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-- OriginalOwner_ [tinyurl.com] writes:

from the regressing-two-centuries dept.

The International Socialist Organization reports [socialistworker.org]

Workers at an International Paper factory in Delaware, Ohio are on strike against the company's demand of unlimited overtime for up to 84 hours a week: 12 hours a day for all seven days.

"[The company is] telling us, 'Oh, we're not going to use it'", says Mike Schnitzler, who has worked at the factory for 21 years. "But if you're not going to use it, why ask for it? We have to fight for what we believe in--there's no family time or anything like that if you're working seven days a week, 12 hours a day."

The 130 workers, members of the Columbus-based Teamsters Local 284, had been without a contract since last summer when the company decided in April to implement its "last, best, and final offer", which included the outrageous overtime provision.

In response, Local 284 launched an unfair labor practice strike, declaring that International Paper was not negotiating in good faith.

[...]A few days into the strike, International Paper was able to get an injunction limiting the number of workers who can picket in front of the entrances to the factory and warehouse to three. As they did in the recent Verizon strike on the East Coast and countless other [strikes], police have enforced this injunction, preventing workers from confronting and slowing down scabs on their way into the factory.

After winning the injunction, company managers further harassed their striking employees by frequently calling the police on picketers, although workers reported that this tactic mainly succeeded in getting the cops annoyed at the company for continually calling them over nothing.

[...]Many people in the community agree with a point that Schnitzler made about why this strike is important, not just for members of Local 284, but for all workers:

This is a Fortune 500 company--one of the largest paper companies in the world. If they're successful in getting all of this stuff through, what's to stop other companies from doing the same thing? Nobody wants to live their life working in a factory and never getting out, never getting to spend time with their family.

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