Printers’ Dignity, Union Rights Firmly Intact After Toledo Lockout

CWA printers at the Toledo Blade could write a book about turning lemons into lemonade. Or, in their case, turning a nine-month lockout and a contract with wage cuts into a victory for them and the rest of the unions at the Ohio newspaper.

The concessions were a fraction of what the paper and its team of union-busting attorneys wanted — management rights and anti-union language that could have made future negotiations a moot point.

"They wanted to gut us," Dick Momsen, president of CWA Local 14535, said in late May as the unions were preparing to vote on the contracts. "We're not gutted. We're standing strong."

The 13 printers and 200 Teamsters who were also locked out in August 2006 never wavered in their solidarity. The 300 members of The Newspaper Guild and other union workers at the paper were steadfast in their support, from taking part in parades and pickets to contributing money to help their locked-out colleagues pay bills and hold on to their families' medical coverage.

Guild members, printers and other union members across the country also pitched in, from large donations from locals to a few dollars and good wishes from individual retirees.

Momsen recalled with delight telling company officials April 1 — the day the workers were to lose their health care insurance — that the unions had the premiums covered. "You should have seen their faces," he said. "They thought we were going to be coming to them on our knees."

The unions' solidarity spread throughout the Toledo community, putting even more pressure on the paper. Public officials stood with the unions and 250 advertisers agreed to boycott the paper, as did 35,000 subscribers. For a month last fall, union members hand-delivered advertisements door to door for car dealers who refused to do business with the paper.

"It's the solidarity that pulled this thing all the way through," CWA Printing Sector Representative Linda Morris-Cooley said. "The commitment, the drive, the spirit. It was tremendous."

Printing Sector President Bill Boarman said the unions showed their willingness to help the financially troubled company by agreeing to wage and health benefit rollbacks. But they drew the line at the anti-union language that the company's original attorney — Bob Ballow of the notorious union-busting firm King & Ballow — tried to insert. When the labor and management resumed bargaining in mid-May, Ballow had been replaced by lawyers from another firm.

"Our people really stuck together," Boarman said. "No one caved in. We drove Bob Ballow out of town and most of the really terrible anti-union proposals he wanted — management rights, no strike, no union shop — all went to the side. From that perspective, it was a major victory."