Action! Motown '97

DETROIT

Some 25,000 union members from around the nation put on their walking shoes and sang, marched and rallied in Michigan June 21-23 to protest union-busting tactics used by Detroit’s daily newspapers.

More than 300 AFSCME members from as far away as Washington, D.C., and Oregon joined with the locked-out workers and members of the Teamsters, United Auto Workers and many other AFL-CIO affiliates in marching through Detroit.

Two days before the rally and march, Detroit Newspapers, the agency which operates both the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, was found guilty by a federal judge of bad-faith bargaining that caused and prolonged the 23-month-long strike and lockout.

The judge ordered the newspapers to immediately rehire their employees. Of the 2,500 daily newspaper employees in Detroit who walked out on strike nearly two years ago, some 1,500 are believed to be living in the Detroit area and want to return to their old jobs.

Instead of bargaining in good faith with the unions, however, the papers have decided to appeal.

Mark Oster, 44, president of AFSCME Local 1780 (Council 8) in Springfield, Ohio, and Duane Patton, 42, the local’s financial secretary, traveled to Detroit because, Oster said, "at times like these all unions need to stand together."

John Craanen, 41, vice president of Local 292 (Council 25) of Trenton, Mich., brought his son Chris, 9, to the march to orient him to "the struggles we have in making a living in this world of budget cuts and downsizing and business closings."

Michigan AFSCME Council 25 Pres. Flora Walker said local AFSCME members walked picket lines against the Detroit daily newspaper advertisers, raised money to help strikers pay their bills, have leafleted areas with pro-striker bulletins and picketed in front of both Detroit daily papers and in front of their editors’ homes.

"We’re in for the long haul," said Walker, who is also an International vice president.