Posted on 11/27/2004 9:07:46 PM PST by BenLurkin
HANNIBAL, Ohio (AP) - Ten striking factory workers armed with knives, bats and clubs were arrested after attempting to block vans entering an Ormet Corp. aluminum plant, police said. The picketers were charged Friday with violating a court order requiring them to stay at least 2,000 feet away from the plant's entrance, Monroe County Sheriff Manifred Keylor said in a statement.
Additional charges of resisting arrest and assaulting law enforcement officers were pending, the statement said.
Police said they seized various weapons from the picketers, including a sledgehammer, an ax, knives, baseball bats and wooden clubs.
Danny Longwell, a local steelworkers union representative, said picketers blocked the vans because they believed they were carrying replacement workers into the plant on Friday. A call to the union seeking additional comment Saturday was not immediately returned.
But Ormet chief executive Mike Williams said Saturday the vans were carrying food, additional security personnel and one salaried worker, not replacement workers.
About 1,300 workers at two plants in Hannibal went on strike Monday against Ormet, which has sought U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval to void its labor agreements and impose new ones. The company is trying to cut $23 million in costs by freezing pension benefits, raising worker health plan contributions and changing work rules.
Union officials want the court to rule on its motion to have the company consider bids to buy the plants, which are located about 115 miles southeast of Columbus.
The situation outside the plants has been tense since the strike began. A truck was turned away Monday morning by crowds of picketers at the company gates and the driver of another truck was arrested after hitting a striker several hours later. The striker was treated at a hospital and released.
Wheeling, W.Va.-based Ormet has about 2,000 employees and plants in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana and Louisiana. Workers are striking only at the two Hannibal plants.
Look for the union label..
Actually I'd love to see an Anti-Bubba-Bill Bill. Maybe the Stainman would get lost.
R-ICO.
Say 'em together, one after the other.
What??!?! We can't use weapons to prevent work from being done on our employer's property?
No guns, clubs, chains, knives?? Just how are we supposed to blackmail our employer to meet our outrageous demands if we can't act like thugs and 'ganstas'?
I'm sure our rights are being violated somehow ....< /sarcasm off>
"Picketers blocked the vans because they believed they were carrying replacement workers into the plant on Friday."
Oh well..Now I understand the clubs, knives, axes and baseball bats../sarcasm
Oh, yea...that CERTAINLY makes it ok, then...
geeze...
Silly union thugs, the replacement workers won't show up until Monday. It would be silly to bring them in on the Friday afeter Thanksgiving.
This is mild!! I live in what was once the coal fields of SW PA. I was reading a book about the Coal Strikes during the early 20th century in and around the area where I am living now.
I found our that during those strikes, my wife's relative who was a deputy sheriff in the county shot and wounded one of my relatives!!
Since reading that book, I've made sure I always lock up my ammo!
This book is a litany of horrors.
A veritable laundry list of civil rights/ civil liberties abuses, all of them perpetrated at the behest of Big Labor bosses and their supplicants in the Democratic Party.
Some more info over the net:
"workers make about $15 an hour."
"The driver of another truck was arrested and charged with aggravated vehicular assault after hitting a striker as he drove through the gates around noon, the Monroe County Sheriff's Department said. William Rose was treated at a hospital and released."
Dennis Cottrill of Ellenboro, W.Va., appeared in Monroe County Court Monday and was released after the hearing, a court spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The truck belonged to JABO Supply Corp. of Huntington, W.Va. The company's co-owner, Joe Holley, said he had not spoken with the driver about the alleged incident. He also claimed his truck had been damaged by union workers.
"Emotions are high, and we have a lot of people on the line," Steelworkers Local 5724 President Loren Hartshorn said."
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/business/10250383.htm (Posted on Tue, Nov. 23, 2004)
Union idiots. The choice is simple:
a.) Either work WITH management to ensure that the company you work for is profitable (so they can afford to pay you your check).
or
b.) Make your own personal ambitions more important than the company's bottom line (by pricing your labor out of reason and driving up the costs of your product), ensuring you lose your job.
They'll never quite inderstand that, will they? Go on strike before Christmas hoping that the management feels "sorry" for them and gives in. I'd say "Merry Christmas - enjoy those Union benefits - YOU'RE FIRED!"
Former Kerry supporters?;)
That is what happened for too many steel companies in the USA. Unions destroyed their employee marketplace. Mgmt. also contributed as well (Bethlehem Steel). My family has been in the steel business since 1888. So, I know a 'little' about the industry.
Following the incident, union members put up a cable across the entrance along with nail-studded boards to block any vehicles from entering the plant.
Although there was a large crowd at the picket line Monday morning, union officials said they will soon begin manning the line in shifts. "It's the first day, so everyone kind of shows up," said Ballard.
"We're here around the clock - as long as it takes," said Hartshorn.
You know that for every plant that closes in the US, three open in China. Whole plants are sold to China.
The answer is to beat up strike breakers and demand more from management/sarcasm....Perhaps the government can force companies to stay in the US?
Don't picket, it'll scab.
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