Thousands of Strikers Defy Caterpillar’s Ultimatum : Labor: Picketers gather outside Illinois plants, jeering those who heeded a back-to-work demand. The firm expects workers to return over time.
Thousands of striking workers massed outside Caterpillar Inc. factories across Illinois on Monday in defiance of a back-to-work demand by the giant earthmoving-equipment company.
Clogging the streets outside plant gates with both bodies and cars, rank-and-file members of the United Auto Workers union hooted at and jeered the handful of their colleagues who reported for work after an unprecedented company warning to do so by Monday morning or risk being replaced.
“You scabby son of a bitch,” shouted a knot of picketers as one worker nosed his pickup--a Japanese model--into a factory parking lot. “We got wives and kids too, you know.”
No violence was reported, but union and company assessments of this latest development seemed as far apart as anything else in the six-month-old walkout, which experts say could threaten the very existence of the UAW and possibly undermine labor clout for years to come.
Caterpillar officials estimated that about 400 of the nearly 13,000 striking UAW members crossed picket lines Monday, and they predicted many more would soon do so as the firm readied plans to advertise for new workers.
“We believe our employees want to return to work, but we also know that it’s a very difficult decision,” said Caterpillar President Gerald S. Flaherty. “So we anticipate that their return will take place over time.”
But Bill Casstevens, secretary-treasurer of the union, described the defections as a mere “trickle” and insisted that union solidarity would hold.
“They cannot bulldoze us back into the plants. They’re going to have to bargain us back,” Casstevens said. “When they finally decide to do what’s right and treat their workers as assets instead of liabilities, then we’ll be able to get this thing over.”
Monday’s show of defiance notwithstanding, the company is betting that Casstevens’ trickle will turn into a flood in days to come, and some who joined the UAW rally outside Caterpillar’s sprawling complex here admitted that their resolve was wavering.
“I’m thinking about going back right now,” confessed boiler operator Dick Rogers, even as he held a video camera to help union leaders record the license plates of those who drove into the plant. “I’ve been a union man all my life, but they’re putting me in a position where I’ve got to survive.”
In essence, both sides are playing a precarious game of “chicken” in a battle that could economically scar workers and the company alike.
The company has offered wage hikes and job-security guarantees, but it also demands changes in seniority rules, uniform pay scales and other areas traditionally considered sacrosanct by organized labor.
For its part, the UAW is demanding that the company comply with long-established industry practices and pattern its contract offer on agreements the union has already reached with other implement makers.
Caterpillar has refused, saying it exports nearly 60% of its products and needs a contract that will keep it competitive with foreign, not domestic, manufacturers.
Analysts say the standoff could be the most significant labor dispute since air traffic controllers went on strike in 1981 and were fired by then-President Ronald Reagan.
Should Caterpillar prevail, they say, the ripple effects on organized labor could be far greater than those from the controller’s strike because no major U.S. manufacturer is believed to have ever successfully purged its union work force.
“I think the stakes are enormous,” said Harley Shaiken, an industrial restructuring expert at UC Berkeley. “. . . This has gone from a tough strike to a question of union survival.”
The irony of Caterpillar’s strategy, Shaiken explained, is that by threatening to do away with a highly skilled and experienced work force, it risked ruining its reputation for producing top quality goods--a key ingredient in the $10-billion firm’s climb to the top of the construction-equipment industry.
“Caterpillar appears to be willing to jettison the work force to enhance its global competitiveness,” Shaiken said. “Just the opposite could prove to be the case.”
Eli Lustgarten, an industry analyst for PaineWebber Inc., said both sides seemed well entrenched despite the replacement threat. The company, he estimated, has enough unsold goods to carry it through late spring or early summer before feeling a financial pinch.
“It’s sad that it had to come this far,” he said. “. . . Everybody’s going to lose something.”
For now at least, both sides are talking tough and refusing to blink. “We haven’t lost a sale due to this conflict,” Flaherty said. “We’re very sure we’ll be able to keep our customers satisfied, (and) we’ll get the majority of our employees back to work.”
Out on the picket lines, however, it was a different story. “There aren’t gonna be no funerals,” said Mike Neese, a UAW official from Springfield, Ohio, who drove six hours to join in Monday’s demonstration. “The UAW is not going to die today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or ever.”
Jeff Hersemann, a striking machinist, said it was time to draw the line. “If (Caterpillar) gets away with this with our union, they’ll be doing this to all the other unions too,” he said. “If it goes five years, I’ll still be out here.”
Times researcher Tracy Shryer in Chicago contributed to this story.
BACKGROUND
The United Auto Workers began a limited strike against Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of heavy construction equipment, on Nov. 4, 1991, and has gradually expanded it to include approximately 13,000 workers. Caterpillar is demanding changes in seniority rules, pay scales and benefit levels that will help it compete with foreign manufacturers that have lower operating costs. But the UAW is demanding that the company follow the longtime practice of patterning its contract after agreements the union already reached with other implement makers, such as Deere & Co. The company implemented its last contract offer Monday and said strikers who did not return would be replaced.
