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such behavior.  The letter, labeled "Solidarity Alert,"

declared victory over the resignation of WCI's president,

then went on to say, "he is not the only one that we need

to get rid of.  There are more, and we know who they are."

Referring to salaried employees as the real scabs, the

letter blamed them for the ongoing strike.82

As the strike dragged on, a local judge ordered secu-

rity guards to keep away from picket lines and limited the

number of pickets at the company gates.  In response,

union militants began forming what the local police chief

called a "gantlet" along streets adjacent to the plant

during shift changes to throw rocks, bricks, and nails.

The chief also said that "supplies of bricks and bags of

rocks have been dropped along the road at night."83

Clearly frustrated with the increasing violence, the police

chief told the local media that the "violence would dimin-

ish if the company stopped operating with replacement

workers."  He said that he asked the company early in the

dispute not to use replacement workers because they inten-

sify labor conflicts.84

On October 24, WCI and the local unions settled the

strike.  One union supporter pleased with the pension pro-

visions of the new contract "believ[ed] workers would not

have received the contract that was offered without the

violence."85

The Extent of Strike-Related Violence

The reports cited are a small sample of the nearly

9,000 violent events that occurred anywhere in the United

States since 1975.  The NILRR has collected and electroni-

cally maintains these events in its Violence Event Data

File.  Each entry in the file involves union members or

union officials.  Although most of the violence was

inflicted by union militants, a few of the recorded events

entailed violence against union members.  Usually, such

incidents involved strikers hit by the cars of nonstriking

workers trying to go to work.  In some cases, nonstriking

workers struck back after suffering attacks themselves.

The Violence Event Data File is organized into indi-

vidual records, with each record summarizing a separate

violent event.  The information about each event is

gleaned from newspaper and magazine articles, television

news transcripts, and trade journals.  The events can be

accessed by various criteria, such as the union involved,

where and when the violence occurred, and whether the vio-

lence involved property damage and/or personal injury.