By Doug Cunningham

On the picket line at one of the 16 North American Goodyear plants hit by a United Steelworkers strike, workers holding strike signs shouted as passing vehicles honked their support. Greg Lueptow, Vice President of USW Local 904 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin says this strike is about keeping good middle class jobs in the USA. Lueptow says Goodyear workers in 2003 sacrificed with concessions to help Goodyear get past some financial problems and now that Goodyear has rebounded it just wants to close more plants and export American jobs.

[Greg Lueptow 1]: “They want to close down three more union plants and we want to keep the jobs in the United States. We don’t want to ship ‘em over to China, we don’t want to ship ‘em down to Mexico. So they weren’t budging off the main topic so we had no choice but to walk.”

Lueptow hopes the strike will win public support.

[Lueptow 2]: “I hope that we get support from the people. And just to let them know, we’re not asking for everything. All we’re trying to do is just keep what we have.”