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Detroit papers OK offer
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February 19, 1997: 8:15 p.m. ET
Strikers to be put on hiring list; unions certain to file grievance
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) -- Detroit's two major newspapers Wednesday accepted the offer of six striking unions to return to work, ending a bitter 19-month-old walkout in one of America's staunchest union towns.
The Detroit News and the Free Press agreed to the unconditional offer, which was presented Friday.
The dispute, though, is far from over. The papers, which are run under a joint operating agreement, proposed a four-point plan to bring back the workers, but there was no guarantee of jobs for the strikers.
The papers said the workers will be placed on a preferential hiring list for job openings as they occur.
Although many strikers have found jobs during the walkout, the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions, an umbrella group representing the six unions, is certain to file a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board if every worker who wishes to return is not offered a job.
About 2,500 employees -- including pressmen, truck drivers, reporters and editors -- went on strike in July 1995 after contract talks over wages, work rules, union jurisdiction, job cuts and health care costs collapsed.
The papers have published every day since the strike began, although early on they only published a single joint edition. More than 400 of the original strikers have crossed picket lines. The papers have hired about 1,400 replacements.
The unions said its return-to-work offer was not an act of surrender but a tactic to expose the papers to huge financial losses if they do not agree to a fair contract.
In addition to the hiring list, the papers also plan to set up a retraining fund for workers who do return and a relocation fund for those who pursue opportunities elsewhere. They also vow not to contest future unemployment claims.
"It is our hope that all the rhetoric and finger-pointing will subside and that all interested parties will examine our plan with an open mind, with the recognition that there are many details to work out in the coming days and weeks and, finally, that reconciliation is part of our purpose," Robert Giles, editor and publisher of the News, said.
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