sources of titanium oxide. These
> minerals are used in making tires and other essential products.
>
> Bowman explained that "the company started splitting the workers. We
> were used to working in both places. If things were slow in one area,
> we'd go over and work in the other. We all worked together. Then they
> imposed shift work in one mill and not the other, violating seniority."
>
> The pickets reported the company made one union employee a boss who
> reported back what happened at union meetings. Management called this
> "monitoring" union meetings. They fired the chief union steward in June
> 1997 and then wouldn't let him onto company property to meet with or
> represent union members.
>
> The contract ended Aug. 1, 1997, and the union negotiated more than a
> year until the strike was called. Meanwhile, the company organized
> "parking lot meetings with all of the workers to explain that they were
> losing money and had to cut costs or else shut the gates," Bowman said.
> "But this place is a gold mine. They sell trainloads of minerals."
>
> CSX engineers have honored the picket line. They bring railroad cars to
> the edge of the company property, but no further. "For the first year of
> the strike, CSX supervisors brought the trains in, but they got tired of
> it," said Bowman. "Since then, Iluka has paid $500 three times a week to
> get a scab outfit from Jacksonville to bring the trains in."
>
> There were 78 IAM members who went on strike, but 32 crossed the line
> during the fourth week when the company started hiring replacement
> workers.
>
> On Nov. 5, 1999, administrative law judge Howard Grossman ruled that the
> replacement workers should be fired. He ruled that union members should
> be awarded back pay and benefits with interest, as well as all the
> overtime pay the replacement workers received. The company appealed the
> ruling, and the case has been before the National Labor Relations Board
> since January.
>
> "We've got a strong case, but it's up there in Washington and you never
> know," Looney told us. The strikers expect a ruling in September. "If
> all the workers in the country would stick together, we'd have them."