About 600 cheering supporters let the people of San Diego and the top brass of the San Diego Union-Tribune know that "something still stinks at the Union-Tribune" during a four-hour rally outside the newspaper.

There were GCIU pressmen, Teamster truck drivers who work for the newspaper, and there were teachers, nurses, machinists, sheet metal workers, private citizens, Christian and Jewish clergy and even a group of students who drove four hours from Los Angeles to San Diego to deliver the message to Union-Tribune management that "something still stinks" with the way employees are treated.

The big group of marchers, holding signs and chanting slogans, marched peacefully on both sides of the street in front of the newspaper complex to let the San Diego community know that they don't approve of a management that refuses to allow the democratic collective bargaining process within its walls.

GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi, left, and San Diego 432M Pres. John Finneran pause with some of the children who have supported the GCIU throughout the struggle at the San Diego Union-Tribune. The kids, from left: Sean Bunting, 8, nephew of Local 432M member Theresa Bunting; Vanessa, 10, and Cassandra Onstad, daughters of Union-Tribune pressman Greg Onstad.

Speaker after speaker told the crowd about the Copley newspaper's bosses who have systematically tried – and in some groups succeeded – in busting their unions. They mentioned a mailers unit of 350 members that management got rid of by refusing to bargain. Then they busted a Newspaper Guild unit of 850 members who were decertified after years of company threats and blackmail.

But GCIU Local 432M Pres. John Finneran emphatically declared that his 130 pressmen and the 50 Teamster drivers still working at the newspaper would not surrender so easily.

He told the demonstrators the facts behind the struggle: That the press unit had not gotten a raise in more than nine years (because they refused to give up their union) and that members' pensions were at risk because management arbitrarily decided to stop contributing to the GCIU pension funds in another effort to pressure and eliminate the Local 432M unit.

In a move against the union holdouts, management arranged a health plan for which workers are forced to pay rates 10 times higher than managers and supervisors. The company still continues to harass union leaders through suspensions and firings despite the fact that the National Labor Relations Board has issued 24 unfair labor practice charges against company management, Finneran reported.

Finneran thanked the unions and other groups who had given financial and other help to his small local. He noted that GCIU and other union locals from across the country and Canada had sent contributions to help the local keep up its community corporate campaign against newspaper management and to help with the legal expenses of defending members targeted for disciplinary actions because of their union loyalty.

Over the past two years, the local, with the help of other unions in the San Diego region, has brought a successful campaign to convince citizens to boycott the Union-Tribune and cancel their subscriptions. The local also uses the media to spread the word about U-T management's disregard for labor law. Although the newspaper is not willing to talk about the effects of the boycott, some estimates are that circulation is down by 30 percent.

GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi told the rallying throng that the International union and the GCIU General Board are fully supportive of the San Diego local and "will do everything we can do until our members negotiate a fair contract – a right supposedly guaranteed in labor law."

Among other speakers at the rally were GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez, Teamsters Union Western Region Vice Pres. Jon L. Rabine, Teamster Newspaper International Representative W. Edward Cox, and San Diego Labor Council Secy.-Treas. Jerry Butkiewycz.

And the huge crowd also brought out TV and radio reporters to record the event, showing the community that "something still stinks at the Union-Tribune" and the circulation boycott is still very much alive and well.

This sign-waving crew includes, from left: Anthony Caifano of New York 1L; Geoff Trace, president of Letter Carriers Branch 70 in San Diego; GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi; and Louisville 619M's Fred Blevins and Rick Street.