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Youngstown's Bitter Newspaper Strike Enters 4th Month
"YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Newspaper Guild's strike against The Vindicator enters its third month today with no indication from the company that it ever plans resume negotiations -- and as area union leaders close ranks in support of the Guild.Mark Brown, general manager of The Vindicator Printing Co., said the company has no intention of increasing its "best and final" contract offer that the Guild has rejected twice. "Eventually they're going to have to take a reasonable view. We have nothing else to give," Brown said in a story published yesterday by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.Brown also said the newspaper is willing to have its financial situation reviewed by an independent auditor.But Tony Markota, president of Local 34011 of The Newspaper Guild -- Communications Workers of America, says The Vindicator is restricting access to the books to the extent that would reveal nothing. We want the books open and everything that details -- not just what they want to show us."On Saturday local labor leaders and union members from throughout the Mahoning Valley displayed support for striking Vindicator workers during a downtown rally that attracted more than 250 demonstrators.Wearing homemade placards reading"Scabs, Go Home," and "Mark, Have a Heart," referring to Brown, the protestors paraded from the Guild's union hall next to the Vindicator Printing Co. production building on Boardman Street, then around the corner at Vindicator Square to the newspaper's Front Street entrance.As pickets began their march, children gathering for classes at Ballet Western Reserve crowded windows at the dance school to smile and wave at the demonstrators as they passed by guards in black combat boots and paramilitary attire -- hired by The Vindicator from an out-of-state security company -- stood poised for action.The guards, armed with video cameras that they routinely point at striking workers, are posted at every entrance to Vindicator property around the clock and position themselves so that they have an unobstructed view of the area where the shanty stood. A surveillance camera, one of several installed at the Vindicator in the weeks before workers voted to strike, is also trained on the area.At the newspaper's front gate, Deborah Shaulis-Flora, vice president of Local 11, shouted to her co-workers: "What do you want?""A fair contract," the crowd boomed.About a dozen guards in their black garb lined the entrance behind Shaulis-Flora. With hands on hips or arms crossed against their chests and feet firmly planted as if they were waiting for the demonstrators to storm the gate, the guards provided a backdrop in sharp contrast to the crowd, which milled about the street peacefully as Shaulis-Flora led them in chanting, "No contract, no Vindicator," and "Newhouse, go home," referring to the Newhouse newspaper chain, which has loaned employees to The Vindicator.Members of Local 11 and labor leaders from throughout the Valley took turns with the bull horn, some leading demonstrators chanting while others pledged financial support to the striking workers.Pete Milliken, a long-time reporter, read a letter he received that morning from Vindicator Human Resource Director Bob Wiseman detailing how striking Vindicator workers could resign from the union, cross the picket line and avoid paying any fines that the union could levy against its members who don't comply with the work stoppage.The letter also stated that the union could not require the Vindicator to terminate individuals who resign from the union and cross the picket line once an agreement is reached as long as the workers who resigned from the union continue to pay union dues. Urged on by the cheering crowd, Milliken burned the letter.Taking back the bull horn, Shaulis-Flora shouted to editorial writer Bertram DeSouza, a member of the Vindicator's management team and close friend of Mark Brown, who was watching the event from a walkway outside the Vindicator building."Bertram, what are you doing there? Do you have a message from the company for us? What do you want?"DeSouza did not respond.The crowd broke into another round of chanting, "Scabs, go home," before another longtime Vindicator employee, John Kovach, took the bull horn.Kovach, a sportswriter who began his career at the Vindicator in 1966, pointed out that "it is the people in the street who built the Vindicator," not the 16 newsroom managers."This strike is about integrity and principals," Kovach continued. "If they gave me $100,000 I wouldn't scab. Some things are not for sale. This strike is for integrity, it is for principals, it is about standing up for what is right."Then he encouraged those in the crowd to cancel their subscriptions to the Vindicator and to stop buying advertisements. "Stand with us, we have integrity," Kovach said. Larry Fauver of the AFL/CIO took the bull horn next, and pledged $500 a month to the striking workers for as long as the strike lasts.The contributions from the AFL/CIO will be used to help five strike families through the CWA's "Adopt a Vindicator Striker Family" program.Fauver also urged those in the crowd to call everyone they know and discourage them from advertising in the Vindicator and to decline interviews with scab reporters.Referring to the guards, Fauver pointed out that the money the Vindicator is spending to pay the guards and temporary replacements is not staying in the Mahoning Valley, it is going to South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Oregon, where the replacement workers and guards live.The replacement reporters and editors are earning full salaries from the papers that employ them plus $20 to $30 an hour from The Vindicator as well as lodging and transportation expenses. Many are working 60-hour weeks. According to The Post Gazette, "One replacement worker from a Newhouse newspaper said he made about $2,000 a week during a 14-day stint in Youngstown.""This strike is not just about The Vindicator," John Russo, head of Youngstown State University's Center for Working Class Studies, told the crowd. "It's about the Plain Dealer and every other union paper." Then, Russo vowed not to buy anything from companies who continue to advertise in The Vindicator."This strike is more about principal than solidarity. We don't like seeing people taken advantage of," added Jim Graham, president of UAW Local 1112, which represents workers at General Motors Lordstown assembly plant. "We're here to support you," Graham continued. "We heard rumors that Newhouse plans to buy The Vindicator and they want the union broken."To demonstrate support for striking Vindicator workers, Graham said most members of UAW Local 1112 have already canceled their subscriptions to The Vindicator, which Graham referred to as "that rag."The rally was covered by the Post Gazette and local television stations but not by The Vindicator or the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, whose parent company has expressed interest in buying the strike bound paper, sources confirm. Some news reports have speculated that Newhouse plans to buy The Vindicator. Last week five members of the Guild -- three reporters and two sports writers -- resigned from the union and returned to work. Among them is David Skolnick, who covers politics for the newspaper.Skolnick had been reaching out to the Mahoning Valley's two congressmen -- Tim Ryan and Ted Strickland -- hoping they could jump start negotiations. That effort, coordinated by Markota, was stymied, however, by Brown's refusal to meet with the union leader."