A block-lettered sign on a carwash in front of Bedford's Visteon plant captured the mood of the town:

GO HOME
SCABS
TERRORISTS

Visteon is a former division of Ford Motor Co. At the Bedford plant, workers manufacture fuel delivery system components and windshield wiper modules. The men and women of the Visteon plant love America, and they have loved the Ford Motor Company as well. No Toyota or Dodge carries any Bedford Visteon employee to work.

There is a sense of belonging and ownership, of history: "Our ancestors built these corporations, GM and Ford, your ancestors and my ancestors," says Jim Lobbes. "It's just like an extended family, and right now I'm missing a lot of them," says Tonya Soveren.

During the first meeting with Ford Visteon, the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 907 representatives were told that 550 jobs were going to be shipped to Mexico and that the remaining plant workers would have to accept a benefit and wages cut that workers have calculated will amount to $240 a month.

This is not really that surprising to some. Between 1994 and 2001, Indiana lost 31,000 jobs to Mexico, according to the Jobs With Justice report that offers a state-by-state evaluation of the local impact of the NAFTA trade agreement.

But each of those 31,000 jobs represents a personal loss for an Indiana worker. "They're cashing in those jobs that our ancestors built. They say it's for future world growth, but we all know these guys aren't meritorious world citizens," says Lobbes. In fact, Mexican manufacturing wages actually fell 21% between '94 and '01.

When the union declared a strike on Sunday, May 30, Visteon was willing to shell out real money to break the strike. They hired a company called Huffmaster Crisis Management. Huffmaster brought in a replacement workforce from another city. They were being put up at a local Bloomington hotel and were bused in to Bedford each day.

It was on Sunday, May 30, the first day of the strike, that things got nasty. A group of strikers sought to prevent a van of replacement workers from entering the plant by linking arms and blocking the driveway.

As the striking men stood in front, blocking the van, the women held up the back ranks. As they stood facing the van, Huffmaster security officers came up behind and began shoving the women in back and grabbing the picket signs from the hands of the strikers. Several took off their belts and struck the picketers about the head and shoulders with their belt buckles, according to several eyewitnesses. When the men moved to protect the women, the security officers began swinging the heavy pickets at the strikers.

Jim Lobbes relates, "The security guard swung the picket stick like he was swinging a baseball bat. I thank God for that second I turned around and put up my arm, or I'd be eating through a straw right now." He sports a nine-day old bruise that still impairs his hand movement.

Tonya Soveren, whose arm is in a sling, relates, "Two of the Huffmaster security officers came through the crowd at me and grabbed my American flag from the back and jerked my arm backwards. I felt it pop. I saw a doctor today. I may be having to have surgery. Then they threw the flag on the ground, and that really irritated me. I had a lot of respect for this company, but when they brought the goons in..."

Several people related that security personnel shoved strikers down in front of the van and screamed, "Gun it! Gun it! Gun it!"

The violence on the part of Huffmaster security only served to deepen the resolve of those I spoke to.

Huffmaster Crisis Management declined to comment.

In the days to follow, several junk cars were dumped at the entrance to the plant and overturned, apparently in a further effort to block the scabs from entering the property. In response, Bedford police turned the area into a federal crime scene and still guard the entrance to the plant.

On the Huffmaster website I watched a promotional video which spelled out resolve of the strikebreakers, "Huffmaster Crisis Management steps in and gives you what your workforce won't: a sense of security that nothing will prevent you from servicing your clients. Huffmaster Crisis Management: Keeping Business in Business ‚Ñ¢."

Perhaps some things ought to interfere with business as usual. With so much at stake, the workers of Visteon felt they had too much to lose to give up. "Don't take away what we've got and give us less than we're paying for!" a woman said of the raise in insurance rates, "Just don't cut our wages."

But as of Sunday, June 13, after fifteen days of striking, the IUEW-CWA voted 528-410 to accept the new terms proposed by Visteon. They were set to begin working again at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, June 15. The four-year contract guarantees the existence of 700 jobs: a net loss of 350. In addition, workers must accept an hourly pay cut of seventy-nine cents, down from the original dollar-and-four-cent cut. Retirees will now have to pay eight percent premiums on insurance, which used to be free.

Perhaps America doesn't need as many blue-collar jobs as it used to. You can't raise a family with a job in the service industry, but many of the forcibly retired men and women of Indiana's manufacturing sector will be trying to do just that, in fact, 31,000 of them. That's a lot of burgers.

Jeremy John is a Bloomington-based writer and activist.