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Since October 23, workers at the International Truck and Engine Corp parts house at 4038 Rock Quarry in Dallas have been pulling 6-hour picket duty. The street parallels West Davis from the Fort Worth Cutoff to Cockrell Hill Road. The Pinnacle Park Industrial Park is just on the north side of Davis. The strikers happily reported that they had received solidarity visits from Teamsters and Communications Workers members. Obviously, they could use a whole lot more visits.
American workers, including those in North Texas, are getting in the habit of dropping off donuts, coffee, bottled water, and other signs of support when they know where striking workers can be found. These guys have been out over a month, including through the Thanksgiving weekend. Unless there is a breakthrough, they are looking at a very blue Christmas!
According to news reports, the issue at International is unfair labor practices. Companies and unions are supposed to negotiate fairly when a contract expires. The UAW charges that International violated their contractual agreements instead of observing the extension of the expired contract. Laws governing an "unfair labor practices" strike are generally more fair to the workers than those of an ordinary "economic" strike.
An article in Automotive News
says that management and union representatives resumed negotiations on November
2. It says that there are about 4,000 UAW members on strike in six states. Navstar,
the parent company, had an estimated worldwide original-equipment automotive
parts sales of $3.40 billion in 2006.