Oct. 28 – A three-week-old strike at Navistar International’s truck-customizing plant in Springfield, OH, has been anything but calm.
Clark County Sheriff’s deputies have been called to the picket line at least 10 times since the strike began Oct. 5, reports the Associated Press, although there have been no arrests.
The 150 workers went on strike after rejecting a tentative contract agreement that union leaders had reached with Navistar, the sticking point apparently being paid absences. Shortly after the strike began, Navistar started moving trucks out of the plant and through the picket line so their customers could have the trucks customized somewhere else. The union says it has not tried to impede the trucks, although Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said his office has had some complaints about the picketers blocking vehicles.
Trucks have been scratched and pelted with eggs. A sheriff’s cruiser got a flat tire when it arrived at the picket line and ran over some nails. The strikers picket near a busy, four-lane highway, and on Thursday, a striking worker was killed when he was accidentally struck by a car as he crossed the highway. Last Wednesday, another striker was taken to the hospital when he said his foot was run over by one of the trucks leaving the plant.