Hearing on Titan suit could be delayed

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 28, 1999

A hearing scheduled for Monday on Titan Tire’s request for an injunction against United Steelworkers of America Local 303L may be postponed, a lawyer for Titan Tire confirmed Thursday.

A motion to postpone should be sent today to Judge George Ward of Adams County Chancery Court, said attorney Payton Irby of Jackson

In the suit, which was filed in late September, Titan asks the court to bar union members from trespassing at the plant, picketing or assembling within 10 yards of plant entrances or having more than two people gather outside the plant. It also asks that the union be barred from injuring or using unlawful or violent means to threaten Titan workers, contractors, suppliers or customers. The suit was filed after union members broke through the plant’s gate after a Sept. 11 rally marking the one-year anniversary of Local 303L’s strike against the plant.

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Those union members, plus a photographer working for the union, were found not guilty of trespassing in connection with that incident. That verdict was handed down Monday by Judge John Tipton in Natchez Municipal Court.

&uot;This (injunction) is something Titan tried to do a year ago and failed,&uot;&160;said Leo &uot;T-Bone&uot; Bradley, Local 303L president. &uot;We expect … the same result this time.&uot;

Dave Fines, general manager of Titan’s Natchez plant, had no comment.