Tiffany Ten Eyck: The Saga of the Freightliner Five

Now, four years later, five Local 3520 leaders and activists dubbed the "Freightliner Five" have been forced to fight again-this time to keep their jobs and remain members of their own union. The five, all members of the local's 11-person bargaining committee, were fired April 5 by Freightliner days after voting for and leading a strike opposed by the UAW International.

They were then put on trial by the UAW, and though the five were cleared of charges in November and remain UAW members, they are still out of work and await the result of pending grievances.

NO CONCESSIONARY CAUCUS

When members of the bargaining committee entered negotiations with Freightliner on February 17, it was their first contract negotiation as a team. Franklin Torrence, one of the Cleveland Five with 15 years at Freightliner, said the bargaining team worked hard to finalize a contract with the company, but when the contract expired on March 31, they were not done.

"We still had 22 articles that did not have a tentative agreement to them, including 86 sub-issues as part of the health and safety article," Torrence said. "We didn't have a tentative agreement. We didn't have a contract to be happy with."