Southeast Missouri is feeling the impact of the independent truckers’ strike, and four regional plants are laying off workers due to shortages.
Area truckers, driven by high operating costs, joined the nationwide protest last week, seeking federal intervention to lower diesel prices or improve freight rates.
In addition to the layoffs, tensions remain high between striking truckers and company drivers still on the road.
__100 years ago__
Feb. 6, 1924
• A public memorial for President Woodrow Wilson in Poplar Bluff was immediately followed by services for another World War I veteran, James Arrendale, who succumbed to glandular carcinoma on Feb. 5. Doctors believe his two-year illness and death were the delayed effects of a gas attack he survived. He was 27.
Arrendale was a 1915 graduate of Poplar Bluff High School.
• Poplar Bluff’s Coca-Cola bottling plant is purchased for $32,000 by J.J. Owen, a Cairo, Illinois businessman. The factory’s franchise territory encompasses eight and a half counties in Southeast Missouri.
Feb. 6, 1949 — No issues available.
__50 years ago__
Feb. 6, 1974
• Southeast Missouri’s truck strike is making itself felt: shortages are forcing regional factories to lay off employees.
In Fenton, a Chrysler plant laid off 2,500 members of its first shift. BeeGee Manufacturing Company in Malden laid off 70 people, or half its workforce. Emerson Electric Company in Kennett sent 200 people home yesterday, and John’s Produce Company of Campbell let all of its 90 workers go.
Other manufacturers in Poplar Bluff with healthy stores of materials or company trucking lines fare better. Reinell Boats reported it was difficult to ship finished boats out, but production continued at normal levels and no one had been laid off. Rowe Furniture has 10 days’ worth of materials, according to plant manager John Sisson, and interruptions have been minor because the business operates its own trucking company.
Scattered violence against non-striking truckers has continues, but all Butler County saw were popped tires — one truck near the Arkansas state line and another on Westwood Boulevard in Poplar Bluff reported their tires were deflated by roofing nails thrown onto the road.
Drivers passing through Hannibal, Coldwater and Charleston had windows shot out of their rigs, but only one minor injury was reported.
In a related case, a Poplar Bluff city patrolman was suspended after leaving city limits. Patrolman Hardy Mannon followed a truck convoy south on Highway 67 yesterday evening, and was nearly involved in an altercation at the Motor Harbor on his way back when striking truckers surrounded his car. The the situation was diffused after Mannon called for backup and no violence was reported. The problem was that Mannon broke protocol by leaving Poplar Bluff, something police officers can’t do unless responding to a call for backup or pursuing a suspect, and so he was suspended for four days without pay.
Sheriff’s deputies and highway patrolmen are working overtime to monitor highways throughout the state, the Daily American Republic reported.
• The Nixon administration’s first negotiation with independent trucker’s unions was rejected. Instead of lowering diesel prices and improving freight rates, the president offered to freeze prices and open the door for future rate raises. Strike leaders said this was inadequate and did not guarantee sufficient income to meet truckers’ higher operating costs.