Evening star., 1947-02-22


fought back and last Monday
Won a National Labor Relations
Board ruling fDIlich ipds an out
right pictory for the paper and
required labor unions to bargain
in good faith henceforth)
By Nelson Poynter
ST. PETERSBURG. Fla, Feb. %
(NANA).-From my Office window
can see tired printers who for more
than a year have carried picket
signs which claim the st. Peters
burg Times and its competitor, the
Evening Independent. have locked
them out and are unfair to organ
lied labor.
But on my desk is long message
from the National Labor Relations
Board officially stating that we are
fair and friendly to organized labor,
and not guilty Of violating the
Wagner Act which we have upheld
editorially since its inception.
This rare health card was issued
in the form of decision by the
board which has aroused wide in
terest among legislators, labor lead
ers and industrialists since it was
released last Monday.
The case is an outgrowth Of
strike of local members of the AFL's
International Typographical Union
which started November 20, 1945,
over what had boiled down to an
unofficial economic" difference Of
so cents per week for printers,
and major dispute in the Unions
refusal to bargain or arbitrate on
many issues which affect composing
room costs.
Became Test of Authority.
More than so men left their jobs
and most of them have been up
rooted from their homes here, be-
cause they stood for no arbitration
and no bargaining on the unions
"laws"-a principle sponsored by
their international union. Local
printers acknowledged they had suf-
fered no i'll effects from the board
grievance machinery and arbitra-
ton clauses which were in effect
here and other cities for many years.
The strike became test as to who
was boss in the composing room;
whether collective bargaining was a
one-way or two-way street.
The ITU has about 10000 mem
bers, approximately 10000 of them
newspaper printers. The unions
law" affecting our composing room
costs were made by the 10000.
Both st. Petersburg newspapers
have been unusually friendly to
organized labor though few of our
readers are union members in this
nonindustrial city. The Times has
been especially VIGOROUS in its sup
port of labor and social legislation
Pressmen Ordered Back to Work.
A rash of printers strikes during
the war became an epidemic after
VI day.
It was a shock, therefore to our
striking printers when we published
without them-by expanding our
engraving department.
At first they thought we could not
continue. But after two months
they threw up a picket line. Our
pressmen refused to cross the line,
but executives manned the presses
until the International Pressmens
Union ordered their men back to
fulfill their contracts with us.
AS spokesman for the publishers,
I sought a meeting with the Print
ers' Union. I told our striking en-
ployes we were ready to convert
the bulk of our printing back to
conventional production, that we
were going to man our composing
room again and that they could
fill all the jobs.
Offered Formula for Closed Shop.
We offered them an honorable
formula that insured them a closed
union shop, respect for their "pri-
oritys" or seniority as it is called
in other crafts, and refusal of aid
to other struck publishers.
But the formula would have re-
stored grievance machinery, which
was hated by the international un-
ION.
We offered to give the union 10
days to consider our proposal, but
it was rejected almost as soon as
I left the unions hall. Sworn testi-
money later brought out that the
local members were threatened with
reprisals by a representative of the
international if they accepted our
formula.
We hired a few key printers and
started training young men and
women.
Our union printers thought they
had a monopoly on the printed
word; but, like other would-be
monopolists, they could only slow
down-not stop-technological prog
ress. So they turned to NLRB's
Southern Office to help save their
shaky monopoly.
Price Was STANDARD" Contract.
That Office, headed by a former
member of the Typographical Uni
ion, Paul Styles, offered to settle"
the case. The price the publishers
would have had to pay was to adopt
the inflexible standard" contract
written by the international union,
including the make-work, uneco-
nomic laws" of the union-and fire
employees we had hired for our COM
posing room after offering the jobs
to our striking printers.
The alternative was an expensive
hearing and to risk a decision that
we were guilty of firing" our strik-
ing printers with penalty of
months of back pay.
1t seemed to us that a Govern
ment office had been put on the side
of a would-be monopolist. So we
C00r NASn