6 Injured After Alabama Strikers Hurl Debris at Vehicles; 4 Arrested
Six people were injured and four were arrested Tuesday after strikers outside a Dunlop Tire Corp. plant hurled rocks, bottles and concrete blocks at passing vehicles, police said.
The objects damaged 69 vehicles owned by Dunlop and its employees and 16 owned by Intergraph Corp., an unrelated company.
Two Dunlop employees and two Intergraph workers were injured badly enough to require hospitalization. A police officer and an ambulance attendant were slightly injured.
Police Sgt. Ronnie Fudge said law enforcement officials were forced to use tear gas after some of several hundred unionized rubber workers and their supporters sat in the middle of the road, defying a police order to disperse.
Strikers, including some armed with sticks, began throwing debris at police. A Molotov cocktail also was thrown.
Members of United Rubber Workers Local 915 have been on strike for 11 weeks, rejecting a tentative deal on a new contract last week.
Those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct or resisting arrest. All four suspects were free on bail later in the day.
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