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On March 26, U.S. District Judge Charles Haden issued

an injunction against union violence and harassment.

Initially, RAC officials said, the violence declined.  But

later the violence resumed.  By September, the number of

violent incidents had risen to over 2,500.75   The list now

included 115 threatening phone calls, 43 death threats,

112 persons stalked, 164 homes with nails left in the

driveways, and one incident involving chemicals thrown at

a guard's face.

When RAC and Steelworkers officials finally settled in

June 1992, the replacement workers who had been the tar-

gets of most of the violence were given severance pay.

The company agreed to drop all legal action, including a

federal racketeering lawsuit, and rehire the unionized

workers.76

Quality Tool

In October 1989, talks broke off between Quality Tool

Co. and the International Union of Electrical, Salaried,

Machine and Furniture Workers (IUE).  Union officials

demanded a 3 percent wage increase, while the company pro-

posed merit increases for selected employees.  After the

strike began, IUE militants threw tacks onto the company's

driveway, which blew out the tires of several police cars

called to the scene.  The response of local police?  "It's

not our job to take sides," said Lieutenant Bob Fletcher,

but "I had a short discussion with the strikers about dam-

aging property."  There were no arrests.77

Most of the company's windows were broken by rocks.

Some of the replacement workers received telephone threats

and, later, a dead cat was left at a company door.  That

same day, a picket played a song on a tape recorder about

killing a cat.  According to Cliff Schwanke, the union

steward, that was just a "coincidence."  What about the

cat, whose stomach had been sliced open?  "The cat could

have been hit by a car," Schwanke said.  As for the broken

windows, Schwanke shook his head.  "One day they were

there and the next day they weren't," he told the

Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Just two days after those comments, a replacement

worker who had been followed to his home and threatened on

the phone died in a mysterious car crash.  According to

the police, a truck collided head-on with the worker's

small car after a third car swerved in front of the truck,

forcing it into the employee's lane.78