TYLER, Texas ( KETK ) – Back in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought East Texas’s labor issues back to light at Trane Technologies in Tyler and at Prysmian Group near Marshall.

The strikes and labor disputes in KETK’s limited series East Texas’ Biggest Labor Disputes represent a long history of working people from across East Texas fighting against racism, discrimination and unfair working conditions.

They tell the story of how workers from all different industries fought to keep their jobs, unionize their workplaces, secure wage increases, healthcare benefits and more.

In honor of Labor Day, KETK presents this most recent chapter of East Texas’ Biggest Labor Disputes.

2020-2021: Tyler, Scottsville/Marshall

Across the country, 2020 was a year where labor activity had a big uptick due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s no shock that the pandemic also affected workers here in East Texas.

One example comes from a staple of Tyler’s industrial manufacturing sector, Trane Technologies. Several members of Trane’s IUE-CWA Local 86782 picketed for safer work conditions, fairer wages, paid sick leave and a cap on mandatory overtime during the pandemic.

“Obviously as essential workers we wanted essential pay and I believe that was the body of that movement,” said Local 86782 recording secretary Tierra Zhane. “Then obviously we wanted to make sure that our work areas were being cleaned and that the company was going to do their part and make sure to try and keep us safe.”

Trane was receptive to most of their demands at the time, according to Zhane.

“They gave all of us cleaning stuff to keep our areas clean, they hired people to come in and clean the plant, they gave us hand wash stations throughout the plant, they provided us masks, they made a whole new way, the way you entered the building was completely different. So the informational picket worked,” said Zhane.

One thing Zhane said they didn’t get was their essential pay. She said they got vaccine incentives and an extra five sick/personal days to use, on top of the anti-COVID measures taken.

Similarly, in the Harrison County town of Scottsville near Marshall, Prysmian Group workers in the United Auto Workers Local 3057 union went on strike after COVID hit.

Chris Hodge, the president of UAW Local 3057 was interviewed from the picket line by the Dallas AFL-CIO on Facebook .

Hodge said that their first ever strike started because they couldn’t come to a new contract with Prysmian Group , an Italian company who had acquired the plant in 2017.

“This is the first time, so this is our first rodeo. When I first hired in, it was actually General Cable and two years ago Prysmian Group just bought them out and within the last two years they have just started treating us worse and worse,” said Hodge in 2021. “To be honest with you, it’s just going downhill, so that’s pretty much where we are now. We felt like we didn’t have a choice.”

Before the strike, when the pandemic hit in 2020, Prysmian Group and the union negotiated a yearlong contract that they planned to renegotiate after the pandemic ended, according to Hodge.

“So we worked through entire the entire pandemic, the whole year, never, never shut down. We [were] deemed essential. So we work the whole time. And we asked them to just shut down the plant a couple of days or something, to sanitize the whole plant, to try to make sure everybody stays safe. And their answer to us was absolutely not. We can’t do that. We can’t do that. So we had to continue coming to work every day, taking a risk,” said Hodge.

At one point during the pandemic, according to Hodge, the plant had run out of soap and hand sanitizer. Then their year-long contract ran out.

“So the year ran out and now we’re back at the table and they’re still trying to cram a unfair contract down our throat and that’s why we’re on strike today,” said Hodge.

KETK caught up with Hodge in 2024. According to him, several rounds of negotiations went on for a about a month before Prysmian Group gave the union their best and final offer.

“It was pretty ugly,” said Hodge.

There were several problems that union members had with several reported Prysmian Group proposals including:

• A seven point policy for being late, going to the doctor or missing work for any reason.
• Removing overtime refusals.
• A five cent raise.
• Not recognizing many American holidays.

The company’s best and final offer was sent to the union membership and rejected. The deadline to reach a deal came and went and the strike began on the morning of March 27, 2021, according to the Marshall News Messenger .

According to Hodge, the striking workers were out on strike and picketing the plants for the next few months. During that time, Hodge said that the company tried to get the union decertified as the plant’s bargaining representative through a decertification vote.

“So we were up against trying to get a decent contract and trying to keep the union inside the plant so that goes to the education of this East Texas community,” said Hodge. “A lot of people did not have a clue about the union. They didn’t know what all this stands for within the community. So we had a tough time trying to get our message out and trying to communicate, to let them know that, hey, we need some backing because this community is where we spend our money. We keep a lot of businesses out here in the community.”

Eventually they did get more and more community support from family members joining the picket, restaurants donating food and in the plant they won the decertification vote 3 to 1, according to Hodge.

On May 14, 2021, they ratified a new contract that included keeping the things they wanted, language changes and a percentage wage increase, but their trouble weren’t over yet.

While on strike, Prysmian Group had reportedly hired around 88 scab employees to replace striking workers like Hodge. Once they had ratified their new contract, the union members replaced went back to work only to be not let back in, according to Hodge.

So they went to the unemployment office to collect their unemployment money and Hodge alleged Pyrsmian Group told the unemployment office that the replaced workers still worked at the plant.

“‘Oh no everybody’s back working, everybody’s working. We don’t have anyone out.’ That was to prolong us from getting our unemployment, trying to keep us at a hardship,” said Hodge.

Then the local union contacted the United Auto Workers international union. UAW leadership made calls and, according to Hodge, they were able to get Local 3057 their unemployment.

When they started to get their unemployment, Prysmian Group started to send out lists of union workers who could come back to work, according to Hodge.

Hodge said the trouble didn’t stop for the union workers once they got back in the plant. The workers reportedly didn’t get their seniority back, were put on night shifts and were switched between different machines. According to Hodge, they had to get the National Labor Relations Board involved to set everything right like it was before the strike.

“East Texas, it’s rough in East Texas. We’re the only UAW local union within, I guess, two hours, two and a half hours. I want to say the next one is GM in Arlington,” said Hodge.

Trane Technologies and Prysmian Group were contacted and offered no comment for this article.

To read the rest of this series, visit the following articles:

As this article shows, East Texas has a deep history of labor activity and because of that deep history this article is not comprehensive. Many labor disputes, even modern ones, are under-reported on, so they’re often only known about by the people who lived through them.

Anyone who would like to tell us about any labor disputes not covered in this series is invited to email newsroom@ketk.com.

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