May 17, 1974
NEW YORK - Shortly before 1 a.m. May 7, a photoengraved
plate of a single page of the New York Daily News was brought
into the composing room of the nation's largest circulation
newspaper. Printers refused to lock up the plate and send it on
to the stereotypers, and were fired.
Bertram Powers, president of New York Typographical Union No. 6 was in the composing room, seized the plate and destroyed it. It had been produced on new, automated equipment partly with nonunion labor. It marked the start of an attempt by the publishers here to produce newspapers without printers. The early morning scene in the composing room of the News was the end of prolonged contract negotiations and the beginning of a new stage in the test of strength between the unions and publishers. The turning point came as expected and was enacted as if rehearsed. When the symbolic plate was destroyed, police entered and evicted 200 printers who were working the night shift. Thus began a lockout of printers that may quickly spread.
The printers' last contract expired March 30, 1973. For the past 16 months Local 6 has been discussing contract terms with the publishers. During that time the publishers have not budged from their original offer of an annual $13.85-a-week pay raise. They also demand a free hand to introduce computerized typesetting and other forms of automation in the composing rooms. This is the stickler that stands in the way of settlement.
May 16, 1949
DETROIT - By this time the whole world knows that 62,000
workers at the Lincoln plant are out on strike and that the
whole Ford empire is shut down. Tens of thousands of additional
Ford workers have been laid off throughout the country as well
as workers employed in numerous feeder plants supplying parts
for Ford cars.
The simple issue in the strike is the speedup. It is a climax of the long smoldering resentment of this question throughout the industry and the inability of the Ford local leadership, in particular, to settle this issue satisfactorily at the Rouge plant.
For over three months the chief officers of UAW-CIO Local 600 have been meeting with the Ford Company over the speedup of the final assembly lines in the "B" Building. But despite numerous agreements on paper, the speedup went on unabated.
Finally the pressure from the workers grew so intense that the local leadership was forced to call for a strike vote to be taken simultaneously with the run-off elections for local officers during the week of April 18. The strike vote carried by the overwhelming vote of 31, 926 to 4,400.