Daily News strike reaches third month as workers combat union-busting boss

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Send order money (include cents postage) to 3435 Army.St. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. Rm. for SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1991 5 NEW YORK-"The Daily News strikers are fighting for all of us," United Mine Workers President Richard Trumka said on Dec. 10. "If they win, all working people win. If they lose, we all lose."

Trumka was speaking to 10,000 cheering workers who had gathered to demonstrate their support for the unions on strike at the New York Daily News.

Such rallies, called by the Allied Printing Trades Council and backed by New York City's Central Labor Council, have become regular occurrences outside the Daily News headquarters in midtown Manhattan since the strike began on Oct. 26.

The official demands of the rally, as at all the other rallies, were "Ban Replacement Workers!" "End Attacks on Working People!" and "Keep New York a Union Town!"

In addition to bolstering the morale of the strikers on the picket lines, the rallies have also struck a deep chord among the most conscious labor activists in the city. Leaders of AFSCME unions, whose own members are facing massive cutbacks and layoffs, have pledged their support.

Some labor leaders (such as Barry Feinstein of the Teamsters and Sonny Hall of the transit workers) have threatened strike action in industries where the reactionary Taylor Law forbids strikes. This is a development that has not been seen since Mike Quill and the militant transit strikes in the 1960s and reflects pressure from the ranks.

Democratic Party "friends"

Archbishop of New York, Cardinal O'Conner, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, also spoke at the Dec. 10 rally. It has become something of a fashion for Democratic Party officials to show up at these strike events. Their appearance has been encouraged by the News union leadership in the name of reaching out for allies.

Most unionists, nevertheless, are not fooled by these fake friends of labor. After Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo spoke on Dec. 10, hailing the union movement as "a source of justice in this country," New York City AFSCME leaders condemned his talk as a cynical attempt to garner support from labor. They noted that his appearance came immediately after he had announced massive cutbacks and layoffs of up to 10,000 state workers.

Black, Latino, and Asian labor leaders were also prominent on the speakers platform at the Dec. 10 rally. This was an important development; racial minorities make up 55 percent of the organized labor movement in New York City.

In a move-astounding in its cynicism— to race-bait the strike, the Daily News management has portrayed its strikebreaking campaign as a fight against racism in the unions and a way to open job opportunities for minorities. Ironically, in a 1986 court case the News was found guilty of race discrimination against its own employees!

How do these union-busters "fight racism?" Every morning at 5 a.m., hundreds of homeless men and women-mostly Black-—line up with their shopping carts at militancy on picketline the Daily News headquarters to receive their free bundle of the scab newspaper from a management desperate to have papers sold on the city's subways.

The bosses claim "progress"

The Dec. 10 rally was carefully timed to happen on the eve of a quarterly board of directors meeting of the newspaper's owner, the Chicago-based Tribune Corporation. Some union officials had hoped that the strikers' success in crippling distribution of the paper would lead to an announcement that the owners would either settle with the union or sell the paper to someone who would. ("Settle or Sell" was the headline of the first edition of the strikers' Real News paper.)

Indeed, the financial report presented by publisher James Hoge confirmed the success of the strike in hitting the newspaper where it hurts—in its pocketbook. Revenues have dropped $100 million since the strike began. Management, however, still claimed to have a paid circulation of 600,000 (pre-strike circulation was 1.1 million). But industry analysts estimate it is closer to 350,000.

Nevertheless, the Tribune board reaffirmed its "complete support" for the Daily News management. "It is the opinion... that we are making progress," Hoge told the press after the board meeting. This was a signal to both business and labor that the Tribune is prepared to throw the full weight and capital of its media empire into the effort to break the The "progress" Hoge was hoping for was revealed on Dec. 12 when labor and management met with federal mediators in Washington, D.C., for the first time since the strike began. In a transparent attempt to divide the drivers' union from the seven other striking unions, management refused to meet with the unions collectively. It continued to insist on absolute "management rights" in regard to work rules.

But the unions held fast. The two demands they raised that had to be resolved before their members could return to work were: a guarantee that all strikers be allowed to return to their jobs after a settlement, and an agreement that management drop a $150 million damage suit against the unions.

Shift to political terrain Although the Daily News bosses continue to publish their scab editions unchallenged, they've lost most of their advertisers and distributors. The front line of the strike is now shifting to the political terrain. The Tribune media empire is counting on its political allies among politicians, in the courts, and in the media. In response, labor must forge its own political strategy based on the independent power of labor and its natural allies.

From the outset, the Daily News strike involved stakes far greater than the jobs of 2600 newspaper workers—as important as they are. Coming on the heels of other important labor struggles (such as the strikes at Hormel, Eastern, Greyhound, and Pittston Coal), the Daily News strike rapidly became a fight for a labor movement that is faced with givebacks, layoffs, and the use of replacement workers.

Instinctively, organized labor in the New York City area sensed that if we lose this one, there would be no stopping the unionDemocracy in America: Fact and Fiction Dynamics of the Nicaraguan Revolution by Alan Benjamin and Jeff Mackler ($1.50) How Can Labor Fight Back? A Strategy for Today by Nat Weinstein and Carl Finamore ($1.25)

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Unfortunately, the power of the strike has been undercut by the union leadership's definition of a victory as being a settlement along the lines of the massive givebacks agreed to by New York Post workers last September.

At the same time, union leaders are pushing a strategy (through labor lawyer and advisor Theodore Kheel) of trying to force the sale of the paper to a "better" boss. The new owner, presumably, would be one who could extract givebacks by means of deals with the union bureaucracy instead of using more blatant strikebreaking methods.

Militancy continues in streets But despite the backroom maneuvering by the union leadership, the Daily News strikers have shown a strong resolve to fight back. The militancy of the rank and file continues to be expressed on the picketlines and in the streets. Over 100 newspaper workers have been arrested since the strike began.

Using the best tactics of American labor's proud history (such as "flying" squads, the Real News strike newspaper, and reaching out to newsstand workers), the strikers have captured the imagination of thousands of workers.

Under the specific local conditions, the decision by the union to attack the weak link in management's $40 million strategy-distribution at the city's newsstands-met with success. This was due to the concentration of workers (many of whom are in unions under similar attacks) in neighborhoods throughout the city. However, reliance on a national "corporate campaign" boycott of Tribune holdings, as some labor leaders suggest, would not be nearly as effective.

The Daily News strikers can learn from the miners who fought Pittston Coal in 1989. Although they resorted to a corporate campaign, the miners maintained militant picket lines at the point of production. That and the "wildcat" strikes in other regions made the threat of a national coal strike a reality and brought about a settlement. As Miners President Richard Trumka said at the Dec. 10 rally, "Every time the labor movement listens to lawyers, it loses its courage."

Mass rallies have been useful organizing tools both for the miners and the Daily News strikers. But such events should be seen not merely as occasions for the workers to let off steam and the union bureaucrats to let off hot air. The rallies can increase the momentum for building mass picket lines at the newspaper plant.

Top priority should be placed on shutting production down tight. Implementation of this strategy would probably mean losing the phony "support" of the Cuomos and other Democratic Party politicians.

But it will be more than compensated for by the gain of an aroused, independent labor movement fighting for its own interests and relying on the ranks of labor and its allies.

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