As the crowd grew, one of the speakers who received a big ovation was Carol Marshall, a press operator and member of Graphics Communications Union Local 767M at the Times. Marshall explained that, while the press operators' union had voted not to honor the Guild's picket lines, she and some other members of her local were refusing to go to work.

Another speaker, a nonunion newspaper carrier at the Times, expressed his support to the strike and added, "I don't think I would have been here 10 years ago. I just didn't believe then what I believe now." He explained that the conditions he faces on his job, including not being paid for stuffing the newspapers with several sections and ads, no medical benefits, and no gas allowance, helped him see the need for unions.

A truck driver who is a member of Teamsters Local 174 talked about her local's decision to honor the Guild's picket lines. She explained that if it wasn't for the union she wouldn't have this job and that she was proud to be a woman and a union member. Local 174 is facing a contract fight at the Seattle newspapers in February when their contract expires.

Robbie Stern, from the Washington State Labor Council, denounced the Times and P-I management for placing chain-link fences around its property, boarding up windows, and hiring Vance Security, the notorious union-busting outfit. He referred to them as "jack-booted goons who try to intimidate the strikers." The crowd roared approval when part of a chain-link fence with cutouts of black-clad Vance security guards on each side was symbolically knocked down.

Workers then marched to the Seattle Times in a sea of strike signs. Passing cars and trucks honked along the short march route. When the crowd approached the Times building strikers shouted to the replacement workers to come out. Members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), who won a 40-day strike against Boeing earlier this year, provided security monitors along the march route.

Rallying in front of the Times building, strikers spoke of the broad backing for their strike, including support for the newspaper they are producing, the Union Record, which can also be read online. The Union Record is designed as an alternative news source to the Times and P-I. Guild representatives called for a campaign to cancel subscriptions to the struck newspapers.

Many contributions have come into the Guild's strike relief fund. At the rally SPEEA added $5,000 to the fund and the Washington State Employees Federation contributed $1,000. Among the many unions present were the United Farm Workers, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, Seattle/King County Building Construction Trades, International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, United Food and Commercial Workers, International Association of Machinists, and unions representing teachers, sheet-metal workers, stagehands, and many more.

After the final rally, many people stopped by the strike headquarters down the street from the Times in the bricklayers' union hall. As one walks into the building there is a small strike office. A button machine is on one of the desks. Among the buttons being produced is one identifying Local 174 with a heart on it. This is in appreciation of the Teamsters members who are honoring the Guild's picket lines.

Vanessa Arrington is one of the strikers staffing the office. She was on the job for six weeks as a copy editor before going on strike. Prior to this Arrington spent two years in Bolivia as a journalism teacher, where she said she saw some of the injustices that keep 80 percent of the population in poverty. "Before the strike I looked at both sides and asked the managers theirs," she said. "The bottom line is that the contract is horrible. It's a six-year contract with 45 cents in the sixth year. That's ridiculous."

The company has offered the Newspaper Guild a contract with $3.30 in raises over the six years, while the union is fighting for a three-year contract with $3.25 in raises. It is also asking for matching contributions to the 401 (k) retirement plan.

The walls along the stairs to the basement of the strike headquarters are covered with messages of support. Downstairs, the walls are filled with large maps and picket sign-up sheets. Food, coffee, and expressions of solidarity are plentiful. Jessie Garrison, a 17-year driver with Teamsters Local 174, explains that he walked his first picket line at age four when his mother took him to civil rights actions. She was a leader of the NAACP in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia.

"Local 174--100 percent are picketing." said Garrison. "The last contract we got had a raise of $1.50 over five years. In February our contract is up. What the Guild is doing is good because it's breaking the pattern." Garrison was referring to management's demands that the poor contracts pushed on some unions in the past be used as patterns for the others. "We didn't always have solidarity," he said, "but it has to start somewhere."  
 
Owners resort to scabs, cops, courts
The strikers are in an upbeat mood on this day of rallies and solidarity, but they are also sober. They know the newspapers owners have dug in their heels. The bosses are hiring replacements, have their security thugs in place, have asked for a bigger police presence, and have gone to court for injunctions against the pickets. They continue to give out their scab papers free in order to maintain their readership.

The strikers also know their ranks remain overwhelmingly committed to the strike and that they have broad support among unionists and other working people that can be brought to bear in this fight.

One recent example of this was the 100 members of the Newspaper Guild who picketed the Portland Press Herald in Portland, Maine, December 1. Their signs called for support for the Seattle newspaper strikers and for a decent contract for themselves. The Press Herald is owned by The Seattle Times Co.

Ernie Mailhot is a worker in the meatpacking industry in Seattle.  
 
 
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