BY HOLLY HARKNESS
DETROIT - Striking newspaper workers here opened a new front in their battle with the bosses when 300,000 copies of their own weekly newspaper were delivered to homes, stores, plant gates, and union halls in this area.
A front page article entitled "Welcome to the Journal" informed readers that the Detroit Sunday Journal is "an interim newspaper... for the duration of the current labor dispute at the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, and Detroit Newspapers, Inc. The Journal will cease publication when the members of the six striking unions reach contract agreements with the companies.
"This is a weekly publication produced by the more than 2,000 striking workers. It is for the hundred of thousands of people throughout southeastern Michigan who have supported us during this grueling four-month strike."
The 48-page tabloid, complete with state and local news, sports, recipes, entertainment reviews, TV listings, classified ads, and even a crossword puzzle, was a welcome sight. Many working people displaying lawn signs saying, "No scab papers" found a copy of the strike paper on their front doorstep Sunday morning.
The paper included advertisements from supporting unions and some businesses that have not bought ads in the scab newspapers.
In a press conference announcing the new paper, Lou Mleczko, president of Newspaper Guild Local 22, said, "We hope this adds more pressure for the other side to return to the bargaining table. It's one more piece of our arsenal."
The Teamsters, Communication Workers of America, press operators' union, and United Auto Workers helped to raise almost $500,000 to launch the paper. It was printed at a union shop near Flint, Michigan, and has opened an office and newsroom near downtown Detroit.
Striking members of Teamsters Local 372, who drove delivery trucks and oversaw carriers before the strike, are handling the distribution of the new paper.
In its first editorial, entitled "Notice is served," the Detroit Journal made clear the unionists' determination to continue their fight. "As long as there are journalists in Detroit who care about the integrity of newspapers, as long as there are readers who hunger for a paper they can believe in, as long as there are workers who stand together in dignity and fellowship and the strength of shared belief and sacrifice, we've got some news for the union-busting folks at Gannett and Knight-Ridder: This strike is far from over."
The appearance of the paper capped a weekend of strike activities. A November 18 fundraising dinner drew 800 strikers and their supporters. The event, sponsored by the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions and the Labor/Com munity/Religious Coalition in Support of the Newspaper Strike, was held at United Food and Commercial Workers Local 876. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 58 took charge of the menu of roast ox and "Cajun- fried turkeys." The dinner and party raised $6,700.
The next night, several hundred people joined the regular Saturday all-night pickets at distribution centers to delay the Sunday edition of the scab paper.
The unions have scheduled mass leafleting at stores still advertising in the struck papers during the Thanksgiving weekend. The Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions, the Metro Detroit Central Labor Council, and a community strike- support coalition have scheduled a concert and bazaar to benefit the strike on December 3 at IBEW Local 58 in Detroit.
A daily on-line strike paper, The Detroit Journal, is available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.rust.net/workers/strike.html