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Detroit Printers Affirm Right To Arbitrate Strike Discharges: Judge Orders Publishers to Abide by Co
A federal district court judge has ordered the Detroit Newspaper Agency (DNA) to proceed with arbitration over reinstatement and back pay claims by 16 printers represented by the Detroit Typographical Union No. 18 (DTU), Communications Workers of America.
The decision was one of two setbacks for Detroit Newspaper management in the past week. On Sunday, March 8, printers voted by a substantial margin to reject management's offer to buy them out of their lifetime job guarantees for $70,000 a piece.
"Fact is slowly replacing the outrageous fiction that Detroit's publishers have attempted to create to mask their behavior. It's gratifying to see that our union is helping to tear down DNA's house of cards and force the publishers to live by the same rules that govern the rest of us," declared Bill Boarman, president of the CWA Printing, Publishing and Media Workers Sector, DTU's parent organization
The six Detroit newspaper unions offered to end their two-year strike against Knight Ridder and Gannett in mid-February of last year. However, the publishers refused to return most of the striking union members to their previous jobs-including nine CWA printers allegedly discharged over strike related activities and another seven over age 65 who, management claimed, were ineligible to retain their lifetime job guarantees. DNA claims that a 1974 contract with the printers established an age limit of 65 for lifetime guarantee holders.
Judge Julian Abel Cook, Jr., turned aside management arguments which urged the court to void the job guarantees. The publishers also argued that printers' discharges could not be grieved or arbitrated because the union contract had expired before the workers were fired.
Judge Cook ruled substantial precedent exists for using grievance and arbitration procedures to resolve disputes which "arise under" contracts - even expired contracts; and that the right to lifetime job guarantees does not extinguish even if the agreement establishing those rights expires.
"DNA's arguments against arbitration are unpersuasive," Judge Cook wrote, adding: "DNA's primary argument is that no job guarantees existed during the strike and [that there are] union members who turned 65 before the return to work offer was made."
Sam McKnight, the attorney representing both DTU and its co-plaintiffs, GCIU Local 13-N, said Cook's decision effectively gives all the discharged printers at least two windows of legal opportunity for reinstatement - including the arbitration decision and coverage under earlier NLRB findings that the discharged printers were among strikers who must be offered reinstatement as unfair labor practice strikers.
Some of the 16 involved will have three reinstatement options, he said, as they also are part of a class of 85 who had been determined to be unlawfully discharged in another NLRB case.
The decision was one of two setbacks for Detroit Newspaper management in the past week. On Sunday, March 8, printers voted by a substantial margin to reject management's offer to buy them out of their lifetime job guarantees for $70,000 a piece.
"Fact is slowly replacing the outrageous fiction that Detroit's publishers have attempted to create to mask their behavior. It's gratifying to see that our union is helping to tear down DNA's house of cards and force the publishers to live by the same rules that govern the rest of us," declared Bill Boarman, president of the CWA Printing, Publishing and Media Workers Sector, DTU's parent organization
The six Detroit newspaper unions offered to end their two-year strike against Knight Ridder and Gannett in mid-February of last year. However, the publishers refused to return most of the striking union members to their previous jobs-including nine CWA printers allegedly discharged over strike related activities and another seven over age 65 who, management claimed, were ineligible to retain their lifetime job guarantees. DNA claims that a 1974 contract with the printers established an age limit of 65 for lifetime guarantee holders.
Judge Julian Abel Cook, Jr., turned aside management arguments which urged the court to void the job guarantees. The publishers also argued that printers' discharges could not be grieved or arbitrated because the union contract had expired before the workers were fired.
Judge Cook ruled substantial precedent exists for using grievance and arbitration procedures to resolve disputes which "arise under" contracts - even expired contracts; and that the right to lifetime job guarantees does not extinguish even if the agreement establishing those rights expires.
"DNA's arguments against arbitration are unpersuasive," Judge Cook wrote, adding: "DNA's primary argument is that no job guarantees existed during the strike and [that there are] union members who turned 65 before the return to work offer was made."
Sam McKnight, the attorney representing both DTU and its co-plaintiffs, GCIU Local 13-N, said Cook's decision effectively gives all the discharged printers at least two windows of legal opportunity for reinstatement - including the arbitration decision and coverage under earlier NLRB findings that the discharged printers were among strikers who must be offered reinstatement as unfair labor practice strikers.
Some of the 16 involved will have three reinstatement options, he said, as they also are part of a class of 85 who had been determined to be unlawfully discharged in another NLRB case.