BY STEVE MARSHALL
DETROIT - Fighting for their unions' survival, some 2,400 newspaper workers entered the 10th week of their strike here September 14 against the Detroit Newspaper Agency (DNA), the joint venture that prints and distributes the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.
In the face of sharp new attacks from the companies, courts, and cops, the six striking unions continue to win working people to their cause. A September 13 court injunction limited to 10 the number of pickets in the main driveway of DNA's Sterling Heights printing plant, where several thousand strikers and supporters had demonstrated on the previous two Saturdays, delaying delivery of the Sunday edition for many hours.
In response to the injunction, the striking unions and a strike-support coalition called on area unionists to turn out again on Saturday, September 16. The struck newspapers shifted the bulk of the evening's production to their Riverfront plant in downtown Detroit, little used since the strike began on July 13. Anticipating this move, 500 strikers, other unionists, and supporters gathered at the Riverfront plant, delaying truck delivery and forcing the DNA for the second time to fly papers out by helicopter.
Detroit police forced open the plant gate at 3:15 a.m., allowing scab trucks and passenger vehicles to exit. Meanwhile, 200 people gathered at the DNA's north plant in Sterling Heights, where picket captains organized compliance with the injunction. The actions were smaller than the outpourings of earlier weekends, but the union presence still delayed by several hours the delivery of the newspapers' Sunday edition.
Macomb Circuit Judge Raymond Cashen issued his injunction after the DNA and Sterling Heights police repeated their charges of "picket line violence," which has been their steady chorus since the strike began. The source of continuous violence since the very start, however, has been the lines of police and the company's hired thugs.
Detroit cops joined the battle in large numbers for the first time September 16. Nearly 200 of them - some in riot gear, others in plain clothes and helmets - at tacked peaceful pickets at the Riverfront plant, arresting four. "They just came and pushed us against the fence," said Marty Malek, a striking member of Teamsters Local 372. "People were getting clubbed; defenseless people were pushed on top of each other."
Lonnie Spight from United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 600 reported being clubbed across the chest. The cops roughed up Jean Godomski, a Newspaper Guild member in her 50s, badly enough to require medical attention.
Meanwhile, to the north, Sterling Heights cops charged repeatedly into the legally assembled crowd. They dragged individuals away for arrest, chased people over lawns and sidewalks in their patrol cars, and prowled the area citing union members on phony traffic violations.
The cops arrested 12 people; several face fines of $1,500 for allegedly violating the court injunction. The police have turned a blind eye, however, to the criminal actions of professional strikebreakers.
Just like Mark Fuhrman
On two successive Saturdays, DNA thugs drove trucks
directly at unionists on the picket lines. Dozens of
cops observed these potentially deadly attacks, as well
as numerous traffic violations, but made no move to
enforce the law. In earlier interviews with the
Militant, many strikers expressed disappointment and
shock at the violent behavior of the companies and the
cops. Now, after 10 weeks of picket line experience,
they also voice anger.
A popular slogan at Sterling Heights on September 16 was simply "Mark Fuhrman!" - a reference to the Los Angeles officer whose recorded interviews detail the racism, brutality, and frame-up methods that are routine for the cops.
Sterling Heights mayor Richard Notte, a UAW member and a welder at Ford's Mound Road axle plant, is a regular participant at strike rallies. In a picket line interview that night, he defended the city's acceptance of a $400,000 contribution from the DNA to pay police wages. "If we didn't, the taxpayers would have to bear it," Notte said. "It's better we accept it."
The interview became a debate when striker Ed Zerilli, a Teamsters mailer for 14 years, disagreed with the mayor. "If you didn't accept it, the taxpayers would come down screaming about their money being used to protect the scabs. But you've let the companies take that out of the equation."
"Treasure Island" - the strikers' name for the Mound Road median strip in Sterling Heights, where cops are stationed for strike duty and draw their overtime pay - was put back into the equation on September 19, when the Sterling Heights city council voted to decline further moneys from the struck newspapers. City Manager Steve Duchane, the executive power in Sterling Heights's city government and a strident opponent of the strike, resigned after the vote.
That was welcome news to Teri Sullivan, a mailer at the Detroit News and a picket line stalwart. Before the strike she worked 40-hour weeks, but after nine years at the plant she was still designated a "part-time" employee. She thus received no benefits and was not eligible for union membership. Her hourly wage of $15.97, just shy of what full-timers earn, is one of the DNA's main targets: the papers demanded a 50 percent pay cut from part-time employees. She's represented by the Teamsters local she can't formally join.
`Not winning yet, but hurting them'
On Labor Day, after cops attacked picketers with tear
gas and pepper spray, a live television broadcast
showed medics flushing Sullivan's eyes. Those images,
several people told her, propelled them down to the
picket line that night. During a circuit on the picket
line, Sullivan assessed the strike this way: "Nobody's
winning yet, but we're hurting them."
Many thousands of workers boycott the newspapers, and unionists continue to organize support for the strikers. One Teamsters local maintains a food bank; UAW Local 235 at American Axle has scheduled a fundraising fish-fry for September 29. Other labor organizations, including locals of the UAW and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Monroe, Michigan, Labor Council have invited strikers to address their membership meetings.
On September 17 Detroit mayor Dennis Archer and Sterling Heights mayor Notte called for round-the-clock talks to settle the strike. The six striking unions accepted the invitation, but DNA vice- president Tom Kelleher declined. The DNA's refusal to negotiate provoked the strike, and has drawn a finding of unfair labor practices from a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board.
Previously-scheduled talks between the DNA and three newspaper unions are set for September 20-22. Al Derey, chairman of the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions, said "If there's light at the end of the tunnel, this is what we'll see first - you have to talk with each other." Derey also said the striking unions, along with UAW members and other supporters, will organize another Saturday protest at the Detroit Riverfront printing plant on September 23.
Steve Marshall is a member of the United Transportation Union and a railroad conductor at Conrail's Sterling Heights yard. UAW member John Sarge contributed to this article.