WHEATLAND TUBE Agreement limits number of pickets at gates of plant

A police chief defended his officers' presence at the scene.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
WHEATLAND, Pa. -- Striking steel workers at the Wheatland Tube Co. will have to limit their total number of pickets at any time to just 27.
That's the result of an agreement worked out between the company and Local 1660 of the United Steelworkers of America after the company filed an injunction request to limit picketing at the plant gates Thursday.
The agreement got the stamp of approval of Common Pleas Judge Michael Wherry, making it official.
The company had sought to limit the total number of pickets at any time to just 10 but the union offered to work out a compromise and the two sides settled on 27, three at the main gate, four at the truck entrance and 20 at a tent along Jack O'Donnell Drive.
There were more than 50 pickets outside the plant Wednesday when Wheatland Tube began hauling pipe out of the plant, inflaming the strikers.
The pickets swore, spit and yelled at the truckers moving pipe but didn't prevent any shipments and have since limited their protests to just shouting and waving signs when the trucks go by as the transports continue.
The company had wanted the court to order the pickets to keep marching at all times but Wherry didn't do that, said Dom Vadala, chief negotiator for the union.
The court did agree that two of the strikers' sheds were too close to the Wheatland gates and ordered them moved a short distance away, Vadala said.
The strike began April 28.
The two sides resumed negotiations this morning and Vadala said he expected some words to be exchanged about the company's decision to start up some operating lines with foremen this week and move pipe out of the plant.
Chief responds
Local police, meanwhile, have felt the brunt of some anger from pickets and those who support them.
Police have been called in when pipe transports are leaving the plant, putting officers in a tough position, said Chief Riley Smoot of Southwest Mercer County Regional Police.
He said both he and Bill Romine, Mercer County sheriff, have gotten a lot of calls complaining about police being used to protect the shipments.
That's not really the case, Smoot said, noting that police are on hand to protect everyone, both those inside or leaving the plant as well as those picketing outside.
"We have to protect everyone involved," Smoot said.