Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports from the northern border town of International Falls, as Boise Cascade, the city's largest employer, finishes up a huge expansion of their papermill. The development, which utilized non-union workers, caused bitter feelings in the town.
In 1989, 500 union supporters rioted in International Falls after Boise Cascade brought in the thousands of non-union workers to do it. The town was divided as local businesses flourished with increase of people, but union workers and their families were left feeling betrayed.
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[HUMMING] LEIF ENGER: It's almost lonely now inside the giant blue building that houses Boise Cascade's new paper machine. There are still a few workers around doing spot welds, getting the big cylindrical rollers ready to spin off their first taught sheets. But it's a skeleton crew, a mere 400 workers after the beehive intensity of 2,500 last summer. In this quiet ending to two years of conflict marked by a labor riot, violent crime, and constant picketing, the project is complete two months ahead of schedule and Boise says, "On budget." Spokesman Bob Anderson.
BOB ANDERSON: Do we regret the choice of BE&K? The answer is no. We're pleased with the work that they did that the personnel that they had. I think the only regret that we probably have is having put the community through the difficult times that the labor dispute brought.
LEIF ENGER: The upheaval caused by this massive non-union job here in labor's backyard is still very much apparent. One of the last remaining wildcat strikers stands now in a puddle of dirty snow melt, his picket sign warped with weather, 18 months he's been standing here.
SPEAKER 1: We always knew it would get built really. We didn't have a doubt there. There's a lot of talented non-union people around I'm sure. We knew it would get done.
LEIF ENGER: The striker, who doesn't want his name on the air, says he's disappointed the BE&K and K workers, "the rats," he calls them finished the project early. He's disappointed, too, that he and the others who left their jobs didn't get more support from their home town.
SPEAKER 1: The rats wouldn't be here. They wouldn't be here. If this whole town would have stuck together, it would have been a pretty peaceful town, union workers, but no. The greed, that's what it is, all greed.
LEIF ENGER: The striker's talking about local merchants who he says ignored the plight of the wildcatters while enjoying a business rush from BE&K. Now that the plant is finished, the rats leaving town, there is talk of boycotting those merchants. You see the occasional bumper sticker, "Don't shop, don't stop, scab falls." They know about this on Main Street, but most merchants, like hardware man Bob Peterson remain pragmatic.
BOB PETERSON: You might have some that are doing that. I don't think there's a regular movement for it. In the retail business, you try to strive for every dollar you can. You don't like to see those things happen. But there are some people that are upset in this community.
SPEAKER 2: Thank you. [INAUDIBLE]
SPEAKER 3: Thanks so much now.
SPEAKER 2: Thank you.
LEIF ENGER: Still the anger in the falls seems to have moderated even toward the non-union workers who remain. At lunchtime, Joe, a pipefitter from Alabama, sits in his cold pickup truck across from the plant with a peanut butter sandwich on his knee and country music on the radio.
SPEAKER 4: I haven't had no trouble since I've been up here. I had in the last day of May, and I hadn't had a bit of trouble.
LEIF ENGER: Another BE&K worker Carpenter Roger Trott was the first local man hired onto the project. He says working non-union here has made trouble for his family and cost him some friends. But his bills are paid, his conscience clear.
ROGER TROTT: Some of the harassment and some of the things that happened that they have to live with and not me because I didn't do anything wrong.
LEIF ENGER: Would you make the same decision again?
ROGER TROTT: You bet. I'd make it tomorrow, if it happened tomorrow.
LEIF ENGER: It isn't likely to happen tomorrow, with the expansion complete, Boise Cascade puts the lid on what was one of the largest private construction projects ever built in Minnesota. But union leaders here are concerned about their role in what was thought to be a strongly protected labor market.
Woodworkers local president Larry Barron who also sits on International Falls City Council says Boise's nine in-plant unions were kept from supporting the wildcatters by a clause in their contract. He says the unions fear an attempt by Boise to take the entire plant non-union when their current contract expires. And he says while the town owes Boise for keeping its industry alive into the next century, the healing itself may take that long.
LARRY BARRON: It's going to be a long time in mending, I'll tell you that, if it ever does get mended. And I blame Boise Cascade totally for what's happened here. Woodworkers
LEIF ENGER: Local union president Larry Barron. This is Leif Enger.