The Municipal Baseball Field on Grand Avenue in Manitowoc was filled with thousands of Wisconsinites today, but there was no game in sight. Instead an estimated 3,500 Wisconsinites stood in solidarity with the Fighting Machinists of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (I.A.M.A.W) Local Lodge 516 who are on strike at Manitowoc Cranes.
Teachers, snow plow drivers, fire fighters, steelworkers, boilermakers, operating engineers, laborers, letter carriers, truck drivers, custodians, nurses, bricklayers, electricians, painters, community members, faith leaders and workers from both the public and private sector stood in solidarity with the striking members of the I.A.M.A.W Local Lodge 516.
“This is not about wages or benefits,” said Ben Elizondo of the Machinists Union. “This is about management wanting total power. It’s a sad thing when the company pushes you out at a time of the year when people are suppose to be coming together.”
A life-long union machinist at Manitowoc Cranes, J.C. Schultz has been a Machinist for over forty years.
"I’m a journeyman machinist. I started my apprenticeship when I was 17-years-old with the union, and I celebrated my 61st birthday this week on the picket line. They are not going to break the union, not in the great state of Wisconsin," says Schultz. "This fight is about our children and our children's children and the kind of society we want to live in. A society where workers have the right to union representation.”
Nearly 200 men and women have been on strike at Manitowoc Cranes since November 15. At issue, is non-economic contract language which would have zero impact on productivity and instead bust the worker’s union. The language, which the worker’s have voted overwhelming to reject, would backhandedly destroy the union and the worker’s ability to have a voice on the job.
On Saturday, December 10, thousands braved the cold and gathered on a chilly Saturday afternoon for a solidarity rally. After the rally, thousands marched to the Manitowoc Cranes plant gates to join the picket line.
The Gunderson Brothers made the journey from Madison to show their support. Members of AFSCME Local 60 and Teamsters Local 695 the Gundersons’ are second generation union. “We are here to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the Machinists union. This sort of attack affects us all. It’s no surprise that Gov. Walker’s union-busting is moving to the private sector. We need to support the Machinists here and recall Walker.”
Reverend Neil Piepenburg opened the rally with a prayer for the workers and for the community. “This is not just a political issue. This is a moral issue and a faith issue. When the voice and the rights of one are sacrificed for the voice of another, there is no justice,” said Rev. Piepenburg.
“This is what having a union is all about,” explained Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “Having a union is about having the strength of your co-workers. It’s about working people supporting each other and standing together in solidarity. Having a union is about having a voice at work and having the strength to improve your workplace. Manitowoc Cranes has no right to try to cripple the worker’s union and we are here to stand with them in their fight for justice.”
“Today working people from Manitowoc and from across Wisconsin chose to come together to say: an injury to one is an injury to all. We are here to stand together to support the strikers at Manitowoc Cranes. We hope that management and the workers can sit down together and continue negotiations so we can get back to work and get back to making a first-rate product that is exporting worldwide,” said Russell Krings, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District 10.
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