For Case New Holland Industrial strikers, Bernie's visit brought hope of national recognition

Iowans are generally the Americans least impressed by visits from big political personalities because their state has hosted all the party candidate hopefuls for the year leading up to every presidential election.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is one exception to that generalization. Sanders brought his “Standing with the UAW” town hall to Burlington on Friday, speaking to about 250 strike supporters at the Crapo Park bandshell.

UAW Local 807 members who work at the Case New Holland Industrial plant in Burlington have been on strike since May 2.

In 1964, Elton B. Long of the J.I. Case Corporation in Burlington filed for the patent on the first extendible boom backhoe. In 1999, Fiat bought Case and the new agricultural division became CNHi.

More: 'Party on the picket line': Strikers descend on Case New Holland after Sanders' town hall

2016 presidential candidate Sanders is the longest-serving elected Independent in U.S. congressional history and served as the junior senator from Vermont since 2007; he was their at-large congressman from 1991. Sanders lost the 2016 Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, who lost the general election to Donald Trump.

The 80-year-old Sanders is only the sixth oldest sitting senator and far behind Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who was 100 years old and still in the Senate in 2003 after more than 47 years — Thurmond took office 27 years before Iowa's Chuck Grassley, the second-oldest serving senator, was elected.

Sanders spoke for about 18 minutes at the bandshell in Burlington's Crapo Park on Friday, and the estimated 250 people in attendance cheered him on.

Most of the attendees were striking CNH workers. Sanders, a strong union supporter, came to Burlington to show solidarity with the approximately 1,200 striking workers who make agriculture and construction equipment at CNH Industrial plants in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. The strikers are asking for better wages, health benefits and cost of living adjustments.

Sanders spoke at rallies in Illinois and Wisconsin prior to his Burlington appearance.

The red-shirted crowd — their T-shirts read, "Pick a fight with one of us, pick a fight with all of us" to show support for Local 807 — cheered Sanders after his introduction by UAW representative Neely Turner and her brother Drew Thomas. Turner is the recording secretary for the Civil and Human Rights Committee of Des Moines local 450, Thomas is chairman of local 450; the pair rode down from Des Moines on motorcycles to attend the event.

More: Bernie Sanders in Burlington: Corporations 'are stuck with an addiction called greed'

Many of those in attendance chuckled at Sanders' hybrid Bronx/New England accent — "stoh" for store, "hee-yah" for here, "ow-ah" for hour — but the general vibe of the event was respectful, with little crowd-shouting and a "here's one of our heroes; let's pay attention" feel to it. Here's what some of the striking CNH workers had to say.

When asked if they were happy to be on strike so they could attend the Sanders rally, CNH workers said, universally: "I'd rather be working."

Carl Cassiday, who has been at CNH for just one year, said he doesn't normally attend political rallies.

"I'm here to show solidarity for the union and to hear what Bernie Sanders has to say," Cassiday said. "That's why everybody's here. This is all for the union."

A group of CHNi employees from the header department sat at a picnic table in the shade. During the pandemic shutdown, the header department was the only working CNHi line for several weeks. The workers talked about how the equipment being built right now by replacement workers isn't being done correctly: numerous bolts missing, parts installed backward, and so on.

"People who were out were making more money than us," one woman who asked not to be identified said. "We'd all rather be working. We're not bored and broke — we're just broke."

Kevin Krotz was diagnosed with cancer the day after the strike began.

"I'm an enigma. I'd rather be working, but I've had surgery and I'm starting treatments next week," he said. "But I definitely want to see my brothers and sisters back to work as soon as they can."

Krotz said the sooner the strike is over, the sooner he can get on short-term disability through the company's provider — he presently doesn't qualify because his diagnosis came the day after the strike began.

"Thankfully, the union picked up the major medical coverage, so I've got that," he said.

A GoFundMe page has been started for Krotz to help defray his expenses.

Stacy Duffy said some people in the community mistakenly think the strikers are being greedy.

"They think we're lazy and we should just go back to work," Duffy said. "They don't understand what we do in there and how hard we work and the hours we work. We deserve what we're fighting for. A lot of people in the community think we're thugs, that we're a gang. We're not bad people. We're just fighting for what we think is right."

Stacey Pence said union workers are just normal, average, everyday people.

"We are people with families. We have children. We are no different than anyone else," Pence said. "We struggle just like everyone else. We have to survive, and in order to survive, we need the raises, we need the insurance. And we need to be able to spend time with our families as well."

Pence said overtime requirements cut into family time and was supported with head nods and murmurs of assent.

"We are more than wiling to sacrifice some things, but we can't sacrifice family," she said. "We can't sacrifice our health and we cannot sacrifice our pay."

Krotz agreed. "Insurance is a big stickler in this process, but we need affordable insurance versus the proposal the company put out to us," he said.

Will Sanders' visit help the strikers?

"It needs to be nationally recognized," Duffy said. "This is a farming community, we're surrounded by farming communities. We actually make farming equipment along with industrial and construction equipment. So for this community and surrounding areas, all farming communities, this affects everyone."

She said that having someone like Bernie Sanders come and show his support will help get the word out.

"This is not just small-town Iowa — we also represent small-town Illinois, small-town Missouri, small-town Wisconsin," Duffy continued. "Many people do not realize that we are representing them as well, because these are things that are eventually going to affect them: Are they going to buy equipment for their farm? I hope they do; I want them to. At the same time, if they don't know what's going on, how can they help support us? So we need to get ourselves known nationally in order to let America know."

UAW bargaining chairman and former Burlington mayor Mike Edwards has been going to Racine with president Nick Guernsey to negotiate.

"Mike has the most union knowledge of that I know of," Duffy said.

Retired state senator Tom Courtney, who previously held Edwards' bargaining chairman position, said Sanders' visit is important because it shows the CNH workers that the rest of the county is paying attention.

"Senator Sanders has always been a strong supporter of organized labor," Courtney said after the park had emptied. "He knows that it's the working people of this country who make the big corporations successful, and it's organized labor unions that make sure the workers get their fair share."

Life is like baseball

Sanders lives in Burlington — Vermont — and, like Burlington, Iowa, that town had a minor league baseball club on the chopping block in December 2020, when Major League Baseball dropped 40 of its minor-league affiliates, including the Burlington Bees and Sanders' home team, the Vermont Lake Monsters.

Sanders' most recent visit to Burlington in late 2019 was to lend support to the Bees, who are now a collegiate summer baseball team in the Prospect League while the Lake Monsters are in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

As Sanders headed for his car after his speech Friday, someone asked him to compare Iowa's Burlington to his hometown of Burlington, Vermont.

"They're both beautiful cities with down-to-earth people," the senator said. "I've enjoyed being here in Burlington, Iowa, in the past, and I'm very delighted and proud to be here with striking workers who are standing up for justice right now."

The afternoon was a home run for the senator and the striking UAW workers.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Bernie Sanders' visit to Burlington cheers striking Case workers