Little motion in Spectrum strike
IN 1947, my hometown of Lancaster, Ohio, was declared the epitome of the all-American town.
When I returned as an adult in 2008 on a trip with my mom, something had changed. The streets were the same, but the atmosphere and the town’s energy were radically altered.
As I walked around, I noticed there were no kids outside playing. There were parks, but they were empty.
I went to the Lancaster Glass factory, where my father once worked, located at the foot of Main St. in the center of town. It was closed, a caretaker said. “For the day?” I asked. No, he said. It was closed for good. That one family trip in 2008 turned into years of research to find out how one idyllic town in the heart of America with a solid economic base became mired in poverty, disillusionment, and drugs — a cycle that can now be found in hundreds of small towns around the country.
While there were many factors at play in the erosion of Lancaster’s civic and economic life, none did as much damage as the gutting of the glassware industry, especially the town’s largest employer, Anchor Hocking.
At one time Anchor Hocking employed more than 5,000 people in Lancaster at its downtown corporate headquarters. Today it is a shell of its former self — eaten away not by imports or offshoring, but the maw of financial engineering.
First came Carl Icahn, who pulled one of his 1980s “greenmail” stunts by buying up stock, then selling it back to the company at a premium as his price for going away. Then, in 1987, the company was purchased by Newell Corp., in a hostile takeover.
Life was never the same. The local leadership was fired and executives MEMBERS OF the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 are about to enter the second week of a strike against Spectrum-Time Warner Cable.
Roughly 1,700 Local 3 field techs walked off their jobs March 28 after contract negotiations broke down and they have been manning picket lines ever since.
Neither side reported any progress over the weekend.
IBEW Local 3 held a raucous rally in front of the company’s Gramercy Park headquarters Wednesday as a show of strength.
Whistles, horns and chants filled E. 23rd St. for several hours as the strikers expressed their unhappiness with ongoing contract talks.
IBEW Local 3 said it walked out of talks over issues with employer contributions to the workers’ health care, pensions and other benefits.
Spectrum-TWC said it has put an offer on the table with wage increases and continued benefit contributions.