By Susan Zachem

The scofflaw Detroit newspaper companies claim it's just part of a national trend. But that doesn't explain much about the continued loss of circulation of Gannett's News and Knight Ridder's Free Press.

According to recent counts by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), the newspapers lost some 3 percent circulation over the year. The national average was about 1 percent on Sunday and one-half percent for weekdays.

The newspapers' joint Sunday circulation fell nearly 25,000 over the year. The News lost 7,312 in circulation during the week, while the Free Press lost 12,227.

For the six months that ended March 31, the circulation of the Sunday News-Free Press fell by 3.1 percent. Daily circulation was down by 3.1 percent for the Free Press and 2.9 percent for the News.

Mike O'Neill, author of "As Oakland County explodes, Detroit papers squeezed" in the April 26 issue of Advertising Age, points the finger for the circulation loss squarely on the contract dispute that was provoked and prolonged by the News, Free Press, and their joint operating agency, Detroit Newspapers.

Noting that the two papers have lost nearly one-third of their circulation since the strike began in July 1995 yet recently raised advertising rates, O'Neill blames the circulation drop on the "lengthy, bitter labor dispute" with the six local unions at the News, Free Press, and DN. The locals have been locked out since February 1997.

Photo by Rebecca Cook, Detroit Sunday Journal

On Workers Memorial Day, locked-out newspaper workers in Detroit join with members of SEMCOSH and other groups to remember workers killed and injured on the job.

Pres. Jack Howe of Detroit 13N, which along with Detroit-Toledo-Lansing 289M are the two GCIU locals involved in the lockout, said one of the excuses offered by the News and Free Press for their circulation losses is that other area papers also lost circulation.

"But what they don't report," Howe said, "is that the ad load of other area papers, like the Oakland Press and Macomb Daily, has remained high while theirs hasn't."

Howe said that on a traditionally busy, pre-Memorial Day Sunday insert weekend, he counted about 35 inserts in the county papers, while the News-Free Press had only 20. "So it's evident in that ad area where they should have come back but they haven't," he said.

At Gannett's annual shareholders meeting at its Arlington, Va., headquarters in May, Gannett Chief Executive Officer John Curley focused on overall company profits while discounting the effects of the contract dispute.

Belying Curley's nonchalance were the ring of county police in riot gear outside the Gannett building that, for the first time, taped off the building entrance to keep away the hundreds of locked-out union picketers and their supporters. Security was high inside, too, where Vance Security guards directed visitors through metal detectors and stood on alert.

Some 150 union picketers, including a large contingent from Detroit and groups from Washington area and Pennsylvania Teamsters and the AFL-CIO, awakened the neighborhood to their presence with chants and whistles as part of their "blow the whistle on corporate crime" campaign. The News, Free Press, and DN have been found repeatedly guilty of labor law violations.

Pres. Linda Foley of The Newspaper Guild, which has TNG Local 22 members locked out in Detroit, said the picketers were forced to return to the Gannett meeting for the fourth year because Curley "just doesn't get it." And, she pledged: "We're going to come here again and again until they get it – until they obey the law, be good corporate citizens and bring justice back to Detroit."

The evening before the meeting, the unionists and supporters held a vigil in front of Curley's home.

Inside the Gannett meeting, leaders of the Religious Leaders for Justice at Detroit Newspapers offered pleas to Curley and other company directors to end the pain by negotiating fair contracts with the locked-out local unions.

In contrast to the Gannett meeting, The Detroit Sunday Journal, published by the locked-out workers, reported that the annual Knight Ridder meeting at the company's new headquarters in San Jose, Calif., was "polite and low-key."

Representing the locked-out Detroit workers, retired Methodist Bishop Jesse DeWitt, who chairs the National Interfaith Committee for Workers Justice, spoke with company Chairman P. Anthony Ridder before and after the meeting. Ridder allowed DeWitt to deliver his prepared statement.

In Detroit, the Workers Justice Committee of locked-out activists continues the campaign to raise community awareness on the issues. As well as supporting other unions involved in contract disputes, the group is handbilling door-to-door in Detroit area neighborhoods and organizing rallies and other events.

Howe reported that assistance from GCIU locals remains strong considering the length of the dispute.

"One of the unique things," Howe said, "is that donations continue to come in on a regular basis from GCIU retirees around the United States and Canada. It's just amazing that retirees on fixed incomes continue to donate – and some are quite substantial – to our cause in Detroit. I guess they remember when they went through it."

Howe said that, of the six terminated workers that the DN was ordered to go to arbitration about, arbitrations have been completed but not decided on two.

On the status of members returned to their jobs following the unconditional offer to return to work in February 1997, Howe said that about 40 Local 13N members remain out. All the paperhandlers who wanted to return have returned. Of the eight platemakers who remained locked out, one was recently called back. He said some pressmen and apprentices, as well as those who were fired or terminated for dispute-related activities, are still out.

At Graphic Communicator press time, more contract talks guided by federal mediator Brian Flores were reported to be scheduled.

Of the six local unions involved in the contract dispute, only GCIU Local 289M and Detroit Typographical Union 18 have ratified tentative agreements.

Help GCIU members in Detroit

GCIU locals 13N and 289M and their members continue to need the support of every local union and member to help in winning the contract struggle that has been going on for four years against the giant newspaper chains Gannett and Knight Ridder.

Contributions are needed urgently to help locked-out members support their families. The locals also need donations to help pay legal defense bills, which continue to mount as Gannett, Knight Ridder and their joint operating agency, Detroit Newspapers, prolong the dispute.

Local unions and individuals may send donations to the GCIU Local 13N/289M Special Assistance Fund, 3300 Book Building, Detroit, Mich. 48226. Individuals only – not local unions – may contribute to The Newspaper Unions Assistance Fund at the same address.