Then, he went on strike.
“Now, I go home, fix a couple sandwiches and feel the same thing – full,” Tunstall said while working the picket line in front of Danville’s Goodyear plant Tuesday afternoon.
Tunstall, a member of United Steelworkers Local 831, said he put away some money in anticipation of the strike. But, with the possibility of a long winter on the horizon and buying presents for his two children this Christmas, he said he’s not taking any chances with his financial situation.
“You’ve got to start budgeting your money,” Tunstall said. “(The strike) might last another week, and it might last several months.”
Toby Davis, who worked the picket line later Tuesday afternoon, said he also has had to re-evaluate his spending habits.
“Cut back on your spending and don’t buy nothing,” Davis said. “The necessities is all you get. Instead of going to the movies, you’re staying home. Instead of eating out, you’re eating in.”
Almost 15,000 Goodyear employees at 16 plants in the U.S. and Canada have been on strike since walking off their jobs at about 1 p.m. Oct. 5. Neither negotiators for the union or the company have returned to the bargaining table since then.
Dana Dixon, spokesman for Local 831, said Monday that the striking Danville workers could pick up their latest paychecks at Goodyear’s ball field from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. today. This will be their last paycheck until the strike ends.
“It don’t feel good,” Tunstall said, admitting he’s not too thrilled about not having a reliable stream of income. “You wait until this time next Thursday and we don’t get a check. Then it really won’t feel good.”
Dixon said union members would have to wait until the strike has lasted a month until they can start collecting strike pay. He said the union’s strike defense fund committee is in the process of figuring out exactly how that program would work and who would qualify.
Until then, Tunstall, Davis and the rest of the 2,200 striking union members at Danville’s plant will have to live off of what they’ve already got.
“We all knew what was coming, and so we tried to be prepared for it,” Tunstall said. “It’s just been a week and the longer it goes, the more changes you’re going to have to make.”
But Davis said he doesn’t mind having to cut back on his expenses or the amount of time he spends traveling because of the strike.
“What (Goodyear’s) trying to do just ain’t fair,” he said, pointing to a few items in Goodyear’s contract proposals like a cut in retiree benefits and plans to remove plants from its protected list. “We ain’t going to sit down and take it. If we have to take it, we’re going to take it standing up, and that’s why we’re out here on strike.”
Tunstall said he has managed to find one bright side to being on strike. Instead of working 12-hour shifts sometimes five days a week in the tire room, he now only has to work on the picket line four hours every three weeks. He said this gives him more time to spend with his kids.
“That’s a plus,” he said, admitting that he hopes the strike will end soon.
