BY JOHN SARGE AND DOUG DOUTHAT

DETROIT - "The Metro Detroit Service Stations strongly advise all gas station members to stop selling the Detroit News and Free Press until further notice." This is the opening sentence in an April 20 letter to the 600-plus members of a predominantly Arab- American small business group. It gave a big boost to the circulation boycott being organized by the members of six unions on strike against this city's two daily newspapers.

Some 2,500 editorial, production and distribution workers walked out July 13 against the News, Free Press, and Detroit Newspaper Agency, which manages production, circulation, and advertising for both newspapers.

More than 2,000 workers remain on strike, fighting the company's attempt to cut jobs and wages, and push back working conditions and the right to negotiate jointly.

The Arab-American gas station owners called for the boycott after the struck papers refused to run an advertisement against the Israeli assault on southern Lebanon. A Lebanese gas station operator explained that the newspapers raised the price for the half-page ad three times, which the organization agreed to pay, before refusing it. "No News and Free Press Wanted Here" yard signs, prominent in many working-class neighborhoods, are now appearing in front of gas stations that were selling the papers.

Striking newspaper workers continue to reach out and win new support as their strike enters its 10th month. The month of April opened with a demonstration by 2,000 auto workers and others attending the United Auto Workers (UAW) Bargaining Convention in downtown Detroit. They joined hundreds of strikers in the largest rally at the News editorial offices since Labor Day.

Striking newspapers workers and their supporters then gathered April 14 to protest the continuing refusal of the companies to negotiate. The meeting also marked the opening of the trial of nine unfair labor practice charges brought by the National Labor Relations Board against the newspapers for refusing to negotiate in good faith before the strike began.

Strike support rally
Some 2,000 people, about 80 percent of them strikers, filled the ballroom in Detroit's Cobo Hall to listen to speeches by national and local labor officials, including John Sweeney and Richard Trumka from the national AFL-CIO; Ron Carey, international president of the Teamsters union; and Linda Foley, president of the Newspaper Guild. The main activities they projected were fund- raisers and the weekly campaign of symbolic civil disobedience, organized by Readers United.

At the rally Al Derey, chair of the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions and head of striking Teamsters Local 372, responded to press reports that his local had offered to make a separate settlement with the newspapers. "This strike started with six unions standing together and that's how it's going to end," he said.

The indoor rally was followed by a march to the Detroit News Building. Addressing marchers there, U.S. representative John Conyers blamed immigrant workers, a frequent refrain of his.

The congressman told protesters, "I'm going to talk to our friend [Attorney General] Janet Reno about where these people from outside the U.S. are coming from to be scabs. They're crossing right here at the Windsor-Detroit border." He also threatened to organize pickets at convenience stores owned by Chaldean immigrants from Iraq if they did not stop selling the scab papers.

Although Conyers is popular with many strikers because he has attended many of their protests, his attacks on immigrants worry some unionists. At least two strikers told these reporters they planned to "talk to him" about his remarks.

Strikers also report that their speakers bureau is having a big effect. In April strikers traveled to New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Dayton, Ohio, and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the newspaper bosses aren't backing off from their union-busting drive. The boycott called by the Arab-American businessmen occurred just before Knight-Ridder, the parent corporation of the Free Press, held its annual stockholders meeting in Miami. Twenty strikers took part, confronting the board of directors with a Free Press internal report that shows circulation is at least 30 percent below last year's level.

The following day the Free Press declared a bargaining impasse and imposed its last offer to the Newspaper Guild. The proposal included a merit pay plan, which allows the company to decide who gets pay raises, and an open shop clause.

The companies have declared more than 100 unionists fired for strike activity, and the list is growing. One striker said he recently received a letter firing him for something the company claimed occurred last fall. When asked what the notice meant to him, the worker replied, "Nothing. I'm still here and I'll be here until the company signs a contract."

John Sarge is a member of UAW Local 900 and Doug Douthat is a member of UAW Local 247 in Detroit.  
 
 
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