The striking newspaper workers oppose demands by the companies for a six-year contract with raises of $3.30 an hour over the length of the contract. The union has countered with a call for $3.25 an hour over three years. Communications Workers of America Local 7800 is also involved in the negotiations. They represent 80 composing room employees who are on strike as well. In addition, the drivers in Local 174 of the Teamsters are honoring the strike picket lines and have joined the picketing.

The Guild is made up of workers in the newsroom and the circulation and advertising departments. The Times and P-I have competing newsrooms but a joint operating agreement, with the Times responsible for production and distribution.

The owners of the Times and P-I have made clear they are out to force a substandard contract on the strikers that will weaken the Guild, the largest union at the papers, and send a message to the other unions. The Guild represents just under 1,000 workers at the two papers. Several other unions represent about 800 other workers. Most of these are not honoring the Guild's picket lines.

Ralph Erickson, a negotiating committee member for the Guild, said the companies' threats to cut jobs if the strike goes on and their intransigence in the so-called negotiations have not weakened the strike. "It's not easy to be out," he said, "but we need to keep fighting for what we believe in. We have a lot of support around the country." Before the strike Erickson was a circulation distribution adviser at the Times. He was glad to say that now he was helping to organize the distribution of the Seattle Union Record.

The Record is being put out three times a week by the strikers and has scooped the Times and P-I on more than one news and sports story. It includes on its staff the most popular reporters and columnists from the two struck papers. P-I sports columnist Art Thiel is one of the main spokesman for the Guild, as is Times columnist Ron Judd.

In its efforts to break the strike, the bosses hired replacement workers and a union-busting security firm, boarded up windows at their buildings, and put up chain link fences around their properties. They have also gone to court against the strikers more than once. On December 8 they won an injunction against pickets delaying trucks or other vehicles entering the companies' facilities. Judge Suzanne Barnett ordered strikers to get no closer than five feet from any car or truck entering or leaving Times properties.

Since the walkout began, the owners of Seattle's two largest papers have gone to great lengths to try to weaken the impact of the strike, including giving out the papers for free. On December 17 this practice will end and the daily papers will be available at 25 cents, half their pre-strike cost.

After the most recent refusal by the companies to bargain with the Guild, striking union members announced they would intensify their campaign to get people not to buy the struck papers, cancel their subscriptions, and have advertisers remove their ads from both papers.

The Guild is asking advertisers to instead purchase ad space in the Seattle Union Record. The Washington State Labor Council and the King County Labor Council announced they will be aiding the Guild in this effort to reach the newspapers' readers and advertisers through mailings, radio spots, and leafleting.

A number of the strikers explain that they originally didn't think the situation would come to a strike. Catherine Reller, a young striker who worked eight months in advertising before the strike, explained that she was raised never to cross a picket line. "But originally," she said, "I told my boss that I wouldn't picket. But then when they called us in and threatened us with firing if we went on strike I decided to be here." Many strikers do more than their assigned 20 hours of picketing a week.

Janet Pederson stood with a picket sign at her post in the almost freezing temperature that got colder with the wind. Referring to recent strike negotiations where bosses refused to budge on their so-called "last and final" offer, she said, "It makes me more determined. At this point I think the attitude of a lot of the strikers is to do the best we can for the greater good, not just for ourselves."

Ernie Mailhot is a meat packer and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 81.  
 
 
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