BY JOHN SARGE
STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan - Two hundred unionists - auto workers, steelworkers, teachers, and others - joined the picket line in front of the Detroit Newspapers printing plant here August 26. They turned out to show their solidarity with the 2,500 striking newspaper workers at Detroit's two daily papers, the News and Free Press, and to protest the attack by this Detroit suburb's police force on the picket line a week earlier.
Police in riot gear attacked 150 strikers on the line August 19, arresting four and breaking one striker's arm. It was the second police assault on the striking newspaper workers here. The cops also waded into the picket line July 13, the first night of the strike, arresting seven.
Besides the usual picket signs from the six striking local unions, some protesters made signs with pictures of the Sterling Heights cops beating and kicking workers with slogans like "Jack Severance gets his kicks." Severance, a local off-duty cop, had joined in the assault wearing shorts.Many workers on the line were in the mood to try to stop the scab trucks from crossing, but union officials argued against it. A major demonstration is planned for Saturday, September 2, in front of the plant at the time when the Sunday paper is supposed to be produced.
The anger and frustration of the strikers was evident as the cops moved in to allow scab-driven trucks and vans through the picket lines. Pickets chanted, "Rent-a-cop," at the assembled police officers. Besides employing hundreds of Vance Security goons, Detroit Newspapers, the joint management company for the News and Free Press, paid Sterling Heights at least $330,000 for police protection in the first 34 days of the strike.
Detroit Newspapers has also been paying other suburban governments to act as their private police force.
Support continues to grow for the strikers. The labor/community support coalition is now holding two meetings a week in different areas, attracting many new supporters.
Unionists across southeastern Michigan are actively building the September 2-4 "Solidarity Weekend," called by the striking unions with the help of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO and the national AFL-CIO, by leafleting at plantgates, phone calls to unionists, and community outreach.
Negotiations resumed the week of August 21 for the first time since the strike began, but union officials report no progress. The companies are still refusing to negotiate with the Council of Newspaper Unions, which represents all six striking locals.
The bosses told the Pressmen's union that they were withdrawing their promise to maintain five-day workweeks for 231 pressmen. Management claims that because of the strike the company only needs one printing plant, so it will now only guarantee full workweeks for half the workers.
Jack Howe, president of Pressmen's Local 13N, responded, "It's a lot of rhetoric, unless they are not planning to print the product they have been printing."
The Newspaper Guild, the union that has had the most members cross the picket line, is urging line-crossers to reconsider. A letter from the guild's officers asked them to "rejoin our effort as we bring the strike to a fair and timely conclusion.... Help provide us with the maximum leverage to do that."
Newspaper management claims that a joint edition of the paper is within 200,000 copies of pre-strike circulation levels and that separate editions will resume publishing in September.
But there is no indication that the company claims are true. The paper is being boycotted widely by workers across the region. Many small businesses refuse to carry it.
The Oakland Press, a daily newspaper in the northern suburbs of Detroit, reports that every carrier interviewed "said they had lost a significant number of customers."
The strikers' campaign against newspaper advertisers has stepped up. Belle Tire, a local tire store chain, had resumed advertising in the scab paper until United Auto Workers members supporting the strike showed up at their doors with leaflets that said, "Please do not patronize." This convinced the company to again pull its ads from the paper.
The support coalition has been organizing teams that go to stores that continue to advertise in or sell the paper with literature on the strike urging a consumer boycott.
John Sarge is a member of United Auto Workers Local 900