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Simplex Wire & Cable

Although union officials suggest that strike-related

violence springs from the heated emotions of the picket

line, IBEW members have shown a calculated willingness to

track potential victims.  In 1986, some nonunion employees

of Simplex Wire & Cable were followed home and beaten by

three members of IBEW Local 2208.  The IBEW members were

arrested and convicted.65   Two other Local 2208 members,

including a shop steward, were charged with assaulting a

police officer.  Later one evening, IBEW strikers dented

and broke the windows of 65 cars leaving the Simplex

plant.  The Local's leadership watched nearby without mov-

ing to stop the violence.66 The Local's business manager

demonstrated his control over the strikers by sending them

home in exchange for the release of four arrested union

members.67

International Paper

In June 1987, the United Paperworkers union struck an

International Paper plant in Androscoggin, Maine.  After

16 weeks on strike, Tom Cummings chose to return to work.

In an October 27 "Guest Column" for the Bangor Daily News,

he described what he and other paper workers had experi-

enced: "Houses have been painted with obscene words, tires

have been slashed, windows broken, etc. . . . We've had

death and arson threats, and my wife even received a rape

threat over the phone."

The company reported $750,000 in damage due to sabo-

tage.  According to the Central Maine Morning Sentinel of

July 31, "The alleged acts of sabotage ranged from drain-

ing oil out of dump truck engines to shutting down the

mill's power plant, mislabeling gauges to opening a drain

valve on a tank of poisonous liquid chlorine."

On July 22, Linda Kennedy's house was firebombed

after several days of harassing telephone calls accusing

her of being a scab.  Mrs. Kennedy and her 11-year-old son

escaped.  The bomb landed in the bedroom of her eight-

year-old son, who might have died or been seriously burned

had he not been spending the night at a neighbor's house.

Ironically, Mrs. Kennedy was the victim of mistaken iden-

tity because she had never worked at the mill or applied

for a job there as a replacement worker.68