DETROIT - The three-week-old strike at this city's two daily newspapers is widely supported by working people here, many of whom recognize the union-busting campaign as a signal challenge to the labor movement in this union town.
From the surprise police attack on the strikers' first picket line, to the gangs of toughs prowling the city's neighborhoods to "deliver" newspapers, to the scab caravans that assemble around the clock at a printing plant surrounded by auto plants - the evidence is mounting for many that two media giants have decided to rid themselves of unions in Detroit.
The Detroit Free Press is owned by Knight-Ridder. The Detroit News, the biggest afternoon paper in the United States, is owned by Gannett, which also runs 93 other daily papers. On July 13 some 2,500 members of six unions struck the papers over unfair labor practices.
Copies of the papers are not to be found at factories, automobile plants, rail yards, and other worksites in the area. Signs in many shop windows announce participation in the boycott. Some 30,000 people have canceled their subscriptions to show their support to the unions.
Weighing this solidarity, many of the merchants whose advertising finances the newspapers are pulling out - more than 230 of them, at the unions' last count. The scab editions are virtually free of significant advertising.
Strike pickets have been joined by United Auto Workers (UAW) members from Ford's Utica Trim plant, by teachers and Communication Workers of America members, and by Rev. Jesse Jackson and other members of his Rainbow Coalition.
Supporters supply the pickets with a steady flow of food and cold drinks. One day a white-uniformed chef made a drop- off; later a bus driver provided air-conditioned rides to and from a restaurant.
When the news companies offered local churches a chance to raise funds by selling newspapers, to be provided free of charge, church officials rejected the scheme and alerted the unions to it.
Three hundred people turned out August 3 for a fund- raising dinner hosted by UAW Local 600. At the event Barbara Easterling, interim secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, announced a special strike fund for the 1,400 Teamsters who aren't now receiving strike pay. The UAW has allocated $100,000, and other unions are contributing. Easterling said the AFL-CIO will underwrite the fund up to $1 million.
Meanwhile, a "back-to-work" movement led by business columnists fell short of the newspapers' expectations. Lou Mleczko, president of the Newspaper Guild, notes that only 40 of some 500 journalists are working.
"You learn a lot when you're on strike," said Greg Bowans, a reporter for the Detroit News, during his turn on the picket line August 2.
"Middle-class, educated reporters and editors find that there's not a lot separating them from poverty," he explained. "The Teamsters who run the presses and drive the trucks are the same as us. It's an eye-opener that issues in the workplace are the same as for blue-collar workers."
At its August 4 meeting the Guild voted, by a margin of 90 percent, for continued unity with the other striking unions.
Steve Marshall is a member of the United Transportation Union in Detroit. UAW members Doug Douhat and Carolyn Allen contributed to this article.