For Sale Or Not For Sale? p. 13

By: MARK FITZGERALD

THE UNIONS ON strike against Detroit's two dailies say the newspapers' joint operating agency is planning to sell its Riverfront production plant ? and they want the U.S. Justice Department to block any sale until its antitrust investigation of the JOA is completed.
In a supplemental petition to their antitrust complaint against Detroit Newspapers, the JOA for Knight-Ridder's Detroit Free Press and Gannett's Detroit News, the six striking unions, plus the AFL-CIO, are asking Attorney General Janet Reno that she "require the newspapers to maintain the plant as a separate and competitive production facility until the antitrust issue is resolved."
Last August, the unions maintained in a formal complaint that Detroit Newspapers violated the terms of its six-year-old, government-approved joint operating agreement when, in 1992, it "secretly" amended the agreement to permit daily joint editions of the Free Press and News in the event of a labor dispute.
The Justice Department has not commented on the complaint, except to say it is looking into the matter.
"We will not allow Gannett and Knight-Ridder to close or downsize the Riverfront plant and block a remedy by the Justice Department," AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said in a prepared statement.
"The Detroit Newspapers abused their monopoly for the purpose of union-busting and that plant is necessary for competition."
For its part, Detroit Newspapers says the Riverfront plant is not for sale ? at least not yet.
The plant has operated only on two occasions since the strike began last July, noted the Detroit Newspapers senior vice president of labor relations, Timothy Kelleher.
"We consolidated operations as a result of the strike, and since then, we have found we are operating at far greater efficiency and we don't need the plant," Kelleher said.
He added that no decision has been made on the fate of the Riverfront facility.
However, Kelleher did note, pointedly, that since before the strike, the JOA has had the downtown Free Press building and some surrounding properties up for sale, and that for years various developers have inquired about the facility on the banks of the Detroit River.
In another development in the strike, the National Labor Relations Board in the Seventh Region issued a consolidated unfair labor practices complaint against the newspapers that sets out a schedule for hearings on charges filed earlier ? but that also adds a charge that officials at the papers and the JOA improperly threatened striking employees with permanent replacement.
Specifically, the board's general counsel alleged that former Free Press publisher Neal Shine, its business editor Tom Walsh, News editor and publisher Robert H. Giles, and JOA head Frank Vega "since mid-August 1995 and continuing to date, on many occasions . . . has stated that [the papers and JOA] would hire and/or had hired permanent replacements for striking employees."
Kelleher said the consolidated complaint amounted to "just a restatement of the issues."
The newspapers and JOA have consistently denied they have violated labor law during the labor dispute.
Al Derey, chairman of the striking unions' umbrella group, the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions, said the complaint "confirmed what we have said from day one. This strike happened because Detroit Newspapers broke the law and refused to bargain in good faith. They've compounded their error by threatening to permanently replace us, even though they have no right to do so under the law."
The striking unions themselves settled an NLRB unfair labor complaint against them by signing an agreement Jan. 12 not to engage in violence or any other illegal activity on picket lines.
NLRB regional director William Schaub had said he was prepared to file a finding against the unions on the complaint, which was brought by the newspapers and their JOA. Without admitting violations, the unions said they would not threaten replacements or former union members who had crossed picket lines, would not block the gateways at production plants or engage in any violence or vandalism.