Labor war rages on.

• Author: Sagovac, Simone
• Position: Lockout of A.E. Staley workers in Decatur, IL

Decatur, Illinois Decatur is still a war zone." There's been a war going on here since the summer of 1993. That's when the A.E. Staley corn-processing plant locked out its 763 workers. The Staley workers were soon joined by locked-out workers from Bridgestone/Firestone, and Caterpillar workers, who went on strike.

All of these workers have been drawn into a battle with corporate giants that use such tactics as mandating twelve-hour rotating shifts with no overtime pay, eliminating hundreds of jobs, and violating health and safety standards.

Dan Lane, a nineteen-year veteran employee of A.E. Staley, began fasting for justice for Decatur's workers on September 1. For most of his fast, Lane stayed in a Decatur church rectory, drinking only water and juices. While his physical condition deteriorated, he remained resolved--conducting daily telephone interviews with reporters and talking to his supporters around the country. A number of people have joined Lane in sympathy strikes, and ninety protesters chained themselves to Staley's plant gate for twelve-hour rotating shifts to symbolize the inhumane schedules that the company has been imposing on workers.

"We want to demonstrate the fact that this company is turning back the clock on labor. The eight-hour day was won over 100 years ago. We shouldn't have to fight for it again, but we will," said Dick Schable, a twenty-nine-year employee of Staley.

Union members have been frustrated by a tepid response to their plight from the national leadership. Earlier this year, a busload of members from the three Decatur unions descended upon an AFL-CIO executive meeting, uninvited, to call attention to their situation and demand that the top union leaders see Decatur for themselves.

In October, at the eleventh hour, Dan Lane received an invitation to the national AFL-CIO convention in New York. Lane spoke on the convention floor, a change from previous conventions where locked-out Staley workers were not granted speaking time. Although he had lost forty pounds and wasn't sure he could make the trip, Lane wouldn't give up the chance to speak at the convention.

In an impassioned speech, after literally breaking the podium pounding on it with his fist, Lane told the assembled unionists that what is happening in Decatur is what's happening to workers everywhere, and it must be everyone's fight. He...