Strike Atmosphere

My dad's union went on strike during April of 2002. In June of that year, I applied for a job at the plant. The atmosphere on the plant was very tense. There was a group of about five guys that went to work at the plant while the union was on strike. They were affectionately referred to as "scabs." The breakroom had a line drawn on the floor. Tables to the left were for union members only...tables on the right had "scabs" written on them. All of the appliances in the break room - the coffee maker, the microwave, and even the refrigerator - were moved to the union side of the breakroom. I was often placed in a work crew with the "scabs." Personally, I treated them no different than any other worker. I was about the only person on the plant who did this. One day we left our water cooler on the roof of the mill building. We returned the following morning to discover that someone had urinated in it. The message was quite clear - these boys weren't welcome. As the daughter of a full-time employee, I wasn't treated this way. The tension on the plant did not subside until late that summer. The scabs still weren't allowed on the union side of the lunch room, but the appliances did return to their normal positions. The crude remarks stopped being etched in the table tops and the threats of violence subsided. I think this was because as time progressed, less and less of the scabs were left on the plant. Essroc only employed them for 90 days - so by mid-July they were all gone. The line was erased off the breakroom floor. All returned to normal. It may seem that the treatment of these five guys was harsh - and I have to agree that a lot of the stuff was mean. However, you have to realize that when the full-time guys were out on strike, not knowing whether they would ever have their jobs again, these five guys walked right past them with indifference and took their jobs. Those are slow healing wounds...