BY HOLLY HARKNESS
DETROIT - On a cold morning in November, many workers here were shocked to hear a report on the local news radio station that led off, "Is the Detroit newspaper strike over?"
The story, presented as news, was actually a press statement by Detroit News editor and publisher Robert Giles proclaiming victory over the six striking unions. The Detroit News and Free Press were operating at full capacity, Giles said. The strikers were all but permanently replaced, and subscribers were receiving the paper on time every day, so the workers might as well concede defeat. The radio station did not see fit to play a response from the striking unions.
This pronouncement was followed by an obituary for the strike in the New York Times on November 11. "Nearly four months into a newspaper strike here, the companies that own this city's two daily papers appear to be defeating their unions," read the story's lead paragraph.
These attempts to demoralize and disarm the strike have not had the impact the bosses hoped for. The strikers counterattacked on November 19, when 300,000 copies of a new weekly Sunday paper produced by their unions hit the streets. Many working people who have shunned the scab paper since the strike began were eager to buy the new weekly. Strikers hawking the Detroit Sunday Journal sold out quickly, and got many donations over the 60-cent cover price.
The message was clear. This strike is far from over. The unions will not roll over and play dead. What's behind the strikers' resolve to continue the fight?
Part of the answer lies in what happened before the strike, which began July 13.
In 1989, Detroit's two daily papers won permission from the federal government to merge their business operations. This arrangement, called the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA), allowed the two papers to cut jobs in advertising, circulation, the press room and elsewhere They remained "editorially independent" but published a joint paper on weekends and holidays.
The unions agreed to the cuts under threats that the papers might fold if the unions did not grant concessions.
But by 1994 the papers were showing a $46 million yearly profit. The Detroit News is owned by the giant Gannett Co., which reported earnings of $3.82 billion in 1994. The Free Press is owned by Knight-Ridder Inc., which posted profits of $2.64 billion last year.
The unions came to the bargaining table this year prepared to take more cuts in jobs, but also with demands to recoup some of the losses they had incurred since the JOA was imposed. The company demanded not only deep job cuts, but also sweeping changes in the work rules and operations that would have gutted the unions in every area.
"If it was just about money, I'm not sure we would have stayed out this long," said Mike Pasella, a striking Teamster. "This strike is against corporate greed."
Negotiations at a standstill
Negotiations are at a standstill. The company flat out
rejected a union offer to return to work under the old
contract and to submit bargaining to binding arbitration.
The company's position was summed up by Giles at the end of
August. "We're going to hire a whole new workforce and go
on without unions, or they can surrender unconditionally
and salvage what they can," the News boss stated.
This union-busting stance sounds all too familiar to working people in the Detroit area. In response they have rallied to the side of the unions. Solidarity has been an important factor in the newspaper workers' determination to outlast the company in this fight.
The six striking unions set the example themselves when they decided to stick together in bargaining the economic issues in the contract. The strikers are proud of the unity they've forged. Journalists, truck drivers, mailers, press operators, typesetters, and photographers all walk the picket lines together. "Before this strike, I didn't think I had much in common with Teamsters," commented reporter Dan Holly in the strikers' Detroit Journal. "To the extent I thought about it, I saw them as unskilled workers doing unskilled jobs- not much like me, a reporter with a graduate degree. Now, I see them as my brothers who will lend a helping hand when times get tough."
Tens of thousands of people, some estimates are as high as 300,000, canceled their subscriptions to the scab paper. Lawn signs supporting the strike dot front yards across the metropolitan area.
Thousands mobilized at the Sterling Heights printing plant on Labor Day weekend. For two weekends in a row workers were able to substantially delay the delivery of the Sunday edition of the paper. When the company was forced to ferry papers out in helicopters, the pickets claimed it as a victory.
Strikers and their supporters got a firsthand lesson about the role of the police in a capitalist society. On several occasions the Sterling Heights police donned riot gear and charged unarmed pickets with clubs and pepper gas to clear the way for trucks to leave the plant. Goons hired by the company, such as Vance Security, drove trucks through gates blocked by picket lines. These vicious attacks, far from intimidating the strikers, convinced them that their cause was just.
