 The company used relationships and "ex parte" communications with judges prior to the strike to ensure that strikers would be dealt with harshly, although the number of these cases appears to be limited.In Syracuse, for example, two teenaged girls were sentenced to 30 days in jail for merely waving a rubber rat at replacement workers.In Middletown, local judges handed down six-month prison sentences to a large number of picketers based solely on the testimony of two Remington Rand security guards.