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Appeal Halts Return to Work in Detroit
The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press and the company that runs the two newspapers are appealing a judge’s order to reinstate 50 workers illegally fired for strike-related activities in 1996, a delaying tactic expected by union officials.
“They’re taking their usual militant position,” said Lou Mleczko, president of TNG-CWA Local 22. “Their attitude is, ‘We hate the NLRB and we’re challenging everything.”
Detroit Newspapers Inc. employees have spent nearly five years out of work because of the 20-month strike and the subsequent, ongoing lockout. The appeal to the full National Labor Relations Board means it could be months, or longer, before employees know whether they’ll get their jobs back.
The order, from an NLRB administrative law judge, instructed Gannett Co. and Knight-Ridder Inc. to pay back salaries and benefits with interest, remove references to the discharges from personnel files and post notices announcing the decision and promising not to violate employees’ rights.
Linda Foley, president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA, said the ruling, “proves once again the Detroit newspapers will violate the law in order to achieve their goal of busting the union.”
The companies were ordered by a unanimous NLRB ruling in August 1998 to reinstate all fired employees but have refused. Nearly 600 workers are still illegally locked out. The strike involved six unions representing nearly 2,500 employees.
CWA Vice President Bill Boarman, who heads the Printing Sector, said the company has appealed every decision that’s gone against it. “It’s time for them to accept responsibility for this travesty and put an end to the suffering in Detroit,” he said. “Put people back to work and give them the money they’re due.”
Gary Rusnell, a CWA-represented printer, hoped that was going to happen after two legal victories in December — the judge’s ruling and an arbitrator’s decision. “I was vindicated twice,” he said. “I thought my family could get back on track and start our lives again.”
Rusnell was one of hundreds of workers who took part in a sit-down protest in front of the Detroit News building on Aug. 30, 1996. Many activists, including Foley, were arrested.
Rusnell, who began work at the Free Press in 1969, wasn’t arrested. But the company fired him anyway, claiming he blocked access to the building. The arbitrator didn’t buy it, saying the evidence showed that “Mr. Rusnell did nothing whatsoever to impede movement . . . ”
The decision by the administrative law judge wasn’t all good news. He ruled against 37 employees, who Mleczko said were fired after participating in protests nearly identical to the August event. The union is appealing.
“We were dismayed,” he said. “On the one hand, the judge reversed firings for civil disobedience. On the other hand, he upheld them. There wasn’t any consistency in the decision.”
One of the 37 was Kate DeSmet, a reporter at the Detroit News for 17 years. Defying logic, the company fired her three times during the strike. She has no intention of giving up the fight.
“I said to a union officer when we had just walked out that I felt I was born for this moment,” DeSmet said. “I’d been so disgusted with the way journalism was going, so disgusted with Gannett, so disgusted with editors. I was flying high. I thought, ‘Now I have a voice.’”
“They’re taking their usual militant position,” said Lou Mleczko, president of TNG-CWA Local 22. “Their attitude is, ‘We hate the NLRB and we’re challenging everything.”
Detroit Newspapers Inc. employees have spent nearly five years out of work because of the 20-month strike and the subsequent, ongoing lockout. The appeal to the full National Labor Relations Board means it could be months, or longer, before employees know whether they’ll get their jobs back.
The order, from an NLRB administrative law judge, instructed Gannett Co. and Knight-Ridder Inc. to pay back salaries and benefits with interest, remove references to the discharges from personnel files and post notices announcing the decision and promising not to violate employees’ rights.
Linda Foley, president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA, said the ruling, “proves once again the Detroit newspapers will violate the law in order to achieve their goal of busting the union.”
The companies were ordered by a unanimous NLRB ruling in August 1998 to reinstate all fired employees but have refused. Nearly 600 workers are still illegally locked out. The strike involved six unions representing nearly 2,500 employees.
CWA Vice President Bill Boarman, who heads the Printing Sector, said the company has appealed every decision that’s gone against it. “It’s time for them to accept responsibility for this travesty and put an end to the suffering in Detroit,” he said. “Put people back to work and give them the money they’re due.”
Gary Rusnell, a CWA-represented printer, hoped that was going to happen after two legal victories in December — the judge’s ruling and an arbitrator’s decision. “I was vindicated twice,” he said. “I thought my family could get back on track and start our lives again.”
Rusnell was one of hundreds of workers who took part in a sit-down protest in front of the Detroit News building on Aug. 30, 1996. Many activists, including Foley, were arrested.
Rusnell, who began work at the Free Press in 1969, wasn’t arrested. But the company fired him anyway, claiming he blocked access to the building. The arbitrator didn’t buy it, saying the evidence showed that “Mr. Rusnell did nothing whatsoever to impede movement . . . ”
The decision by the administrative law judge wasn’t all good news. He ruled against 37 employees, who Mleczko said were fired after participating in protests nearly identical to the August event. The union is appealing.
“We were dismayed,” he said. “On the one hand, the judge reversed firings for civil disobedience. On the other hand, he upheld them. There wasn’t any consistency in the decision.”
One of the 37 was Kate DeSmet, a reporter at the Detroit News for 17 years. Defying logic, the company fired her three times during the strike. She has no intention of giving up the fight.
“I said to a union officer when we had just walked out that I felt I was born for this moment,” DeSmet said. “I’d been so disgusted with the way journalism was going, so disgusted with Gannett, so disgusted with editors. I was flying high. I thought, ‘Now I have a voice.’”