Violence erupts at union strike

BEDFORD -- Two cars were flipped Tuesday night and one set on fire as strikers at a Visteon Corp. auto parts plant tried to stop four buses that brought replacement workers into the factory.\nThat action was the latest in several confrontations at the plant since the strike began early Sunday after members of International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 907 voted to reject a contract offer.\n"It turned into an ugly mob," state police Sgt. Robert Hedger said Wednesday.\nThree people were arrested, one on a charge of throwing a brick at vehicles leaving the plant and the other two for obstructing officers who were trying to clear the highway in front of the plant, Hedger said.\nThe cars turned over and the one set on fire were junk yard cars brought in by either strikers or those in the community, Hedger said. As many as 200 protesters were at the plant Tuesday night, he said.\nThe company had announced in April that it would end the Bedford plant's production of fuel delivery modules, eliminating as many as 600 of its 1,150 jobs. Union workers fill about 1,025 of the plant's jobs.\nState troopers and city officers were at the plant in riot gear on Tuesday, pushing the protesting workers off a highway in front of the plant after a car was set on fire.\nWhile it was quiet outside the plant on Wednesday, Hedger said police offers would keep eye on the strike as long as necessary to help maintain order.\n"We're not taking sides here," Hedger said. "We're just here to keep the peace. (The protesters) have dictated what's happened. We're simply responding."\nHedger said about 50 state troopers from southern Indiana were in the area to help with crowd control.\nVisteon spokeswoman Tammera Hallums said a tentative agreement between the two sides had been announced May 23, but the union rank-and-file rejected it.\nUnion members said as many as 12 strikers sought hospital treatment for injuries they suffered Sunday in confrontations with security guards at the factory about 25 miles south of Bloomington.\nVideo footage showed several strikers, apparently blocking a plant driveway, and guards pushing each other, with at least two people knocked to the ground, and a guard yanking a wooden pole from a striker.\nHallums, speaking from Visteon's headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., said the company hired security guards in part because pickets were blocking entrances, throwing nails down to puncture tires, and striking vehicles carrying workers inside the plant gates.\n"We certainly recognize the union's right to strike, but we too have rights, one of which is to continue production in order to protect our customers," Hallums said.\nHallums said the company has hired temporary workers to work with managers doing production work, and some production has been moved temporarily to other plants during the strike. She said she did not know how many temporary workers had been hired.\nCharlie Craig, who had been with Visteon for 26 years, said the union members were reacting to the security guards.\n"Before the negotiations started, we had peaceful protests out here," he said. "It would still be peaceful, but they've made (the facility) look like a big fortress"