BY HOLLY HARKNESS
STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan - Striking newspaper workers scored a victory here September 2 when mass picketing delayed the shipment of the Sunday edition of the combined Detroit News and Free Press for 18 hours.
Some 3,000 strikers, family members, and supporters from other unions used the power of their numbers to frustrate the police and the company goons who had been moving scabs and scab papers in and out of the plant every hour since the strike began. From Saturday afternoon to 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning nothing moved.
"It was an extremely successful action," said Al Young, president of Teamsters Mailers Union Local 2040. "We sustained the picket line long enough to make the Sunday paper useless." Don Kummer Jr., a striking mailer, commented, "We're used to losing. It's about time we won one."
The strike began almost two months ago after the owners of the Free Press and the News reneged on their promise to negotiate jointly with all six newspaper unions on economic issues. The company wants to impose drastic job cuts, contract out union work, increase the workload without adequate compensation, and hire nonunion labor at lower wages.
The strike quickly won support from working people in and around Detroit. The Free Press and News virtually disappeared from the lunch tables and work benches in the massive auto plants organized by the United Auto Workers (UAW) throughout the region.
The same thing happened in many other factories, steel mills, and rail yards. Thousands canceled their subscriptions. Workers convinced many storeowners not to carry the scab paper. Many major retailers also canceled their advertising.
Despite the strong support from workers and the unity of the strikers, the newspaper unions found they were not strong enough to prevent the company from printing and distributing a daily paper. Frustration grew on the picket lines in Sterling Heights, a few miles north of Detroit, as workers carried out an agreement to step aside every hour to allow the police to escort a caravan of vans, cars, trucks, and buses across Mound Road and into the plant. Trucks and vans filled with the papers printed inside were allowed to leave the same way.
As Labor Day drew near, strike leaders, with the support of the national AFL-CIO, issued a call to use that weekend to mobilize strikers and other unionists in a show of strength at the Sterling Heights plant.
Saturday was planned with a rally at a UAW local hall one mile north of the plant followed by a march that would end at the picket lines. The rally platform included top union officials including Thomas Donahue, president of the AFL-CIO, and John Sweeney, president of the Service Employees International Union, who is challenging Donahue in the next presidential election of the AFL-CIO; Stephen Yokich, president of the UAW; Ron Carey, president of the Teamsters union; and Richard Trumka, president of the United Mine Workers of America.
Ready for picket line duty
But the workers who turned out that day had not come to
hear speeches. Many skipped the rally and went directly to
the picket lines. By 2 p.m. there were enough pickets in
front of the gate to prevent the police from clearing a path
for the scabs. But at about 5 p.m., before the marchers had
arrived from the rally, the police sought to force their way
into the crowd to open the gates. The workers pushed them
back and the retreating cops sprayed pepper gas into the
crowd. The line held.
As news of the police attempt reached the rally one mile away, the crowd grew impatient with the rally speakers. Everyone wanted to get to the plant as quickly as possible. A chant of, "Go, go, go!" arose spontaneously. The union officials got the message and ended the rally.
The police, wearing riot gear, lined the median strip facing the picket line at the main gate. Some of them carried plastic fasteners to use in place of handcuffs.
Hour after hour passed. Reinforcements poured in from police departments in surrounding areas. One picket was able to cross behind the cops and counted 21 different police departments on hand. At the height of the police presence nearly 200 could be counted on the median strip. The marshals - strike picket captains and recruits from other unions - maintained discipline on the lines. They countered potential provocations with persuasion and, if that failed, calm but direct orders. For example, a man shouting sexist epithets at women cops was told to stop or be separated from the picket line.
A number of people came by the line when they saw the confrontation shaping up on the evening news. Ryan McClymont, 19, whose father is a UAW member at Chrysler, was among them. "I was having a birthday party when my friends and I saw it on TV. So we left the party - I'll open my presents later - and came down here to show our support."
At about 3 a.m. the cops across the street began to stir. Everyone who was sleeping woke up and joined the line. Then the marshals began asking for help at Gate 3, because the company was trying to move trucks out of the plant.
"We could see them getting ready to come out. The security guards had on riot gear," recounted one member of Teamsters Local 372. When they couldn't open the gate "they just gave the go-ahead and drove a semi and a van right through the fence at about 20 or 30 miles per hour.
"We couldn't believe it. There were about 40 pickets at the gate. When they hit the gate it sprung open. That's when people converged on the truck and forced them back.
"There were 10 people sitting on a log in front of the gate. They were designated to be arrested. If the trucks had kept going they would have been killed." This reporter reached the scene just after this attack. The Vance Security goons were right up against the fence with their helmets and shields. The pickets were furious, "Shame, shame!" they yelled.
The strikebreakers began driving a second truck toward the opening in the fence and the picketers moved forward. The truck was quickly disabled and the guards retreated far back onto company property.
An attempt was made to move a single truck out of Gate 1 a few minutes later. But the driver was forced to go into reverse as workers rushed toward it with whatever they could find to prevent it from moving.
After the attempt to move the trucks failed, the police gradually began to leave. There were no more provocations from within the plant. By 8:30 a.m. the union leaders declared a victory and stepped aside to allow 80 trucks out of the plant. Across the street about 15 cops looked on.
Frank Vega, president of Detroit Newspapers, Inc., frustrated by the union action, responded by violence- baiting the workers, "Mob rule and lawlessness took over what had been touted as a peaceful demonstration."
Labor Day rally features strikers
The newspaper strikers were able to savor their victory
two days later as they marched at the front of the Detroit
Labor Day Parade. Most union contingents in the parade
carried banners or signs in support of the strikers.
"The Sunday paper is 75 percent of the company's income. The goal should be to stop the Sunday paper as often as possible," Young told the Militant.
Some of the union officials speaking at the Labor Day event pointed their fire away from the Detroit newspaper management in discussing the strike. John Peralta, Teamsters Local 2040 vice president, opened the rally by putting the blame on Mexican workers who are being used as strikebreakers. "This company is bringing in foreigners to break our strike. They're bringing in Mexicans," he told the crowd. "We're not against workers, just against import workers."
Congressman John Conyers joined in with a pledge to call in the Immigration and Naturalization Service to enforce the law and deport the scabs.
This anti-immigrant rhetoric, which divides workers, was answered at least in part by Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who urged the unionists to "make sure our hands are clean and our house is in order. We must not let any racism or sexism interfere with our goal. We need the talents and skills of everyone. We need to stick together."
The big business media attempted to paint the show of labor strength over the Labor Day weekend with a violence brush, taking advantage of a provocative action organized by an outfit calling itself the "Strike to Win Committee." This group, led by the Revolutionary Workers League, distributed a leaflet at the Labor Day parade demanding, "Shut the plant down after the parade!"
Union leaders announced from the platform that no action was planned for that night and that regular pickets should report for duty. Evening TV newscasts, however, announced that an action had been called. About 200 people showed up at the picket line Monday night.
Sensing that the picket line did not represent a broad mobilization of the labor movement the police ordered dispersal and moved in quickly attacking the demonstrators with tear gas, pepper spray, and clubs. Security guards from inside the plant gate also threw metal and rocks at pickets.
The police arrested 23 people from the picket line and injured another 5. Following the arrests, the cops "quarantined" the area around the plant and the regular pickets were not allowed to set up until noon the next day.