The low came when I was camped out for five hours at a hotel in Milwaukee, waiting to see what would come from mediated talks in a local strike. UAW Local 556 has gone on strike against Textron Turf Care and Specialty Products, known until a couple of months ago as Jacobsen Manufacturing.

Jacobsen, a company that celebrated its 75th anniversary here, makes those big mowers you see buzzing around parks and golf courses. Labor relations nose dived after the Textron recently acquired another company which makes similar products. It now appears that the company may end Racine's assembly operations, at a cost of some 100 jobs. Let me give you a bit of background about what led to the mediation today.

Striking members of United Auto Workers Local 556 Textron Turf Care and Specialty Products (formerly known as Jacobsen Mfg.), jeered two bus loads of replacment workers early Monday May 18, 1998. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1998

Al Spencer, center, and other UAW pickets yell at the driver of a car whom he claims hit him as they picketed at Textron Turf Care and Specialty Products (formerly known as Jacobsen Mfg.), early Monday May 18, 1998. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1998

I've rarely been as tense and nervous as when I was photographing the picket line at 6 a.m. on Monday May 18. We'd gotten word that two busloads of replacement workers would be coming in, and the anger on the picket line was frightening.

I saw a van with Kentucky plates and a sedan with Illinois plates, with people with video cameras, drive up to the plant security gate. I went up to them to take pictures. The people inside were wearing t-shirts that said "Special Response Team," and one asked the security guard who I am. "He's with the newspaper." The driver of the van barked, "Get him out of here! You're on private property, now move!" I asked him where the property line was, and moved back those 20 feet. Everytime we have gone to the plant since then, we see those SRT members monitoring union activity, often with video cameras.

It seemed inevitable that one of the pickets would be run over. One picket then claimed a car hit him, and he and a companion yelled at the petrified woman driving the car, slamming their fists on the hood. The insults flew again when Phil Tralies, the company president arrived in his new Lincoln, and inched past the pickets. The police arrived, and Sgt. Mike Ackley, who did an incredible job of lowering the tension, explained to the pickets that they would be arrested if they blocked any more cars.

Someone then spotted two large tourist buses several blocks away...the replacement workers were coming. The jeering started again. The police went to the security guards to tell them the bus drivers were driving too fast, and needed to slow down.

Striking Textron Turf Care and Specialty Products (Jacobsen) worker scream at the driver of a semi-trailer truck which they said hit a worker on the picket line at the northeast corner of the plant, Thursday May 21,1998. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1998

Rescue workers help Keith Miller, a striking Textron Turf Care and Specialty Products (Jacobsen) worker, who says he was hit by a semi-trailer truck on the picket line at the northeast corner of the plant, Thursday May 21,1998. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1998

Wednesday morning, as I got in my car to start work, and flipped on the police radio, I heard an urgent call for an ambulance to be sent to the picket line...a picketer had evidently been hit by a truck. I headed for the plant, and radioed the newsroom that I would be skipping the feature assignment I was supposed to be covering (a symphony concert at an elementary school).

When I got to the plant, I saw rescue workers with a man who was lying face down in front of a semi-trailer truck. Picketers were screaming at the truck driver who sat in the cab of his truck. One of them urged police to simply take him out and shoot him. Rocks flew at the truck. Not only did Sgt. Ackley put up yellow crime scene tape to keep the picketers back, but he also ordered it put up across the front of the plant loading dock to keep the SRT guards back, as well.

There were two injured workers, a man, and a woman whom he fell into, who were both treated and released from the hospital. No charges were issued, because, despite what the picketers claimed, it was not clear whether the truck hit the man or whether he ran into the truck trying to block it.

Both sides filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, and the NLRB ordered the company and the union to mediation today.

Striking Textron Turf Care and Specialty Products (Jacobsen) workers Dia Wilson, left, and Diana Bendix comfort eachother during the confrontation between pickets and the driver of a semi-trailer truck which may have hit a worker on the picket line at the northeast corner of the plant, Thursday May 21,1998. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1998

Rescue workers treat striking Textron Turf Care and Specialty Products (Jacobsen) worker Marian Schkirkie after she was hit by fellow striker Keith Miller, when he fell after he says he was hit by a semi-trailer truck at the northeast corner of the plant, Thursday May 21,1998. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1998

The stake-out at the hotel was like the stake-out on the school labor dispute...lots of waiting, and few photos. The union bargaining team let me take some pictures in their hotel room before the start of their session, the company declined to allow photos even though I explained that I want my coverage to be as balanced as possible.

The only way to judge progress in mediation seems to be to watch how often the mediator shuttles back and forth between the rooms in which the two sides are encamped. Gary Lisiecki made those trips frequently Thursday, but by day's end there was no agreement. Mediation will resume next week.

The photos we ran from the mediation session are not particularly strong ones, but at least they gave our readers a glimpse at what was going on beyond the bartage they saw on television of pickets outside the hotel.

Today's high came after I headed back to Racine to photograph the start of a big birthday party...the state and city's sesquicentennial celebrations. Racine County was marking the occasion by illuminating the 14-story courthouse for the first time. Fireworks were going to be set off from the top of the 1931 building at the end of the celebration, and my challenge was to get a dominant photo for the front page on a tight deadline.

I shot the secondary photos of people at the celebration for an hour before heading up to the roof of the county jail, across from the courthouse. We had been told that the county had not bought many fireworks, and so we were not sure how successful the fireworks photo would be. Plan B was to lead with a photo of the newly-lit building. Plan B was boring, but we needed that fallback position.

United Auto Workers Local 556 recording secretary Gordie allen, left, and president Ed Buhler await the formal start of mediation at the Grand Hotel Milwaukee thursday May 28, 1998. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1998

Federal mediator Gary Lisiecki of the National Labor Relations Board works alone, awaiting word from either the union or the company that they need him, at the Grand Hotel Milwaukee, Thursday May 28, 1998. Photo by Mark Hertzberg/Racine Journal Times © 1998

Speakers droned on and on, and finally it was time for the aerial magic show. There were enough good bursts to make a good photo, on deadline, and bingo, I was in business.

It's now 12:30 a.m., and the press is starting. The Jacobsen/Textron photos and the fireworks photo are now yesterday's news.

Today will bring a new set of challenges.

Fireworks light up the sky above the Racine, Wis., County Courthouse at the end of the Sesquicentennial celebration Thursday May 28, 1998. Wisconsin celebrates its Sesquicentennial Friday May 29, and the city of Racine celebrates its 150th anniversary this summer. The fireworks display followed the ceremony at which new lights illuminating the 1931 courthouse were turned on for the first time. (AP Photo/Journal Times, Mark Hertzberg