NEITHER SIDE BUDGING, MEDIATOR SAYS BALTIMORE PRESS STRIKE LOOKS LIKE A LONG SIEGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100140012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: January 11, 1970
• Content Type: NSPR

"')'I
S1A1~t
.. JAN 1970
STAT
Approved F pr R l ase A- P 01314Rg00100140012-7
"'n r if G'r f 11V c ' ~ `i'iv? ;I,, ! 1n.,
By MARTHA ANGLE Television and radio stations
star Staff R'rtcr have stepped up their news cov-
BALTIJiOFE - "And to thins: erage to some degree, but many
y ?~,?? ,,, F?? ?,,,,,. ! newspaper readers aren't satis-
and stability," said Fatric1
O'Sullivan, more in sorrow than
in anger.
O'Sullivan has found little
"peace and stability" during the
last week. Along with more than
260 other members of Local 31 of
the Web Pressmen's Union,
AFL-CIO, he has been on strike.
The a f f a h I e, sandy-haired
pressman had no trouble finding
his way around the picket lines,
though. "This is my seventh
strike in 17 years," O'Sullivan
explained.
Strike 9 Days Old
The other six were in New
York, where he worked for the
ill-fated Herald Tribune and its
short -lived successor, the
World-Journal-Tribune, O'Sulli-
van has been at the Baltimore
Sun for 2' years.
The Baltimore pressmen,
walked out of the Morning Sung
Evening Sun and News Ameri-
can nine days ago after their old
contract expired and negotia-
tions for a new one broke down.
This practice continues In
some cases. The contracts of
two other unions the inde-
pendent mailers and the printers
-- expired at the same time as .
news on the radio lust isn't as Neither Has Struck
good. You can tell something's While both of these unions are
missing " said 13-year-old Ava-
lon Jackson, a clerk-typist for a honoring the pressmen's picket
sllipf~in;company. lines, neither has declared a
strike. Negotiations are still in
I And a Glen Burnie woman, progress between the publishers
employed as a bank clerk, com- and both unions.
planted that she now has "noth- For the moment, the vast
ing to read" over her lunch majority of the more than 2,500
hour. employes of the Sunpapers and
Politiclsins Miss Papers. New American are not working,
perturbed although supervisory and non-
If by the the a readers of are pernewerturbed union personnel at both plants
so are the news makers. An aide are crossing picket lines to stay
to Mayor Th Thomas Dis'Alcsanhdro on the jab.
For the pressmen, strike bene-
, strike
III
stuff we fits amount to $50 a week. Guild
us? Tsaidhere" 's a lot of roug on
Although the publishers, union
," ... "." a _..__ _ and federal mediator have all We haven t had any real
refused to discuss details of the hardship cases yet, but we sure)
suspended negotiations, it is will have if the strike keeps up
known that the pressmen orii- much longer," a Guild official
nally asked a $37.15 increase in said.
weekly pay over a two-year con- Some union members, particu-
tract. tarty reporters, are grabbing up
?nr ~;.
Members of other unions re-itimore pressmen's wages into cational to l e v i s i o n station,
fused to cross the pressmen's line with those in Washington- ' WMPB-TV, has hired 10 report-
picket lines, and all three papers;The base pay under the old con- ers to help its expanded local
were forced to stop publication. tract was $164 a week. news coverage during the strike.
Baltimore, which had no news- Management reportedly of- Another dozen newsmen have
papers for 47 days during thelfered the union about $32 more pound work at the huge Social
al
1965 strike of the Washington-in a I lst: ee year contract. Security headquarters on sthe
Baltimore Newspaper Guild, ap-I The B a l t I in o r e publishers edge Security
pears headed for another long firmly reject union demands for, But the pressmen are spend-
siege. pay parity with Washington
1 l
Negotiators for the union and newspaper employes. ing their time , on the picket
the publishers haven't met since lines, walking four-hour shifts in
Monday, despite efforts by Mar-i'o cities contrasted bitter cold weather.
tin Komornik, a federal media- "The situations of the two The pressmen were infuriated
tor, to bring the two sides to- cities are totally different," said on Thursday when the Baltimore
gather. Donald Patterson, general man- city health department, acting
"Both sides say they're willing ages and vice president of the on, complaints from unidentified
to meet but the key to the whole Baltimore Sun. ' (sources, ordered the strikers to
tinguish fires in metal trash
thing is whether they're ready t "Washington is a govern- ns they were using to keep;
bargain," IConlornik said. "So meat-oriented town where wages far, I ha
Eirrol.
ven't been able to get a and other economic conditions 1tilt department officials
particle of inovemeilt out of ei- arc relatively stable. Baltimore said the fires violated the city's,
tiler side." is , a completely industrial city o en burning and air pollution
Vendors are peddling out- subject to the fluctuations of the oPdinanc Union m c m b e r s
o f -town newspapers, mostly economy," Patterson said.
from Washington, at 25 to 35 charged that the department:;
cents apiece on downic n street Patterson blamed the Wash had been called by the Sunpa
corners and in suburban shop- ington-Baltimore Newspaper ?pers management. 1
ping centers. But most Balti- Guild, composed of reporters, By Friday, the order had been.
moreans miss their hometown photographers, editors and cleri- rescinded and the fires wcro:
publications. cal employes, for what he burning once again - but offer
termed a "complete about-face" ing only temporary respite from
"1 miss the television sections i cold.
in labor relations in the Baltt. the near-zero
most," said Officer J.R..TJc~ch- more newspaper industry.
art, a Baltimore policeman. uitily Before the Guild struck the
arms separately, so 1 L. *V unions had always continued ne-
cali him up every night and gotiating long after their con
have him read me theistll- di~tmlRediase 2005/01/11: CIA-RDP88-O1314R000100140012-7
Weichert said.