MANN: I can give you a good example of rank-and-file action not connected with elections. We had a man killed in the open hearth three years ago. He had seven days to go to retirement. Two or three months before that I'd filed a grievance, requesting that certain safety features be adopted. The grievance was rejected out of hand. He was killed by a truck backing up. One of the items on the grievance was that trucks backing up have a warning system.

The guy gets killed. Everybody liked him. He'd worked there . . . how many years? . . . you know. All right, I led a strike. I had to scream and holler, drag people out by the heels, but I got them out, shut the place down.

We went right to the union hall. We appointed a committee immediately. Every area-pit, cranes, floor-was represented. I said, "I want three men from every area to be on this committee. Now, what is wrong in your area?" Before the company could call us, in two hours, we had a list of thirty demands. When they called, we didn't just say, "Goddamn it, Tony got killed and we're shutting it down." We said, "This is what we want."

The company met with us. They bargained for three days. We got what we wanted. We kept the committee in force. Our local president cut this committee out about three months later but it worked for the time it existed. They still talk about it.