Two weeks before a forward was hit and killed by a car on the street near the picket site of the Dier Company warehouse in Milan, Illinois on Wednesday, city officials received a complaint that the street lights there had been extinguished, which gave the driver It is difficult to find pedestrians crossing the road.

City Administrator Steve Seiver said that on October 15, the day after about 10,100 UAW members in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas went on strike against Deere, someone Call to complain about lighting problems. Strikes picketing at the distribution center usually park their car on an empty lot about half a mile from the warehouse, then cross the intersection of Rock Island-Milan Parkway and Deere Drive where the accident occurred, and then walk to the picket line. Milan Police Chief Shawn Johnson told the Des Moines register.

Johnson said the evidence does not indicate that the driver violated traffic rules.

Seiver stated that Milan is not responsible for the street lights, and the city submitted a maintenance request to MidAmerican Energy Co. on October 15. He said he did not believe the problem was resolved at 6 AM on Wednesday, when the 56-year-old Dill employee was shot in the pre-dawn darkness.

However, when the register contacted MidAmerican on Wednesday afternoon, spokesperson Geoff Greenwood said that the Illinois Department of Transportation or Rock Island County, where Milan is located, would maintain the lights at the intersection.

Seiver later said that he had talked with the utility company, but was not sure who was responsible for this issue.

"We did not receive the bill," he said. "This is not part of our ownership or anything."

Rock Island County Coroner Brian Gustafson confirmed on Wednesday night that the killed employee was Richard Ritchie, a night shift inspector at Deere's warehouse. UAW International said that he has worked for Deere for 15 years. He is a member of Local 79 in Milan, which is part of the Quad Cities metropolitan area in Illinois and Iowa.

After the crash on Wednesday, members of Local 79 cancelled the picket shift.

American Auto Workers Union Chairman Ray Curry said in a statement: "It is a gloomy moment to lose a member who made the ultimate sacrifice by reporting to the picket for a better life for his family and colleagues."

Seiver and Johnson said that before the strike began, a local UAW leader told them that the union planned to use vans to send members to the picket line instead of letting them walk. 

More: Experts say that the Deere and Kellogg strikes in the pandemic era echo a series of strikes in the labor movement after World War II

Johnson said that he believes the union only plans to use the shuttle service for the first few days, and it is expected that a relatively large number of members will picket by then. He said the city government allowed the union to use Camden Park, about two miles south of the warehouse, as a meeting point for shuttle buses.

However, he said he did not believe the union had ever used the park or shuttled members, and the city was not involved in deciding where the strikers should stop.

Seiver said that planners did not consider pedestrians when designing the industrial park where the warehouse is located.

"There is no such thing as a sidewalk," he said. "This is not a real sidewalk. There is no signal for a crosswalk." 

This is the second time a UAW member has died during a strike in three years. In 2019, General Motors employee Roy McCorms died in Spring Hill, Tennessee, when the driver of an SUV hit him as he crossed a bridge to the picket line. 

Sherrard Robinson, chairman of UAW Local 79, did not respond to a call seeking comment on Wednesday. UAW International spokesperson Brian Rothenberg declined to answer a series of questions on the register, including why the union did not allow members to ride in vans.

"I can't comment because we are collecting facts related to this tragedy," Rosenberg said in an email.

Deere spokesperson Jennifer Hartman said in a statement on Wednesday morning: "We are saddened by the tragic accident and death of one of our employees who was hit and killed by a vehicle while crossing the Milan ring road before dawn today. We John Everyone in Diere expressed our heartfelt thoughts. I would like to express our deepest condolences to their families and friends."

For UAW Local 450 member Michael Cline, picketing outside the entrance of John Deere Des Moines Works in Ankeny on Wednesday. The news of the Milan accident is a sad reminder that picketing may be dangerous.

The union has instructed members to abide by traffic laws and cross the street leading to the factory if they have the right of way. But Klein said that sometimes, members do not know what to expect from the driver.

