BY HOLLY HARKNESS
Detroit - "There's something about being tested, being challenged, coming to a moment in your life when you have to take a stand."
Susan Watson, a striking journalist from the Detroit Free Press was speaking to 600 newspaper strikers and their supporters at a fundraising dinner October 27. A popular columnist before the strike began, Watson received a standing ovation for her brief remarks on what it means to be on strike.
"It frees you in ways you never have been freed before," she said. "Yes, we've been `liberated' from our paychecks, but we've been liberated from fear too."
The event, hosted by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 58, featured a menu of roast ox and cajun deep-fried turkeys. Watson was joined by several other speakers and a slide show put together by a striking Newspaper Guild photographer was shown. The evening ended with dancing to a live band and raised over $5,000.
"It was terrific. Besides raising money and serving great food, it was a way to get our people out so they could relax and enjoy themselves," said Jim St. Louis, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 2040. "The IBEW has been helping us on the picket lines too."
Tickets for the dinner cost $15, but strikers and their families got in for $2 a head. One electrician stood at the door for most of the evening and paid the $2 for the strikers so they could get in free," said St. Louis. "We really appreciate that kind of support." Another big dinner is planned for November 17.
Earlier in the week unionists from newspapers in New York City arrived in town to show their solidarity. They were celebrating the fifth anniversary of their victory against the New York Daily News. The members of Graphic Communication Workers International Union Local 2 walked the picket lines at the Sterling Heights plant and in front of the Detroit News building downtown.
The end of daylight savings time means an extra hour of sleep for most people, but for five hundred newspaper strikers and their supporters it meant an extra hour on the picket line Saturday night. Six locked-out Staley workers from Decatur, Illinois, participated in the picket line that night October 28, along with members of the United Auto Workers New Directions caucus who were holding their national conference in Detroit.
All-night mass picketing at distribution centers has been a feature of the strike since an injunction prohibited more than 10 pickets at the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press printing plant in Sterling Heights. The Sunday paper is the most profitable issue of the week and the pickets try to delay deliveries for as long as possible.
At the Oak Park center October 28, a semi-trailer of papers was turned away by police as pickets arrived. Pickets remained until 6 a.m. Earlier that night six strikers were arrested after confronting two private security guards who were parked near the Carpenters' hall, one of the gathering places for the evening's activities, spying on the pickets. The police alleged that the six attacked the thugs' car, then rammed a police patrol car.
The Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions and the Labor/Community/ Religious support committee for the strike have called a mass rally for December 3 in Detroit. The event will be held indoors from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the State Fair Coliseum. Participants are asked to bring donations of nonperishable food or Christmas toys for strikers' children.