You're Already On Strike. How to Turn Up the Heat?

Teamsters at Marathon Petroleum in Detroit have been on the picket line since September 4, their first strike in 30 years. Tankers filled with gasoline regularly exit the massive, belching refinery on a main Detroit artery, as Marathon continues production with supervisors brought in from other facilities.

Workers have handbilled gas stations, as well as sometimes following Marathon trucks and picketing them when they make deliveries. They’ve gotten support from the Detroit City Council and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, as well as other unions like the UAW who have joined their picket lines. Tlaib put out a call for reinforcements on the picket line on Thanksgiving, so strikers could spend time with their families.

Local 283 members have big safety and environmental concerns about the plant being run by out-of-state strikebreakers. “If there’s an accident, there is a 25-mile blast radius for this refinery,” says striker Dynita McCaskill. “When we go to work we understand we are protecting the community that refinery sits in.”

The Teamsters International is supporting the local with enhanced strike pay of $1,000 a week. But the company isn’t budging at the table.

When management seems content to ignore a strike, how can workers crank up the pressure? On November 16 Labor Notes invited Marathon Teamsters to a Zoom call with veterans of other strikes—auto workers, telecom workers, and nurses—who had cooked up creative tactics. We offer an edited version of their experience: ways that strikers can put pressure on management, gain outside support, and keep spirits up.

Pam Galpern, Communications Workers Local 1101, Verizon, New York City: When we struck in 2016, it was my third strike. We had 39,000 Verizon workers out, from Massachusetts to Virginia. We knew that the move from copper to fiber cable meant that the company could go a long time without feeling the impact of the strike, and so we needed to impact Verizon in other ways—like on their reputation.

I think the key questions are:

1. What does the company care about, that you can hurt?
2. How do you keep up morale of the strikers during a long strike?

We followed the scab Verizon trucks and picketed the supervisors when they were in the manholes or trying to do the work. And we picketed all the Verizon retail stores. We had an “adopt-a-store” program with other union locals and community groups. Central labor councils in the different cities helped to organize it. Supporters and other unions who picketed the stores posted about it on social media. It showed strikers there were people across the country supporting the strike.

One thing that really was good for our members was picketing the hotels where the scabs were staying. We’d go very early in the morning and make a whole lot of noise, yelling and blowing horns, and that got the hotels to stop letting the scabs stay there. The early-morning pickets brought people together and let them get their anger at Verizon out in a very loud and effective way.

We researched the Verizon executives and board members. We found conferences where they’d be speaking, and we went and protested there. We protested at their shareholders meeting.

Strikers' fear about what would happen when they lost health insurance was a big issue. We brought a United Healthcare van to the line with a rep who signed people up for insurance. We had hardship assistance, and it was important to have a process and guidelines for that in advance, so there wouldn’t be concerns about favoritism.

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It’s hard to be on a picket line every day all day. It’s important to change things up, to find ways to make the picket line less boring. One day we did a procession with a local solidarity marching band, for example, that marched from store to store.

Verizon was using inexperienced technicians during the strike so the union had a flyer that said, “Who is Verizon sending into your home?” It sounds like Marathon has a major safety issue with the threat of a blast explosion, and the possibility of a serious environmental disaster. You’re already doing a lot on that—you could maybe build that out into a community effort, make it a political liability for Marathon, an issue the community is coming together on. Emphasize your safety concerns, get a city council resolution, have a petition of concerned residents.

McCaskill, Local 283: We have to be concerned about fatigue with the scabs working 12-hour days.

Stephen Hinojosa, United Auto Workers Local 12, Stellantis Jeep in Toledo, Ohio: Our Stand-Up Strike lasted six weeks, so it was less than yours already. My focus during the strike was morale. Warmth and food were big issues. We had a crew who would go to the pickets every day to ask what people's concerns and needs were.

It was good to build a committee and hold weekly meetings to check in about picket strategy.

We got donations from restaurants and we had a well-stocked food pantry. The local businesses that supported us, after the strike we focused on supporting them. Our picket shifts were six hours and we found the midnight to 6 a.m. shift was a ghost town, with no food or warmth, so we tried to shift resources there.

One of the best things we did was a caravan from Toledo to Wayne, Michigan, where there was a Ford local also on strike. We had our Jeeps and their Broncos united—normally they’re competitors. The honking and driving was good for morale. We were tossing out Halloween candy. And then later they caravanned back to us.

It’s not over when the strike is over. It was important to keep that group together after the contract. At Stellantis it's gotten so much worse after the contract, with the company digging in to make the union look bad. You need to inoculate people that the boss will keep up union-busting after the strike.

Ann Converso, Communications Workers staff, Buffalo: When the nurses at Mercy Hospital struck, I was deployed from outside, and that was useful, because my job was to be thinking on a daily basis about what the union could do to win the strike.

Look at the calendar: what are holidays you can do themed actions on? For Thanksgiving, call management “turkeys.” We had clever flyers, cartoonish. For instance, if you’re flyering a Lions game, put a football on the front and people will want to take it. Then they open it up and inside it tells about your strike. We went to sporting events and arts and crafts shows with our flyers; everyone knew about the issues at Mercy.

Anyone wanting to support the Marathon strikers can donate to their strike fund. For more advice, check out How to Strike and Win: A Labor Notes Guide.