AP and staff reports

With a delegation of striking workers from Titan Tire Corp.’s Natchez plant listening, company CEO Morry Taylor again accused a union of violating federal racketeering laws.

Taylor told those gathered at a Monday news conference in Jackson that Titan’s lawsuit filed Thursday against the United Steelworkers of America could linger for five years, including appeals.

”There’s going to be a roomful of lawyers, and it’s going to be an interesting time in the courtroom,” Taylor said.

Titan Tire is a subsidiary of Quincy, Ill.-based Titan International Inc. The company claims in the lawsuit that the union harassed workers at it plants in Natchez and Des Moines.

About 10 workers from the USWA Local 303L in Natchez were on hand for Taylor’s comments — including Leo &uot;T-Bone&uot; Bradley, president of United Steelworkers of America Local 303L, which has been on strike from Titan’s Natchez plant since September 1998.

Some union members at the press conference smirked at Taylor’s remarks, and others whispered to each other.

But Bradley would not comment, since he is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with union members Jimmy Ware, Willie Thornton and Kenneth Rice and Local 303L as a whole.

Other union locals and dozens of national union officials and local union members from around the country were also named in the complaint.

The company is seeking $240 million in damages, but racketeering judgments typically multiply the amount being sought by three, bringing the potential award to $720 million.

The suit alleges the striking workers at both plants phoned in several bomb threats and endangered the company’s financial well-being with statements about its operating and revenue strategies and profitability.

Most of the incidents cited in the suit happened in Iowa and Illinois, but there was a record of one bomb threat phoned into the Natchez plant in March.

There were also reports of tacks being put in the driveways of nonunion plant workers.

&uot;We’ve got enough lawyers gathering enough evidence that we know we can win this case,&uot; Taylor said during a visit to the Natchez plant Monday afternoon.

&uot;Under the law, a person has a right to come to work here. … Union members are not above the law.&uot;

More than 200 members of Local 303L began striking when Titan was given the right to buy the bankrupt plant from Fidelity-Condere.

Several negotiations took place between Titan and union officials, with few results, until talks last broke off in June 1999.

While the union members declined to discuss the lawsuit, a union attorney said the action is nothing more than an attempt to smear the labor organization.

”We think it has no basis,” said attorney Roger Doolittle.

In July, the National Labor Relations Board accused Titan Tire of firing its unionized workers in Natchez after it took over the plant.