Clearly, persuading companies like Pepsi to end their contracts represented one of the local's few chances to hurt Staley's pocketbook. There's always more we can do to organize workers' power, but we face very powerful enemies. I know we gave it our complete effort, and in the end forced the company to begin moving at the bargaining table for the first time in three years. We'll never know if it might have been possible to do more. Yet the Decatur militants argue that the Paperworkers were holding back, never putting the maximum effort behind their struggle.
Disgruntled workers charge that some leaders even undermined the local's efforts.
It began with the explicit help of the international staff. Shinall once thought the corporate campaign would work but lost hope after six months. When you're in a battle like this, you never get enough help. Division within the local union encouraged both Staley and Pepsi to hold out, which fueled both workers' despair and pressure for Paperworkers officers to end the dispute. At the AFL-CIO convention, newly elected President John Sweeney pledged to put the federation behind the Staley workers, but the task force he appointed had little time to work.