There is significant support for the strike. AFL-CIO leaders working with the striking unions have shifted the emphasis away from mobilizations, however, toward a boycott of retailers who advertise in the scab press. Officals of the striking unions have not called for mass pickets at the Sterling Heights plant since an injunction was imposed, limiting the number of pickets to a handful.
Since September, only one solidarity rally was called, for December 3, which was later changed to a solidarity concert. Officials of the UAW, the largest union in the region, provide funds for the strike, but they are no longer organizing among their thousands of members to get them to the picket lines.
Saturday night picketing is limited to distribution centers where the papers are dispatched to carriers. Yet hundreds of strikers are joined by other union members who, despite little publicity or advance notice, find their way to these actions.
One important gauge of support for a strike is how many workers have crossed. So far, the largest number of defectors have come from the Newspaper Guild. Some of these are well- known columnists and reporters who decided that their "career" was more important than sticking with the union. The company was able to break almost half of the editorial staff away from the strike. But among those who have stayed out are some of the most active and vocal supporters of the strike.
Joe Adams, a sports copyeditor, called the paper one day to inquire about getting his job back. He was told his old position might not be available for him anymore and he would have to talk to publisher Giles to get final approval.
"I talked to Bob Giles, who said to me, `Have you decided to surrender? If you go back to work, you surrender,' " Adams said. "I hung up on him. After that I decided I just couldn't do it."
Several craft unions made a separate agreement with the Detroit newspapers and continued to work in the struck plants. But on November 8, eight members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said "enough" and joined their brothers and sisters on the picket line. Twenty more electricians remain in the Sterling Height's printing plant.
Aside from the Guild, only 108 of 1,150 members of Teamsters Local 372 have crossed. Two pressmen and three mailers have crossed.
Strikers have organized a food bank and spouse support group called Women Involved in Labor Dispute (WILD). More than 30 strikers have participated in the speakers' bureau. They've spoken to union locals, churches, and community groups.
Strikers more confident
Paul Kulka, a striking member of Teamsters Local 372,
has done speaking tours on both coasts with Kate DeSmet, a
Guild reporter. Kulka was overwhelmed by the "wonderfully
committed, caring people that you find out there." Besides
getting out the truth about the strike, the road trips have
raised thousands of dollars for the strike fund, Kulka
added.
Nearly five months of a very public and active strike have made the newspaper strikers more self-confident. "I've become stronger and wiser," said Dave Wilczak, a Teamster, "I speak up for myself now."
Solidarity is broader than the union movement. A significant number of newspaper carriers, for example, who are not organized and whose attempts to unionize have been opposed by the company and Teamsters union alike, supported the strike from the beginning and have signed on to help distribute the strikers' Sunday paper on their old routes.
Another section of workers who are actively supporting the strike are the part-time mailers who work for the papers. Their wages are negotiated by the full-time mailers' local, Teamsters 2040. But they are not union members. They have a direct stake in the strike because the company proposes to cut their wages in half. Many pull picket duty alongside the full-time workers.
Support for the strike has been won among Black rights activists, the clergy, gay and lesbian organizations, and even marathon runners.
These examples and many more show that the Detroit newspaper strike is a winnable strike. It is winnable if the wide support for the strikers' cause is mobilized. The strike in Detroit can link up with other important labor struggles, such as the machinists' strike against Boeing.
Gary Lamb, a veteran of the A.E. Staley lockout in Decatur, Illinois, recently spoke at a fund-raising dinner attended by many strikers. As a "road warrior" who recognized the importance of reaching out, he told the strikers, "Don't just walk the picket line. You've got to go out and spread the word. No longer can you stay in your own city and expect to win the fight. They want you to feel isolated, but you're not. We must step forward and fight."
Holly Harkness is a member of UAW local 235 in Detroit.