I agree that Fink didn't want to back down. I grew up in Connecticut, along the Waterbury cluster. My family business had received lots of cars of freight. We leased out the old freight house in Plainville for warehousing. The office portion was still used for a railroad yard office. After the strike, this terminal was a scab enclave for a while, since it was isolated from the rest of the system. Many of those guys were from places like the Union Railroad, and other lines in steel mill places in Ohio. The closure of the west end, with the Conrail Worcester connection was the final nail in the scabs' coffins. Many of the guys from East Deerfield and Mechanicville bumped them out.
The main reason the strike ended was we finally spread it to Conrail. Once that happened, Reagan
was forced to act. Guilford had no intention of settling without 100% capitulation of its workforce.
I recall that day very well. A copy of the order with R Reagan's signature was faxed to those of us CR managers who were doing strike duty at Pot Yd. Yes! We get to go home!
