05/10/2024
SOME time ago I was sitting in the lounge room at the YMCA reading the
paper when a stranger sitting across from me announced: “Eau Claire is better
off without Uniroyal.” Then, sounding like he descended from a noble ruling
family, he explained why. “Whether you refer to it as Gillettes, United States
Rubber Company or Uniroyal, that tire plant was a dirty, smelly place that
prevented our lovely city from growing.” Why this self-ordained noble told me
this, I’m not sure. What he said disturbed me enough, however, to address it.
Our tire plant provided good jobs, the type that allowed someone who was
existing in poverty to live in the middle class. But the Nobles say it was a dirty,
smelly place that prevented our city from expanding; and they are honorable!
In 1935 the workers organized into a union. The contract they obtained
provided for department seniority, stabilization of hours, time and one-half for
overtime and vacation with pay. The outcome of the workers’ success and
similar ones across our nation was their rightful recognition as first-class citizens
and the formation of the middle class.
DUE to our tire plant, west central Wisconsin enjoyed the highest wages in
the state. Along with the higher pay scale, the union negotiated regulations that
made our plant safer and cleaner.
BESIDES its 43 million dollar annual payroll, Uniroyal’s taxes sustain a lot.
The amount of revenue it paid each year maintained the city’s vocational school,
library, police and fire departments, parks, streets and streetlights, and the
sewage plant. Back then, because of Uniroyal, we didn’t need a county or city
wheel tax.
“OUR town has just about everything.” It wasn’t a Chamber of Commerce
secretary who said this. It was Pearl Mittlestadt, a telephone operator at our tire
plant. “I have traveled all over the United States, but my favorite place is
Eau Claire. We have a great town and a wonderful plant.” Pearl’s family must
have agreed with her, because she had three sons and two daughters working
there.
“WE’VE enjoyed your film,” said the Nobles after watching Voices From
the Past. “But did you really need that part about the union?” Today, years after
our tire plant closed, the Nobles are quick to credit themselves for arranging the
former rubber workers the opportunity to go on to school so they could get a job.
But they’ve neglected to say that it was the union that petitioned the U..S.
Department of Labor for T.R.A. (Trade Readjustment Allowances). This allowed
the laid-off workers training, assistance with healthcare premiums costs,
Alternative Trade Adjustment assistance, and job search and relocation
allowances. Yet the Nobles cry, “Forget it; wasn’t it a dirty, smelly place that
prevented Eau Claire from expanding?”
ONCE there were whispers suggesting that the city built on sawdust and
then sustained on a diet of lampblack, should have a tire museum. Today,
however, the majority of those under 35 don’t even know what Uniroyal was.
“That’s good,” claim the Nobles. “We’re better off without it. It was a dirty,smelly
place that prevented Eau Claire from expanding.” And the Nobles are honorable!
THIRTY-TWO years have passed since Uniroyal closed. The Nobles were
right. Without our tire plant, Eau Claire has grown. So much that I wonder how
big is too much. Already we’re large enough that the homeless appear
everywhere. Their plight upsets me. Yet the Nobles respond as they did to the
legacy of our tire plant. “Look away,” they say. “Pretend they don’t exist.” The
tire plant was a dirty, smelly place. But now Eau Claire has expanded and with
all the new construction, we’ve made a fortune. And the Nobles are . . .?
PART of being honorable is to give credit where credit is due. We
are the eyes of history, the window to the soul of humanity. Accordingly, lets
honor those workers who came before us and whose hands and dreams built our
community. In remembrance of them and the legacy they left, let us build a tire
museum tha truly enshrines . . . what Uniroyal was.
