Their 80 percent margin of rejection was matched by composition room strikers from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), who turned down a similar contract by 51 to 6. The CWA is also the parent union of the Guild.

Following the press conference outside strike headquarters, the strikers marched to the main entrance of the Seattle Times, where they joined pickets in an impromptu rally. The boisterous crowd of 50 strikers and their supporters shouted to management inside the building, "Union busting--that's disgusting" and "We're still here, Frank," referring to the paper's owner, Frank Blethen.

The Guild's chief negotiator, Bruce Meachum, stood on a chair and declared, "I see you standing tall. When they take on one of us, they take on all of us." The celebratory crowd shouted to the company's strikebreaking security guards, who are constantly videoing the strikers, "Film this!"

The latest contract offer by the Times included a few changes from the original prestrike proposal. It would increase the company's payments to the workers' medical plan and eliminate, over a three-year period, a two-tier wage scale for journalists in suburban areas.

On the central issue of wages, the offer of no more than $3.30 an hour in raises over a six-year contract remained unchanged. The offer also included incentives for early retirement.

Strikers explained, however, that the main reason for voting down the contract proposal was the company's demand that workers who crossed the picket line and others hired to replace the strikers would be given seniority rights over strikers during layoffs.

Times bosses have warned they will lay off 10 percent of the workforce due to millions of dollars in losses from the strike, which now has lasted almost a month and a half.

They state that those laid off will have recall rights for one year but their callback will depend on how many people take early retirement. The Times has hired 68 replacement workers so far.

Yoko Kuramoto-Eidsmoe, a features copy editor at the Times for four years, explained her support for the strikers who would be replaced and added, "It seems like a totally union-busting contract to me. The new contract [says that] one month out of the year people can opt out of union membership, encouraging people to be agency fee payers instead."

Before the contract vote, Guild member and striker Michael Upchurch, who is the main book critic at the Times, explained, "They gave us a little sweetener with the medical coverage. [They would pay] 75 percent of medical instead of 66 percent This made some people think about accepting. But if they give preference to scabs and permanent hires, then that's unacceptable. It'll be voted down."  
 
Employees at 'P-I' accept a contract
Two days before the strike vote at the Times, the Guild, which represents about 130 newsroom workers at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer voted 88 to 29 to accept a contract offer and return to work. The offer was similar to that from the Times except that management did not hire replacement workers during the 38 days of the P-I strike and had no demands in its contract proposal to replace and not call back strikers. The Times and P-I management have a joint operating agreement that includes separate newsrooms, while the Times handles the publishing and circulation of both papers. Almost all the replacement workers hired by the Times have been in the advertising and circulation departments.

Many strikers from the Times and others who had been on strike at the P-I express support for the decision to go back to work at the Post-Intelligencer, explaining that the bosses there are taking everyone back and that this move puts Frank Blethen, owner of the Times, in an even more indefensible position.

Some, on the other hand, said in interviews that they aren't sure splitting off a section of the strikers was the best thing for the union. They cited the fact that the joint operating agreement between the papers means that any profits brought in by the P-I would be shared with the Times. Drivers belonging to Teamsters Local 174 noted that the P-I will be delivered by replacement workers.

At the same time, the Guild unit at the P-I has pledged to support the Times strikers in other ways, including by launching a $10,000 strike fund. A number of the P-I workers have joined the picket line since they voted to go back to work, and about 15 organized a show of support outside one of the Times's contract vote meetings.

One of these unionists, Kimberly Wilson, a reporter for four years at the P-I, talked of their situation. The contract "wasn't what we hoped for. I think it shows slightly more willingness to negotiate than Blethen," she said. "I think people will help the Times strikers. I'd be ashamed if we didn't. I don't think people should be punished for striking."  
 
Support from Teamsters
Strikers are also watching closely the developments with the Teamsters. Local 174, which organizes drivers at the Times, has honored the strike from the beginning. Their contract expires at the end of February.

Like many other Teamsters, Dan Gaines, who has been driving for the paper for six months, is firmly behind the strike. He has an assigned shift on three days of the week and is on call for the other four. He makes $12 an hour and averages only 28 hours a week.

"My faith has changed," Gaines said while picketing one evening just before New Year's. "I would have never thought before that 94 drivers could ever get support from 900 Guild members. But after this strike, I think they'll be with us."

Teamsters Local 763, which organizes almost 600 workers at the Times, mostly mailers and others who insert the advertising supplements in the paper, has not supported the strike. Jon Rabine, head of the local and also an international vice president of the Teamsters, is seen by many workers as the main force holding back solidarity from Local 763.

In a development many unionists consider related to the Times strike, Rabine was recently defeated in the Local 763 elections by Dave Reynolds. Reynolds has expressed support for the Guild strike but has yet to make any public commitment to help organize Local 763 members to solidarize with the strikers.

At the urging of U.S. Senator Patricia Murray, talks between union and company negotiators with federal mediator C. Richard Barnes have been set for Washington, D.C.

These talks come, however, as the Times owners continue to employ permanent replacement workers and threaten to hire more if the mediation doesn't give them what they want. They are also keeping the Vance Security firm's strikebreaking goons on their property. And they have repeated their contract demand that replacement workers remain on the job ahead of strikers.

In face of the company's attacks, the resolve of the strikers and their supporters remains strong. Carol Marshall, a press operator at the Times for six years and a member of the Graphics Communications International Union (GCIU), explained that, while her union is not sanctioning the strike, she and 14 other members of the GCIU are honoring the picket lines. "We get together once or twice a week at church," she said, "and pray and talk about the strike and how we'll all go back in together. When people see unity like this it motivates the community to support us."

Ernest Mailhot is a meat packer and a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 81. Cecelia Moriarity contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home