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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1993-04-08
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47 lines
THE WEEK, Page 13NATIONSteeltown Standoff
In Pittsburgh's 10-week newspaper strike, many side with the
unions
"This is still a labor town!" That's the sort of headline
that could well have run in Pittsburgh -- if only the city's two
major dailies weren't shut down by a strike. To protest a plan
to cut 450 of 605 Teamster positions, delivery-truck drivers
walked out on May 17 against the Pittsburgh Press Co., which
publishes the Pittsburgh Press (circ. 209,000 daily, 556,000
Sunday) and prints and distributes the separately owned
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (circ. 154,000 daily).
Last week the papers attempted to use replacement workers
-- "scabs" in union vernacular -- to deliver editions printed
in Canada. Although just 15% (about the national average) of
the Pittsburgh work force is unionized, the company's use of
fill-ins -- as well as an outside security force dressed in
military-style uniforms and combat boots -- struck the wrong
chord in a city that's marking the centennial of the 1892
Homestead Strike, in which 10 steelworkers were shot by
Pinkerton security guards at Andrew Carnegie's factory just
outside town. Readers burned papers, and advertisers displayed
signs proclaiming that they were not doing business with the
newspaper company. Even Mayor Sophie Masloff canceled her
subscriptions. After two days of fighting on the picket lines,
vandalizing of trucks and a march on Pittsburgh Press
headquarters by 3,000 demonstrators, the company agreed to stop
publishing the papers. The next day, both sides met with federal
mediators.
Until unions and management work out an agreement, the
city will have to get by without want ads, crossword puzzles,
theater reviews and movie listings -- the latter two a disaster
for local box offices. But lost business hasn't been enough to
shift sympathy toward the company at a time when everyone in
town seems to know someone who's out of a job.