Many non-union Deere employees expressed their support. They whistle for pickets when they enter the company parking lot. But "some people are more avant-garde than others," Klein said. "Some people just want to get to work quickly. Some people are frustrated that we are online, so they either push or not. You just don't know who is who."

Another member Forrest Fuller (Forrest Fuller) said that he is worried that as the strike continues, more problems may arise.

"Now the sky is getting dark soon," he said.

Ankeny had at least one dangerous situation. A UAW member told the police on the morning of October 18 that a driver ran into the Des Moines Works parking lot while he was on a crosswalk and hit him.

An official refused to issue a subpoena, saying that it is not clear who was at fault. Ankeny police spokesman sergeant. Corey Schneiden told The Register that this incident was not a hit and run. 

"He is very slow," Schneider said of the driver. "He thought he was in the way. That guy was hit."

Members of the American Auto Workers Union who were hit in that incident declined to comment. That morning, John Aspray, a member of the non-profit professional employees union who united with the UAW, said that the driver drove into the picket when he had the right of way on the crosswalk.

More: Union leaders say that members are unemployed at the John Deere factory in support of the strike UAW

He criticized the police for not taking a firmer stance to protect the pickets, referring to the death of McCombs in Tennessee. He added that Deere’s managers should also ensure the safety of drivers.

"If John Deere doesn't clearly state the right approach, someone will take it in their own hands and act recklessly," he said. "John Deere has a responsibility to alleviate some of these situations."

Experts say that picket deaths like Wednesday are rare.

Alex Colvin, dean of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, which maintains a database of strike activity, said he does not know any statistics that track the deaths of strike union members. He said that since the death of a UAW member in Tennessee two years ago, he did not know that another forward had died recently.

Frank Goeddeke, a retired UAW member and professor of management at Wayne State University, said that most laws on picketing involve property rights. For example, they specify how union members must stay away from company property.

"These really don't happen often," he said. "And they are a strange accident. And there are not so many strikes."

More: Labor law complaints filed a few days before the strike, accusing Dill of retaliating in Waterloo

At the same time, lawyers from the U.S. Auto Workers' Union (UAW) and Deere (Deere) got into a legal battle over how the union rallied on the picket line for a week. In addition to arguing that union members illegally picketed employees of other companies in facilities owned by Deere, the company’s lawyers also stated that these workers violated traffic laws in certain areas.

Polk County District Court Judge Paul Scott on Tuesday dismissed the company's request for an injunction against Ankeny UAW members and wrote that Deere failed to prove his argument that union members often violate the law. Although the company showed videos of some UAW members hovering on a crosswalk without the right of way, Scott wrote that the local police can handle any allegations of minor traffic violations.

More: The Deere strike has increased Iowa farmers’ concerns about getting parts and equipment now and next year

In contrast, in Scott County, District Court Judge Marlita Greve approved Deere's request for a similar injunction against UAW on October 20, limiting the number of pickets outside the Deere Davenport factory to four per gate. people. She also banned the burning of barrels and chairs. 

Deere's lawyer accused Davenport's UAW members of "harassing" the driver and "parade" in the streets near the factory.

UAW's lawyers appealed the injunction, saying the company did not prove its allegations. The lawyer asked Grave to withdraw from the case, accusing her of "abusing her discretion" and granting an injunction without holding a hearing or notifying the UAW of the allegations.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Grave has not responded to the union's request.

At the hearing on the Ankeny case on October 21, UAW Local 450 Chairman Curtis Templeman stated that union leaders trained members on how to picket safely. He said that the union provided members with a rule book, and the leader told the picket captain that if their behavior was dangerous, they would be taken offline.

"We want a safe picket," Templeman told the judge.

Tyler Jett reports on employment and the economy for Des Moines Register. Contact him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or @LetsJett on Twitter.

Hannah Rodriguez is responsible for registered retail and business. Contact her via herodriguez@registermedia.com or Twitter @byherodriguez.