The Dow Strike

FREEPORT -- The picket signs being carried outside the Dow Chemical plant say "It's Not About The Money."

Of course it's about the money.

It's always about the money.

The striking operating engineers want to preserve the sacrosanct seniority system while Dow wants some changes.

Translation: it's about the money.

Our souces inside the plant say the "locked-in" employees are working 12-hour shifts and sleeping on air bags spread on the floor.

Dow didn't build its plant with locked-in workers in mind, so it really doesn't have adequate facilities, like bathrooms and showers, to handle thousands for an extended sleepover. Already, folks inside are getting cranky and family members on the outside aren't happy, either.

For the last several weeks, in anticipation of a strike, Dow has trained managers and non-union workers in how to handle various tasks they normally don't handle, from running forklifts to making sure the right dials are turned so the plant doesn't blow sky high. So, sure, they can keep the plant going. But the workers who are locked inside the plant aren't getting paid to work 24 hours per day, even though they're required to be on the job 24 hours per day. Sound fair? One hundred twenty-five bucks pay for 12 hours of off-duty time inside the bowels of Dow is not going to make the Dow faithful happy campers.

Some workers bought their own TVs to work. Dow said it was OK to bring in videos so long as they were "appropriate." We're not sure if R-Rated comports with Dow's definition of appropriate, but given events of the last couple years over alleged Internet-related sexual harassment, we're guessing those still working inside the plant are limiting themselves to G, PG and possibly PG-13 rated entertainment.

The Dow-supplied food "isn't too bad," one worker advised, but already the guys and gals inside are joking about making a call to Domino's to have pizzas delivered somewhere along the fenceline. Fat chance.

Our sources say 4 union operators aren't obeying the strike and elected to stay inside the plant and keep working once the job action was called. But, word on the street has it that another 60 unionists already have decided they want to return to work and have made calls in to the plant to see when and where to show up to go back on the job.

With the picketers dawdling in front of the trucks headed into Dow, conflict is inevitable, which is why Dow obtained a court order Wednesday to stop the operators from illegally blocking traffic. Yeah, it's gonna get a lot uglier before it gets prettier.