I have been working for Columbia Cement for 13 years as of September 1, 1985. I am currently employed as a group leader in the pack house. I was a member of Lodge D24 of the Cement Workers Union up until May 11, 1985
Sometime during the first strike, between May 8 and June 12, at about 7 p.m. I was riding in a red SME van with five other employees. In South Zainesville Just before the intersection of Route 22 and Main Street, I saw a car driven by Al Mitolovic, a striking employee. He had two of his brothers with him. We were at the passing lane and at the red light, they pulled up and began yelling at us things like "you scabbier son of a bitches". [unreadable] (last name unknown) rolled up the windows and we said [unreadable]thing back to them
On June 12, 1985 the strikers came back to work for a few days. As I am the group leader of the pack house, I went into the basement to ask harry Snack if he needed any help.
W.C.A
Snack just walked away from me. I spoke to my supervisor Alan Rutledge. For the rest of the day the men would follow my orders, but they would not speak to me. My primary concern is that safety is a serious consideration and, with the attitude the strikers have, there is no guarantee that a striker and a non-striker working together will protect each other. I'm the person who discovered the coffee being tampered with and this causes even greater concern that if the strikers return to work, they'll booby trap the non-strikers.
I was on strike for three days. On about May 10, there was a Union meeting at the American Legion hall. Don Fisher, the president of the Local got up in front of the membership and announced that the Miller boys have stayed in the plant. He said that somewhere down the line, maybe not in the plant, but his path would cross theirs. He also stated that if one of us goes down, we all go down. It was at this point that I decided that the strike was not my idea of the way to handle the dispute with the company.
I have carefully [word crossed out and replaced with W.C.R] read the above statement and certified that the facts contained are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.
X W.C. Lush SR.
Sworn to, and subscribed to before me, this 15th day of august, 1985.
Marcs E. Graves, Field Examiner
This is the coolest document ever! Maybe the strikers and the non strikers never found common group and that's why the plant shut down.
