Thousands of Caterpillar Inc. workers, most with grim expressions and some with calendars tucked beneath their arms, began to trudge back to work on a cheerless, gray Monday in Peoria, Aurora and Decatur, Ill.
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Any other year, the calendars would have been tacked onto walls or inside lockers on Jan. 2.
But that was Day 57 of the 5-month strike by 12,600 United Auto Workers against the industrial machinery manufacturer. It was Day 167 when the calendars were finally posted.
UAW officials agreed last week after two days of negotiations in Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service offices to unconditionally end the strike without a contract. Negotiations for a new contract probably won`t resume much before the end of the month, however, company officials said.
The company initially indicated it might not take back all strikers. It later announced it would take back all 12,600 strikers despite plans to reduce manpower by 1,350 employees in the near future. Those cuts will be made by voluntary retirement or attrition.
Caterpillar said Monday an estimated 70 percent of the strikers returned to work Monday. The remainder are expected to be called back in the next few weeks, although some workers said they feared it would be longer.
The company provided coffee and doughnuts during orientation sessions in some plants to ease some of the tensions, but workers said the atmosphere was grim. The strike was too long and bitter to be easily forgotten, they said.
”It`s hard not to have a sense of hatred for both sides,” said Marvin Vaughn, 47, as he headed for one of the gates of the East Peoria plant to start the 7 a.m. shift. ”They are both guilty as far as I can tell.”
Roy Vogel, 46, a worker in the company`s East Peoria transmission plant, said he would prefer to be going back to work with a contract in his back pocket instead of the uncertainty of working under company-imposed conditions while a new contract is hammered out.
Those conditions include a raise of $1.43 an hour over the next three years and a promise of six years of job security. The pre-strike average hourly pay was $17.85.
Some UAW members said there was friction Monday between unionists returning to work for the first time and an estimated 1,000 colleagues who had crossed picket lines following the company`s threats to hire replacement workers. Those threats were believed to be responsible for the UAW`s unexpected decision last week to call off the strike.
Some union members who honored the picket lines said they feared those who didn`t would be rewarded with better jobs even if they lacked seniority.
Despite the friction, there were no reports of violence on the first day back.
”I had no problems with them,” said Jerry Brown at the end of his shift Monday. The returning 28-year veteran of Caterpillar, speaking about workers in the East Peoria plant who had crossed picket lines, said, ”I didn`t talk to any of them and I don`t intend to-ever, unless I have to.”
Larry Bullock, a 20-year veteran, described the mood inside the East Peoria plant as ”a little bit bitter and a lot angry.”
”Ain`t nobody going to get over it soon,” Bullock said.