The end of an era for labor in Detroit was made obvious by the loss of the Detroit newspaper workers' strike.
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/1998-May/009617.html INTERVIEW WITH DETROIT NEWSPAPER STRIKER BARB INGALLS [Editor's note: On July 13, 1995, some 2,500 employees of the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press went on strike against owners Gannett and Knight-Ridder, who had been trying for some time to bust the unions at the two papers. Thirty-three months later, the strike continues. The Action Coalition of Strikers and Supporters (ACOSS) sponsored a speaking tour so that the strikers could educate the public, gain support across the West Coast and promote a nationwide boycott of USA Today. After they were locked out, some of the strikers started the Sunday Journal, a Detroit weekly striker-run newspaper funded entirely by advertising. At the forefront of the struggle is Barb Ingalls, a 41-year-old graphic designer who had been working at the Detroit newspapers for one year and one week when the strikers were locked out in 1995. Barb is a member of Detroit Typographical Union Local 18 as well as a member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Today her strike job is classified as director for the Sunday Journal with, as she puts it, "a minor in mischief and mayhem." Barb is incredibly outspoken, articulate, and passionate about the strikers' cause. The following is an excerpt of an interview Barb Ingalls granted while she was on a speaking tour in Oregon. The interviewer is Amanda Levinson.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What kind of press, if any, are the strikers getting in Detroit and nationally? Are you finding that the community is supportive? BARB INGALLS: One of our people went to the Media and Democracy Forum last fall in New York City and met with a couple of people from the New York Times, and they just said, "It's old, it's boring news, and we're not going to write about you." Public radio is really a bad joke. In fact, in the local NPR [National Public Radio] station, one of their people is a really important scab who crossed our picket line. We had 100,000 people for a labor march, one of the largest labor marches in the United States last June, and the local station said it was 7,000 people. We have to rely on going door to door. When people find out that we're still [on strike], they're incredulous, they're supportive. We've had people call when we're right there and cancel their subscriptions [to the Free Press and the News]. But we're working in the dark. We have radio ads that none of the stations will play. They won't buy them, they say that they're too controversial. We have newspaper ads which only one newspaper would buy. We're under a total media blackout. I am representing a group called ACOSS, which is Action Coalition of Strikers and Supporters, and what's happened is that we got really tired of waiting for the courts, and we got tired of waiting for them to grow hearts -- it's not going to happen. So a group of really wonderful people around the country have networked and brainstormed and put these tours together. Word of mouth is what has kept us alive, and my joke is that if I have to talk to everybody in America one by one, I'll do it. PT: What do you see in the future of the strike and what are the things you need to really win? BI: I believe really strongly that this strike isn't just about Detroit. It's a national issue about union busting. So what we need to do is to stay on the road. We need crews of people out on the road in Arlington, Virginia, where Gannett's headquarters are, and we need to have people there working the streets and getting publicity and raising hell and having demonstrations and making it embarrassing. We need to be able to continue the ad boycott and costing them money. We're trying to spark a nationwide boycott of USA Today. USA Today is Gannett's No. 1 money maker. We're also trying to raise money across the country. What's important right now is that the people on strike and a lot of the community supporters have decided that we can't go on like this, waiting and waiting for the courts to work. When they write the history of the strike, and the victory of it, it's going to be because people wouldn't put up with it anymore and came up with these ways to deal with it and ended it. It's going to end up being the workers' strike and the workers' victory. To support the strike, you can send money to: Detroit Newspaper Striker Relief Fund, 450 W. Fort Street, Detroit, Michigan 48226. You're also encouraged to visit the Sunday Journal website at http://www.rust.net/~workers/strike.html For more information on ACOSS, write: Action Coalition of Strikers and Supporters, 5750 Fifteen Mile Road Box 242, Sterling Heights, Michigan 48310-5777 or visit the website at http://members.aol.com/actmotown/index.html ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition), Vol. 25 No. 5 / May, 1998; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654, pt at noc.org or WWW: http://www.mcs.com/~league This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis