Create Jobs Not Poverty Local 122 Uaw
1985 1985-09Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 9 →
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women's, and other social movements. Local 61 in Pittsburgh, Pa.—The Editors to happen in my opinion.
S.A.: When you spoke to the sonference today, you talked about some of the gains that were given up a long time ago, like the right to strike in between contracts. Could you explain what you think this has done to us?
Tirpak: I explained that in my view, at one point in time-eons ago-nostrike contracts were probably mutually beneficial in that they provided people with some measure of security, knowing that there would be no work stoppage for the next two or three years.
But I believe that the no-strike clauses have outlived their usefulness. I also think more responsibility for controlling some of the wrongs that are inflicted on people should be taken at the local level.
S.A.: What type of support for your strike have you gotten from the community and from other trade unions in the area?
Tirpak: Community support has been outstanding in the Wheeling-Pittsburgh area. I've been talking to some of the people who were on the picket lines in 1959 [the last strike in basic steel was 26 years ago-The Editors] and according to them, it's night and day as far as community support goes.
Wheeling-Pittsburgh, you know, hasn't done the community any service because along with abrogating the contract and the bankruptcy claim, they have failed to pay taxes in the communities in which they do business, eroding the tax base and causing a lot of mayhem for these communities.
Take Yorkville, for example. Seventy-five percent of Yorkville's operating income comes from the taxes of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel's large plant. The (continued on page 11)