July 17–24, 1997

on media

Detroit Shuffle

Newspaper workers and their supporters rallied Monday outside the News-Journal plant in New Castle, DE.

Don't Buy A Rat Paper

No News or Free Press Wanted Here

END DETROIT NEWSPAPER LOCK OUT

Gannett, You Are Starving Families. Sit At The Table

July 14. Morning rush hour along Route 141, New Castle, DE. As the day heats up, the people carrying signs and wearing sloganized T-shirts walk in a loop in the grass by the highway outside the News Journal plant. They're cheerful and determined, for two reasons.

First, things are finally looking up for Detroit newspaper workers locked out of Knight-Ridder-owned DetroitFree Press and Gannett-owned DetroitNews. What began as a walkout two years ago turned into a lockout when the papers refused to rehire the workers after they unconditionally offered to return to work in February. But a few weeks ago, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) asked a federal court for an injunction ordering the newspaperto rehire them with back pay. The New Castle action is one of many across the country in support of Detroit workers.

But this particular picket is also an historical occasion for Gannett-owned News Journal: it's the first-ever picket of this plant by Newspaper Guild Local 10, the union which also represents some Inquirer and Daily News workers.

News Journal editorial and circulation workers voted to join the Guild in 1989. Since then, the former have never had a contract; the latter have been contractless since 1992. Workers have never even held an informational picket before. But recent events in Detroit seem to have energized formerly timid News Journal workers.

Here to show support today are unionists of all kinds: postal workers, laborers, communications workers, building trades, student supporters, and, naturally, Teamsters galore, with their big blue truck. Since it can't park on the highway, it cruises past every few minutes blasting "We Will Rock You" and "Respect," sometimes getting caught in traffic and serenading workers in and outside the plant. Picketers chant, "U-G-L-Y, Gannett ain't got no alibi."

In all, several hundred turn out to picket during morning and evening rush hours, while some News Journal employees watch from the windows and management decides to have their director of marketing, Jim Rowley, tell outside press that the picket has nothing to do with the News Journal: "The signage shown by the demonstrators only indicated support for labor unions in Detroit. We have no comment on the particulars of contract negotiations at the News Journal."

Truck after car after truck rolls by, honking in support. Bugs hover in the heat, attracted by the stagnant water in the ditch bordering News Journal property.

"I just love a company that puts a moat around its offices," snickers one picketer.

Meanwhile, Linda Foley, national president of the Newspaper Guild, waves her sign at passing cars. She's in a great mood, thanks to the NLRB's recent ruling that Gannett and Knight-Ridder negotiated in bad faith in Detroit, setting out to force a strike and bust the unions.

"They repudiated joint bargaining," says Foley. "They insisted on implementing merit pay at the company's discretion, without negotiated wage increases. And they refused to take back striking workers when they offered to return to work. This ruling confirms what we already know."

It's hard to say precisely how the likely injunction would affect other Knight-Ridder and Gannett workplaces. Inquirer and Daily News workers, Knight-Ridder employees, still have several years before their current contract expires in August 2000. But News Journal workers continue negotiating their long-elusive contract, perhaps with a bit more morale than in the past.

Terry Spencer, Guild unit head for that paper's editorial workers, says Gannett has managed to engage in years of delay tactics while an apparently powerless union failed to halt unilaterally imposed work rules.

The work week was up to 37 and a half hours without a coinciding pay raise, amounting to about 7 percent, Spencer calculates. Pensions were slashed. Only Guild members, of all News Journal employees, have no 401K plan, and no official grievance procedure. Workers are suspended without pay for small offenses. Morale is said to be rock-bottom.

Spencer says Gannett's negotiating method has been to fiddle with details to the point of absurdity. For example, labor and management came to an agreement that workers would get four days off if an immediate family member died, and one day off if a more distant relative died.

"They had a list: aunt, uncle, brother-in-law," says Spencer. "We noticed they left off 'grandchild.' We thought that was an accident."

Not so. Management said they wanted to judge that on a case-by-case basis.

"They said, 'Well, let's say you've been badmouthing your grandchild, saying he's lazy, or sassy. Why should you take a day off for his funeral?' This is how they delay, over and over," says Spencer. "But we're not asking for anything out of line with what other employees get."

Only seven of Gannett's 89papers are unionized, so there isn't strength in numbers.

"The only one with a contract is in Hawaii," Spencer says. "Because a), it's a strong union state, and b) it's an island, so the Guild can go to the longshoremen and say, 'Uh, there's a shipment of newsprint due that we don't think should come ashore.'"

Spencer says most News Journal workers support the union. "We have button days, and 80 to 90 percent of staff wears pro-union buttons. But they also fear the company."

The rally on the highway is an opportunity for other unions to give advice. Sheetmetal worker Don Clagg, in a T-shirt that reads "Organizing to Change, Changing to Organize," is surprised News Journal workers have never walked out, though they've filed many unfair labor practices complaints.

"You have to be on the offensive, not the defensive," Clagg says. "Why not walk out just for a day, even an hour, at the busiest time of day?"

A state trooper drives by, tooting his horn.

"Off the property, Fred," he shouts kiddingly to a photographer with long, curly white hair and purple Fila sneakers.

Fred Comegys is on suspension for a week without pay. The photographer, a 37-year News Journal veteran, voted against the union in '89. Now he's not sure if that was the right thing to do.

Last week, after spending 14 hours shooting a hostage standoff near Wilmington, he went home, got a few hours sleep and returned to the scene to take more pictures. Then his boss told him to give his film to a stringer to bring back for developing, and to stay on the scene, though the hostage situation had been resolved. Comegys thought he should deal with the film himself, and got into a heated argument with his boss before complying with his boss' orders. The next day he was suspended. Comegys asked if the News Journal could at least donate his week's pay to an employee in need, or to a cancer foundation, but was told the News Journal would simply keep his paycheck for itself.

"Maybe I was wrong," says Comegys. "But they made me feel like a criminal."

"Whether you were right or wrong, if you had a contract, there would be a grievance procedure," says Clagg, who tells Comegys he knows his work. "A contract is a set of rules everybody lives by. I think you could take this incident and use it to your advantage. An incident like this, I would think the Guild would take as an opportunity to make into a handbill, to educate co-workers and the public. But can I give you some friendly advice? Watch your back. You can be fired for any reason, for wearing purple shoes even, if you're without a contract."

After the action is over, Terry Spencer says he's pleased. "A lot of people saw us on the local news. We've made our point and we're talking about what we're going to do next."

Gannett public affairs specialist Donna Faulk says the company didn't recognize what was happening in Detroit as a company-wide issue.

"Detroit comments on Detroit," she says, and repeated that when asked whether Gannett was concerned whether extreme actions on the part of management might actually work in labor's favor.

Spencer says he hopes the New Castle and other actions across the country will pressure Gannett and Knight-Ridder.

"I don't want to say that what happened in Detroit was good," he says. "People there have been living without salaries on the charity of other unions. But Gannett and Knight-Ridder have lost a couple hundred million dollars in Detroit in hopes of breaking the union. Now it looks like they're not going to break the union. If the stockholders say, 'Where did our 200 million go?' — if the point was to break the union, and that doesn't happen — maybe the people who made the decision to spend all that money will be held responsible."

— Daisy Fried