Indianapolis 17M leaders are in the process of negotiating a first Graphic Communications Conference/International Brotherhood of Teamsters contract for 70 Muncie Star-Press newspaper city carriers.

Local 17M Pres. Garry D. Foreman, who organized 125 Star-Press newspaper motor route carriers and bundle haulers at the Gannett paper in 1979 as an International Printing and Graphic Communications Union organizer, said the vote by the city carriers for union representation was an "overwhelming majority."

Foreman reported that when Star-Press management came to the bargaining table, an effort was made "to take everything away from our union carriers. Instead of caving in, we decided to fight back. We went after the city carriers–and organized them."

He observed that carriers are "ripe for the picking, because not very many of them are organized. They're probably the most exploited workers in the publishing industry."

Foreman, a former GCIU vice president, noted that newspaper carriers "throughout the country [U.S.] don't get holiday pay–and they deliver the product on holidays. They get no health care coverage, no pensions, no vacations."

"Our organized [Muncie Star-Press] drivers of 25 years ago," Foreman added, "have paid holidays, a gasoline allowance, vehicle improvement bonuses, as well as other benefits."

Foreman had high praise for International Organizer Rick Street for his work on the Star-Press city carriers campaign.

He said he would "encourage every local that has newspapers with carriers to look into organizing the carriers."