Strikers at plywood plant put hopes on Obama

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-north-carolina-strike6-2009feb06,0,5178521.story

At North Carolina's Moncure Plywood, members of the machinists union, picketing since July, think the president will usher in a pro-labor movement.
By Richard Fausset
February 6, 2009
Reporting from Moncure, N.C. -- The strikers have been camped out on a dirt shoulder of this two-lane country road for nearly six months.

Sometimes they picket, but just as often they stand around in their work boots and sneakers, staring at the plywood factory that used to employ them -- and the rising steam that serves as a reminder that work continues inside.

There should be little reason for the 114 members of the machinists union here to feel hopeful about the fight they picked with their employer, Moncure Plywood, in July. The company has had little trouble finding replacement workers in the weak economy.

And it's difficult to imagine a more obscure place for a protest than this ribbon of asphalt, which cuts through a swath of new-growth Piedmont timber some 30 miles from Raleigh.

And yet, hope is palpable here, and President Obama is the primary catalyst. Part of the hope derives from racial pride; blacks have always made up the majority of Local W369 of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

But just as important, the strikers here -- like their leaders in Washington -- say they expect the new president to fulfill his promises to labor and help spark a renaissance for the broader union movement.

FULL story at link.