Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 08:49:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Paul Zarembka <zarembka-AT-acsu.buffalo.edu>
Subject: M-I: Call of Newspaper Guild, Local 22, for mass Detroit march


My union local of 21,000 has endorsed this call over the weekend and we
should try to get as much support as possible.  It can be a dramatic show
of international solidarity as Windsor, Ontario, is planning its shutdown
across the border on the same day!  Paul Zarembka

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>From jdav-AT-MCS.COM Thu Jan 30 07:59:07 1997
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 1997 16:54:29 -0600
From: Jim Davis <jdav-AT-MCS.COM>
Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <LABOR-L-AT-YORKU.CA>
To: Multiple recipients of list LABOR-L <LABOR-L-AT-YORKU.CA>
Subject: Newspaper strikers appeal...
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
...
6. NEWSPAPER STRIKERS APPEAL FOR NATIONAL LABOR MARCH ON DETROIT

By the Newspaper Guild of Detroit (Local 22)

We are newspaper workers who have been on strike since July 13,
1995 against the Detroit News, owned by Gannett, and the Detroit
Free Press, owned by Knight-Ridder. We were forced to strike by
these greedy billionaire newspaper chains who are out to bust our
unions and deny us and our families a decent livelihood.

Gannett and Knight-Ridder are demanding the elimination of
hundreds of our jobs as well as take-aways that would gut our
contracts. In a public statement made a month after the strike
began, Robert Giles, editor and publisher of the Detroit News,
said: "We're going to hire a whole new work force and go on
without unions, or they can surrender unconditionally and salvage
what they can."

That has been the publishers' position from the beginning and it
has not changed in all these months. They are taking heavy
financial losses in Detroit as a result of the strike, but they
are prepared to absorb such losses to achieve their main
objective: Bust the unions.

We believe the labor movement can stop them, that the Detroit
newspaper strike can be won through labor solidarity and strength
demonstrated in a massive national mobilization of the entire
labor movement.

At its August 1996 meeting, the AFL-CIO Executive Council
considered a proposal for a National Labor March on Detroit.
Although the proposal was endorsed by the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO
and the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions (made up of all
striking Detroit newspaper unions), the AFL-CIO Executive Council
did not issue a call.

Now that the national election campaigns are over, we are
appealing to unions around the country and supporters of our
strike to join us in urging AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the
Executive Council to reconsider. A national labor march on Detroit
will show Gannett and Knight-Ridder that all of labor supports
this struggle -- physically as well as financially. And it can
help spur united labor actions in cities around the country
directed against Gannett and Knight-Ridder facilities, including
USA Today.

We believe we must act now because the future of the labor
movement will be critically affected by the outcome of this
strike. After all, if corporations like Gannett and Knight-Ridder
can break unions in a labor stronghold like Detroit, what union
anywhere is safe from similar union-busting?

It's time for Solidarity Day III, this time in Detroit. Please
send a message to AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., urging
a national labor march on Detroit in support of striking newspaper
workers. And please send a copy to us. We deeply appreciate your
continuing support.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+

Write, fax, call or e-mail:
John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO, 815 16th Street NW, Washington,
D.C. 20006 Fax: 202-508-6946 Phone: 202-637-5000 e-mail:
71112.53-AT-compuserve.com

Internet: http://www.aflcio.org

Copy to:

Dia Pearce, Newspaper Guild of Detroit, 3300 Book Building,
Detroit, Michigan 48226

e-mail: daymon2001-AT-aol.com

******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition),
Vol. 24 No. 2 / February, 1997; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL
60654, pt-AT-noc.org or WWW:
             http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/league.html
For free electronic subscription, email pt-dist-AT-noc.org
with "Subscribe" in the subject line.
Feel free to reproduce; please include this message with
reproductions of this article.
******************************************************************

forwarded by:
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Paul Zarembka, supporting the  RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY  Web site at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka,  and using OS/2 Warp.
*************************************************************************




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