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Contracts Bring End to Guild’s Five-Year Fight in Detroit
Ending an epic labor dispute that lasted more than five years, members of The Newspaper Guild-CWA in Detroit overwhelmingly — if reluctantly — ratified final-offer contracts Nov. 12.
While the terms of the contracts fell short of the union’s goals, the fact that there are contracts at all after such a long, bitter fight is a victory, leaders said.
“That we were able to achieve contracts with both newspapers in Detroit is a testament to the strength and tenacity of the members there,” TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said. “Because of their solidarity and unrelenting quest for justice, the Guild will continue at the Detroit newspapers and live to fight another day.”
Nearly 500 Guild members were among 2,500 Detroit newspaper workers who went on strike in July 1995. Twenty months later, the workers made an unconditional offer to return to work, but were locked out.
“We’ve felt all along our cause was just,” Lou Mleczko, president of TNG-CWA Local 34022 said. “I have no regrets about what we did five years ago and what we are forced to do now.”
Members were backed into taking the company’s final offer after a devastating decision in July by three judges on the 11-member D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The judges’ ruling overturned a unanimous National Labor Relations Board decision that had found the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press and their joint newspaper agency guilty of unfair labor practices.
“After a long, tedious process, the NLRB board ordered that restitution be paid, strikers taken back, discharges overturned,” Mleczko said. “Three very conservative federal judges reversed it. What they did was a travesty.”
Many of the workers affected by the new contracts have already returned to the papers. As the law requires, they were reinstated as positions came open, based on seniority lists provided by the unions. Mleczko said only a dozen Guild members are still on the recall list.
That doesn’t include workers who were fired for taking part in strike-related protests. In all, 148 workers were fired, 23 of them Guild members. Although courts have ruled that most of the firings were illegal, the companies are continuing to appeal. Only one of the 23 Guild members has been re-hired.
CWA Printing Sector workers in Detroit returned to their jobs in the summer of 1999 after settling contracts that left openings for wages and other matters pending the outcome of the other unions’ negotiations. All Printing Sector members who were fired for strike activities have been reinstated.
The three new contracts will give most workers 2 percent annual wage increases through 2004. All Free Press workers will receive the raise, but News employees who are paid above union scale are only eligible for merit pay — one of the issues that led to the original ULP charges.
All workers are to be paid bonuses of $1,000 to $3,000 if circulation increases significantly. But Mleczko said bonuses are unlikely given the success of the unions’ boycott, which cost the papers more than 300,000 readers.
“They (managers) admitted to us at the bargaining table and in stories after the court decision that our boycott hurt them substantially,” he said. “The very fact that they wanted to sign contracts with us shows they still need us in order to have a viable enterprise in Detroit.”
While the terms of the contracts fell short of the union’s goals, the fact that there are contracts at all after such a long, bitter fight is a victory, leaders said.
“That we were able to achieve contracts with both newspapers in Detroit is a testament to the strength and tenacity of the members there,” TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said. “Because of their solidarity and unrelenting quest for justice, the Guild will continue at the Detroit newspapers and live to fight another day.”
Nearly 500 Guild members were among 2,500 Detroit newspaper workers who went on strike in July 1995. Twenty months later, the workers made an unconditional offer to return to work, but were locked out.
“We’ve felt all along our cause was just,” Lou Mleczko, president of TNG-CWA Local 34022 said. “I have no regrets about what we did five years ago and what we are forced to do now.”
Members were backed into taking the company’s final offer after a devastating decision in July by three judges on the 11-member D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The judges’ ruling overturned a unanimous National Labor Relations Board decision that had found the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press and their joint newspaper agency guilty of unfair labor practices.
“After a long, tedious process, the NLRB board ordered that restitution be paid, strikers taken back, discharges overturned,” Mleczko said. “Three very conservative federal judges reversed it. What they did was a travesty.”
Many of the workers affected by the new contracts have already returned to the papers. As the law requires, they were reinstated as positions came open, based on seniority lists provided by the unions. Mleczko said only a dozen Guild members are still on the recall list.
That doesn’t include workers who were fired for taking part in strike-related protests. In all, 148 workers were fired, 23 of them Guild members. Although courts have ruled that most of the firings were illegal, the companies are continuing to appeal. Only one of the 23 Guild members has been re-hired.
CWA Printing Sector workers in Detroit returned to their jobs in the summer of 1999 after settling contracts that left openings for wages and other matters pending the outcome of the other unions’ negotiations. All Printing Sector members who were fired for strike activities have been reinstated.
The three new contracts will give most workers 2 percent annual wage increases through 2004. All Free Press workers will receive the raise, but News employees who are paid above union scale are only eligible for merit pay — one of the issues that led to the original ULP charges.
All workers are to be paid bonuses of $1,000 to $3,000 if circulation increases significantly. But Mleczko said bonuses are unlikely given the success of the unions’ boycott, which cost the papers more than 300,000 readers.
“They (managers) admitted to us at the bargaining table and in stories after the court decision that our boycott hurt them substantially,” he said. “The very fact that they wanted to sign contracts with us shows they still need us in order to have a viable enterprise in Detroit.”