Linda Jones went to work at Cooper Tire in Findlay, Ohio 37 years ago. Nathan Rand was on the job for five years at the American Crystal Sugar plant in Hillsboro. N.D.  Jones and 1,000 of her co-workers were locked out in August. American Crystal locked out Rand and 1,300 workers at seven plants in Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota in November.   

“I couldn’t believe a place we worked so hard for would slap us in the face like we meant nothing to them,” says Jones in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon. She and Rand and 6 other Cooper and American Crystal workers were rolling down the road from Minnesota to Wisconsin as part of the 1,000 mile Journey for Justice. (Click here for more from the journey.)

Throughout the journey, the locked out workers have been drawing huge support from central labor councils, local unions and state AFL-CIOs. In fact, union members and their allies were set for a National Day of Action in dozens of cities across the nation tomorrow, with demonstrations outside Cooper Tire outlets, but the Day of Action was postponed when news of a tentative agreement was announced yesterday evening. Says USW Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson:

It is the engagement of the entire labor movement that really turns up the pressure in these kinds of struggles and makes the difference. I want to thank everyone who participated in anyway in our struggle with Cooper Tire.

But American Crystal continues to keep the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers (BCTGM) workforce it once praised as top notch and awesome off the job and company negotiators away from the bargaining table.

Rand recalls that the 2010-2011 growing season produced one of the largest crops of sugar beets on record and the workers at the plants stepped it up.

We worked our behinds off... They sent all of us a letters saying we had broken records for the number of beets sliced, the amount of sugar—and money—made. They were patting us on the back saying you guys were awesome. Now we not good enough anymore? It’s not like the company was hurting. We told them we wanted to work and they just pulled the rug out from under us.   

Like the BCTGM members, Jones says the USW members at Cooper gave the company its labor, its loyalty and as the economy turned bad and Cooper made noise about shutting down the plant, $33 million.

We are a good hardworking workforce full of good workers…We gave them $33 million in concessions, the state of Ohio helped them out and Findlay even gave them free sewage and water service to help keep the plant from moving…We had faith they would treat us fairly and never thought they would treat us like doormats.

Rand who had worked his way up the ladder and improved his skills with training as a process technician and learning about all aspects of the production says “I still have a passion and curiosity for the job.”

I'd been talking about getting married and starting a family, I mean I had a good job, was making and saving a little bit of money. But now….?

He also says the lockout has been “a double edged sword” with the hardships he and his fellow workers face, but on the other hand:

I didn’t really know much about the labor movement. I didn’t really appreciate the path that was paved before me. I know so much now, I want to get the message, especially to young people who I think are very receptive—that is time to stand up as people in the middle class and say we are not going to take this anymore.

“People with a conscience,” says Jones, “have to fight to get the message out that we need to care about people, not just profits.”

Corporate greed is trying to push unions and working people to a lower level. You just can’t throw away workers. Working people are the backbone of this country and unions are necessary to the welfare of all of us.

United Steelworkers, USW, Cooper Tire, BCTGM,  Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers, American Crystal Sugar, lockouts, collective bargaining, Journey for Justice