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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: Nigel.Allen@lambada.oit.unc.edu
- Subject: Locked-Out Rail Employees Boycott USA Today
- Message-ID: <1992Sep1.045119.27427@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: Echo Beach
- Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 04:51:19 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 92
-
- Locked-Out Rail Employees Boycott USA Today
- To: National Desk, Labor and Media writers
- Contact: Stephen W. FitzGerald of the
- Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 216-241-2630 ext. 251
- or 216-241-2639 (after hours)
- CLEVELAND, Aug. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Brotherhood of Locomotive
- Engineers (BLE) International President Ronald P. McLaughlin is
- calling on all unionized employees in the railroad industry to
- boycott USA Today. The BLE boycott comes after a review of the
- newspaper's contacts with the BLE and other unions and USA Today's
- subsequent reporting during the national railroad lockout.
- McLaughlin's letter to Lane Kirkland, asking that the AFL-CIO
- join the BLE boycott of the paper, follows. It was also announced in
- "The Locomotive Engineer" newsletter mailed yesterday to
- approximately 150,000 readers. The BLE, the nation's senior labor
- organization founded in 1863, never did strike.
-
- August 24, 1992
-
- President Lane Kirkland
- American Federation of Labor
- and Congress of Industrial Organizations
- AFL-CIO Building
- 815 16th St., N.W.
- Washington, D.C. 20006
-
- Dear Brother Kirkland:
-
- As you know, about a quarter-million unionized employees were
- out of work recently, because CEOs at the largest rail corporations
- conspired to conduct a national lockout -- for the sake of creating
- an emergency and prompting the Bush White House to intervene
- on management's behalf.
- A further injustice was done to these union members, after they
- confronted locked gates or were turned away by supervisors when
- they attempted to honor their collective bargaining agreements:
- These Brothers and Sisters were blamed for the crisis that was, in
- fact, hurting them -- a crisis they did not want or cause.
- Unexplainably, in the pages of USA Today, the second largest
- daily newspaper in the country, a non-existent "nationwide strike"
- by unionized employees was being blamed for a national emergency.
- The victims were being portrayed as the villains.
- Our union went the full nine yards to wire, phone, fax and
- educate one-to-one the USA Today reporters who were covering the
- event -- before, during and after. The reporters indicated in
- every instance that they understood the difference between a
- national lockout and the single, limited strike by the
- International Association of Machinists. These reporters knew the
- BLE and other unions weren't simply spinning a semantic fantasy;
- they knew we were telling them the truth!
- However, USA Today reported that strikers were why commuters and
- Amtrak passengers were being stranded and valuable crops were
- rotting in the fields. Our public relations department immediately
- confronted one of the reporters, who admitted that although the
- important fact was understood -- that the national rail service
- shutdown was created by a lockout -- by the time reporters' stories
- were published, the reporter said, "someone else puts their
- fingerprints on them."
- A lead editorial confirmed the suspicion that the newspaper's
- goal was to report the situation falsely to its readers. USA Today
- knowingly chose to print management lies and propaganda while
- editing the facts we relayed to its reporters. For this reason, I
- am calling on the AFL-CIO to initiate and endorse a boycott of USA
- Today -- this boycott should last until the newspaper publishes an
- apology to our nation's unionized railroad employees.
- I hope you will agree that bringing this irresponsible reporting
- to the attention of all union families and the American people, by
- publicizing this boycott to affiliate members and competing media,
- is the justified response we should follow. It will be a boycott
- which all union members and news outlets truly interested in fair
- and objective news reporting will welcome and support.
- I have included a copy of the paper's own "Our View" editorial
- which uses variations of "national" and "strike" at least 10 times.
- Please note this paragraph, as over 1.7 million USA Today readers
- certainly did:
-
- A nationwide rail strike erupted, bringing ominous
- possibilities: grain rotting, poultry dying, vegetables
- spoiling, jobs lost and 600,000 passengers stranded.
-
- This is clearly a slap in the face to the men and women
- represented by AFL-CIO affiliates in the railroad industry, and to
- all of organized labor. It demands an apology. I look forward to
- a commitment from you to help this Brotherhood promote a boycott of
- USA Today until we get one.
-
- In Solidarity,
-
- /s/Ronald P. McLaughlin
- International President
-
-
-