1,350 workers at Olin Winchester’s Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Kansas City walked off the job Saturday morning. These are the people who literally manufacture the bullets for the U.S. military — the actual supply chain behind every “support the troops” bumper sticker — and the company couldn’t be bothered to offer them a raise that keeps up with inflation. The workers cited garbage wages, forced overtime, and zero work-life balance. Olin posted $1.8 billion in revenue last year. But sure, the problem is that workers are too greedy.
This is the part that never stops being darkly funny. The same country that spent the last decade screaming about Second Amendment rights and military readiness treats the people who make the ammunition like they’re disposable. You can wrap a factory in American flags and call it national security infrastructure all day long — but the second workers ask for a living wage, suddenly it’s a labor dispute and they should be grateful they have jobs at all. The IAM Union is backing them. Good. Shut it down until Olin remembers which side of the picket line actually makes the product.