On this day in Labor History the year was 1993.
That was the day that AE Staley locked out 763 workers at their corn processing plant in Decatur, Illinois.
Labor Management relations grew increasingly hostile with foreign-owned Tate & Lile’s decision to bring in new managers.
The new management ordered workers to disregarded safety regulations.
An OSHA investigation found an astounding 298 violations at the plant triggering more than one-and-a-half million dollars in fines.
Despite the fines, worker safety concerns persisted.
Management proposed a new contract designed to destroy grievance rights, seniority, and worker safety.
Even worse workers would be required to work twelve hour shifts.
They would have be available both night and day shifts at management’s whim.
96 percent of the workers voted to reject the contract.
In response, the company locked the workers out of the plant.
The locked out workers were replaced with scabs.
As the lockout wore on month after month.
And in the face of the employer’s refusal to negotiate, the workers had to rely on one another to stay strong.
They went door to door throughout Decatur to inform the public about what was happening.
In 1994 and 1995 the workers were joined on the picket lines by United Auto Workers from the city’s Caterpillar plant and rubber workers from Bridgestone-Firestone.
Those workers had gone out on strike as their employers took extreme hardline bargaining positions earning Decatur the nickname “Strike City.”
The eyes of the nation were on central-Illinois.
It seemed that the Decatur struggle was the stage for the modern labor movement.
Workers were fighting back in the age of international mergers and all out attacks on union workers.
Three days before Christmas in 1995, the national union settled the strike leaving many of the workers angry with settlement that took their voice away.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show