Labor war zone in Illinois.

• Author: Jarosinski, Eric
• Position: Decatur, Illinois lockout of A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co. workers - Cover Story

It's a bitter cold November day in Decatur, Illinois. I'm shivering in a speakers' tent filled with hundreds of union factory workers, their families, and supporters. A mood of festive defiance permeates the tent as workers join hands red from the cold and begin singing a round of old labor anthems, imparting a note of urgency to their well-worn lyrics.

The day marks the fiftieth anniversary of Allied Industrial Workers Local 837, the union that represents some 760 workers at Decatur's A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, a large Illinois-based cornprocessing company. Union members have gathered not just to celebrate but also to protest: Management at Staley has locked them out of their jobs.

Labor is under attack in Decatur, as it is across the country. But here, where the union has declared central Illinois a "war zone," labor is fighting back.

With the final chorus of "Solidarity Forever," workers and union officials take turns stepping up to the microphone. They talk of company safety violations, unionbusting, and corporate greed.

"Today, critics of organized labor argue that most American workers already enjoy good wages, good benefits, and good working conditions," suggests union official Boyd Young, pausing long enough to let his audience hoot in disgust. "Let them come to Decatur, Illinois!"

He's followed by Dan Lane, a Staley worker who was fired shortly before the lockout began in late June. "It's time that we, labor, as a solidarity movement, get off our knees, stand up and join hands," he urges the crowd, his voice rising steadily in volume. "We have to move forward together to win this victory, not only in Decatur, not only in central Illinois, but in this whole damn country!"

The fiery speeches, the chants of "no contract, no peace," and the enthusiasm of the crowd show a union ready and willing to do battle. Lest there be any doubt, the official pronouncement comes from Local 837 president Dave Watts: "The labor movement, the grass-roots efforts which are so obvious here today, is alive."

Although the demise of organized labor has become a common lament of the Left, there are signs of life in Decatur. An industrial city of 90,000, set about 175 miles southwest of Chicago among the corn and bean fields of central Illinois, Decatur has drawn the attention of the national labor movement.

The tale of the Staley fight is of a small union local mustering strong opposition to a powerful multinational corporation. The workers know the deck is stacked against them. In days when more and more people are looking for work and union membership is shrinking, workers are becoming increasingly expendable. How the labor movement can survive in such adverse times is the lesson Staley workers believe they can teach other unions across the country.

"I think we have given the labor movement a good shot in the arm in showing workers how and when you can stand up and fight," says Jim Shinall, who has worked at Staley for twenty-nine years. "It's helping to pull the labor movement together."

Next to Caterpillar and Archer Daniels Midland, an agribusiness giant, Staley is one of Decatur's biggest employers. Its plant sprawls pipelines, smokestacks, and conveyors over some 450 acres near downtown Decatur. Inside the factory walls, corn is ground to produce starches for paper making and sweeteners for soft...