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| Despite winning a representational
election at the Sunpapers in 1939, the ANG was unable in bargaining to
obtain an acceptable contract.
After World War H, the Guild renewed its organizing efforts. Employees at the News-Post organized a management-controlled company union. "The Guild sought better wages, improved working conditions, and a pension system. The company policy and tradition had been to deal with employees in a paternalistic way in sickness and old age. Pensions were granted by the board on an individual basis 'in accordance with each case,' wrote Harold A. Williams, former Sunday Sun editor, in his book, "The Baltimore Sun: 1837-1987." Richard K. Tucker, a former Evening Sun reporter, told Williams, "The unwritten attitude often was for you to be working here will look good on your resume - you should think of the paper as doing you a favor. If some other paper were to offer you $10 a week more, goodbye. Just don't come back and expect The Sun to hire you." In January 1949, the National Labor Relations Board ordered an election for newsroom employees at The Sun. Executive editor Neil H. Swanson, in a letter to employees, urged them to reject the Guild. This tactic backfired. News-side employees voted to be represented by the Guild. Local 54 was established. "Starting salary for reporters, copy editors, and photographers was set at $40 a week, $87.50 after four years," according to Williams. In 1952, another representation election added advertising, promotion, circulation, building and maintenance and other departments to the Sunpapers unit. Aseminal year for both the local and the Sunpapers was
1965.
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photo by William L.
Klender
Don Bremner (on phone), John Goodspeed and Carl Schoettler, at work in the Banner offices at 616 N. Calvert St. By April 1964, the Baltimore and Washington locals had already combined forces. In advance of 1965 negotiations, The Sun questioned the Washington local's right to represent Sun employees. The Washington local claimed bargaining rights before the labor board and was upheld. Relations were not good as The Sun and the Guild began bargaining. On April 15, 1965, the Guild's contract expired, and employees invoked the time-honored principle of no contract, no work. The company had no new contract offer on the table - a tactical mistake. In effect, it dared the union to walk out. With a whoop and a holler, across Calvert Street in a street-level room at the former Loyola High School, Guild members didn't just walk; they ran over to the newspaper's sidewalks and formed large picket lines. They were joined that weekend by former Sunpapers people from all along the East Coast. It was the first strike in the company's history. Two days later, when other unions refused to cross Guild picket lines, publication ceased. Ernest F. Imhoff, then a striking Evening Sun reporter who also was a stringer for Newsweek, furnished information to the magazine that resulted in a May 3, 1965, story. |
Imhoff's reports helped
lift the curtain and give readers nationwide an
inside view of an industry much glamorized by Hollywood yet
indifferent to its workers.
"The Baltimore Sun is rightly regarded as one of the best newspapers in the nation," wrote Newsweek. "But The Sun has another, less publicized side. Despite a net worth of more than $20 million, The Sun's prestige over the years has been matched by management's reputation, among many staffers, for penuriousness. There is no employee medical program; company lifeinsurance policies pay only $300; and even to park on the paper's lot costs an employee $9 'a month. 'They treat us,' said one editorial-page writer last week, 'with calculated contempt."' Aturning point came early in June, when national leadership of the ITU (the composing room) withdrew the Baltimore chapel's travel cards to work in other cities. No longer able to work at other papers, the printers crossed the picket line; the Sunpapers resumed publication.
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