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Support Builds for Striking Youngstown Guild
Despite growing struggles to publish and deliver their newspaper, management at the Vindicator in Youngstown, Ohio, has so far refused to return to the bargaining table to end the seven-week strike by TNG-CWA Local 34011.
Local President Tony Markota said the community - including the full City Council in a resolution - is standing firmly behind the strikers and is widely backing the local's circulation and advertising boycott. CWA-purchased radio spots and ads in the local business journal have boosted community support.
Readers who still subscribe to the normally afternoon paper have been getting it as late as 11 p.m., Markota said, as managers and executives struggle to make deliveries starting early in the morning. All 25 Teamsters who drive delivery trucks are honoring the picket line, as are some paper carriers, he said.
Businesses that still advertise make the "hall of shame" published recently in The Valley Voice, the weekly strike paper. The strike paper is so popular that of the 51,000 published weekly, Markota said he's only got a dozen of the last week's issue left. Read it online at www.valleyvoiceonline.com.
A major car dealer who advertised in the Vindicator and was listed in the Valley Voice decided to pull his business after Markota called and explained that his ads were making it that much harder for the union to get back to the table.
More than 170 newsroom, advertising and circulation workers at the Vindicator have been on strike since Nov. 16 over wage and health care issues. The company's wage offer amounts to just 1 percent for more than half the employees, who haven't had any raises in four years.
Meanwhile, the company is offering premium wages and expense accounts to try to lure reporters from other newspapers around the country. Although a handful of scabs have taken the company up on its offer, Markota said the paper is thin and uninformative without its wealth of reporters who know their beats and sources.
"The support is all there for us," he said. "We're just still trying to convince the company that they're fighting an uphill battle."
Local President Tony Markota said the community - including the full City Council in a resolution - is standing firmly behind the strikers and is widely backing the local's circulation and advertising boycott. CWA-purchased radio spots and ads in the local business journal have boosted community support.
Readers who still subscribe to the normally afternoon paper have been getting it as late as 11 p.m., Markota said, as managers and executives struggle to make deliveries starting early in the morning. All 25 Teamsters who drive delivery trucks are honoring the picket line, as are some paper carriers, he said.
Businesses that still advertise make the "hall of shame" published recently in The Valley Voice, the weekly strike paper. The strike paper is so popular that of the 51,000 published weekly, Markota said he's only got a dozen of the last week's issue left. Read it online at www.valleyvoiceonline.com.
A major car dealer who advertised in the Vindicator and was listed in the Valley Voice decided to pull his business after Markota called and explained that his ads were making it that much harder for the union to get back to the table.
More than 170 newsroom, advertising and circulation workers at the Vindicator have been on strike since Nov. 16 over wage and health care issues. The company's wage offer amounts to just 1 percent for more than half the employees, who haven't had any raises in four years.
Meanwhile, the company is offering premium wages and expense accounts to try to lure reporters from other newspapers around the country. Although a handful of scabs have taken the company up on its offer, Markota said the paper is thin and uninformative without its wealth of reporters who know their beats and sources.
"The support is all there for us," he said. "We're just still trying to convince the company that they're fighting an uphill battle."