Detroit Newspaper Unions Successfully Blockade Plant The Strikers Actions Delayed Delivery Trucks By 12 Hours

In a Labor Day weekend show of strength, some 3,000 striking Detroit newspaper workers and supporters blockaded a printing plant, delaying delivery trucks for more than 12 hours.

Union leaders claimed a significant victory Sunday in the bitter strike that has dragged on for more than seven weeks. Management condemned the protest and rushed to deliver Sunday’s combined editions of The Detroit News and Free Press.

“This has to be considered a complete victory,” said Al Derey, chairman of the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions.

After the number of pickets dwindled to about 50 by about 8:30 a.m., police cleared a way for more than 50 large delivery trucks to pull out of the plant as the remaining demonstrators shouted angry slogans.

Trucks normally begin leaving the suburban plant by 8 p.m. on Saturday.

“I feel great,” said striker Robert Glaeser, a dispatcher at the plant for 12 years. “They didn’t have a truck move from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. Do you know how much it cost them?

“Yeah, we did a good job.”

Frank Vega, president and chief executive officer of Detroit Newspapers, characterized the protest as “mob rule and lawlessness.”

“We are outraged that the unions have encouraged their members to violate the law by not allowing us access to our facility,” Vega said.

Detroit Newspapers handles business and printing operations under a joint operating agreement for Knight-Ridder Inc.’s Free Press and The Detroit News, owned by the Gannett Co. Inc. Before the strike, the two papers published separately during the week and a combined edition on weekends; since the walkout, a combined edition has been published all week.

The strike began July 13 when six unions representing about 2,500 workers walked off their jobs, mostly over wages and work rules. Talks were scheduled to resume Tuesday.

Union members had been working without contracts since their previous agreements were allowed to lapse on July 2. The contracts had been extended day to day since they expired April 30.

During talks, management sought significant cuts in production and delivery work forces and to put pay increases for newsroom employees on the basis of merit.

Union members balked, saying it was time for paybacks after years of concessions when the newspapers, now profitable, were losing money.