How the Most Democratic Local Union
Proved It Was the Toughest in Action

The New York Typographical union No. 6 (widely known as “The Big Six”) had built up a reputation as the most democratic union in the United States before it was decimated by the introduction of the computer and other high-speed printing technologies.

The local union had a two-party internal political system (the Progressive Party and the Independent Party), each of which had its own leaders, structure and candidates in elections. When the “Progs” were in power, they were closely watched by the “Indies,” who were also scrutinized in the years they were the incumbents. Important problems facing the local union were sure to be hotly debated, especially during the annual elections.

Printers paid their weekly dues directly to their shop steward. There was no dues checkoff, as there is today in most unions, where members have little contact with their local. In Local 6, there were quarterly financial reports printed in the union’s Monthly Bulletin. Today, hardly any union publishes financial reports so that members can see how their dues money is spent.

In preparing for contract negotiations, every member was invited to an all-day hearing at union headquarters to submit suggestions for inclusion in union demands to the publishers. Printed copies of the existing contract, as well as the proposed changes, were furnished the members, who discussed and voted on each section.

Any journeyman in good standing was free to offer amendments, which, if they received a majority vote, would remove, replace or alter the recommendations of the negotiating committee.

This was union democracy in action.

Printers Shut Down New York’s Dailies for 114 Days

The New York Typographical Union No. 6 had not called a strike in 87 years, so it was a shock to newspaper publishers and the reading public, when on December 8, 1962 at 2 a.m., the printers shut down New York City’s four major newspapers: The New York Times, Daily News, World-Telegram and Sun, and the Journal- American.

The Publishers Association immediately parried the union’s maneuver to split its ranks.. Three hours after the strike began, the Herald Tribune, Mirror, Post, and Long Island Star-Journal suspended publication for the duration of the strike, locking out not only the printers but their other newspaper employees.

The strike involved tremendous financial and jurisdictional issues for the newspapers and their unions. Broadly speaking, Local 6 insisted that the benefits of automation and computer technology be adequately shared by the printers as well as their employers. The union would not allow the Times to install computerized typesetting equipment or outside tapes for high-speed production of daily stock market tables until it signed a mutually satisfactory agreement.

The 114-day newspaper shutdown is one of the great stories in American labor history. No union, before 1862 or since, has been subjected to such terrific pressure from all sides and still been able to hold out for a contract that it could live with.

Striking Printers Hold Firm Despite Mounting Pressure

From the very first day of the strike, here is what Local 6’s printers faced:

• The public, deprived of its daily newspapers, irritably demanded an end to the strike, with a torrent of telephone calls to union headquarters.

• Department store owners angrily charged that the newspaper shutdown was ruining their pre-Christmas sales. They were joined by shoppers, outraged at the unexpected disruption in their gift-buying activities.

• The families of locked out newspaper employees blamed the printers for depriving them of paychecks during the holiday season.

• The chorus of complaints rose in volume and included owners of theaters, hotels and restaurants; employment agencies, stockbrokers, newspaper vendors, shipping companies and advertisers of every description‹each citing inconvenience and hardship, as well as the damaging effect on the city’s economy.

• President John F. Kennedy publicly rebuked Local 6 President Bertram A. Powers for continuing the strike, opening up the possibility of federal intervention.

• Time magazine ran a front-cover portrait of Powers (drawn to look grim and menacing), posed alongside a huge monkey-wrench between two rolls of newspaper,

• Robert Wagner, then New York City’s mayor, called a round-the-clock session at City Hall in an attempt t o pressure the union to end the strike. There was the increased possibility that an independent “third party,” governmental or public, might come forward to recommend an unpalatable settlement that the printers would be under pressure to accept.

• There was always the danger that other newspaper craft unions might withdraw their support, leaving the printers in an exposed and isolated position. Several of the crafts were resentful because they were not prepared, either financially or psychologically, for a drawn out strike.

• As the weeks went by, the problem of strike benefits for the 2,700 printers became more acute. It was an open question whether the International Typographical Union membership would vote in favor of a steep tax to keep the Local 6 strike-lockout alive.

Important Lessons of the Strike

There are four reasons that explain why the “Big Six” didn’t buckle and surrender during the 114-day strike:

(1) The brilliant leadership of Bert Powers, the union’s president. who developed shrewd strategies to deal with each threat, while pursuing his goal of a contract, whose provisions would strengthen the union in the years ahead. Powers kept the striking printers fully informed at every step in the complex struggle with the publishers.

(2) An informed membership that remained united, even during the difficult moments of the strike-lockout. Throughout the 114-day shutdown, each striker received daily written reports of what was happening. (Powers chose me, then a striking printer, as editor of the daily strike publication.)

(3) The support of Harry Van Arsdale Jr., then president of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. At one point, Van Arsdale arranged a picket line of 25,000 unionists around the Times building to back the printers, one of the largest demonstrations in the city’s history.

(4) The spirit of solidarity shown Local 6 strikers by the ITU membership. In a national referendum for a 3 percent assessment of every members’ gross earnings for a period of one year, the members approved the tax by a vote of 62,913 to 21,869, the largest margin ever given by ITU members to a tax measure.

Members Have the Last Word in the Settlement

On March 8. the 100th day of the strike, Mayor Wagner unveiled his own plan for ending the shutdown, under which the printers gained a victory on the three issues for which they had fought as a matter of principle: a common contract expiration date for all newspaper unions; a shorter work week, and the right to share in the savings that would result from the use of outside tape. In each case, however, the Mayor had proposed modifications to mollify the publishers.

Local 6 members at first refused to ratify the tentative agreement, but when the ITU and the New York labor movement stated they would not support the strike any further, Local 6 realized it could not continue to fight the publishers without allies. At a dramatic debate and balloting session in Madison Square Garden, the contract was finally approved by a vote of 2,562 to 1,763, after its earlier rejection by a 64-vote margin.

It is worth noting that virtually all ITU locals and other newspaper unions, had yielded to publishers’ demands to install high-speed printing equipment before negotiating a contract. Local 6 was the only labor organization to refuse, because it realized that once the equipment was in place, the union’s bargaining power would be automatically diminished.

One of the main lessons to be learned from the printers strike is that where members feel they have a “voice” in determining their union’s policies and actions — the essence of union democracy — their involvement gives the union added strength. Unions belong to their members, not their leaders, and their rights must be paramount and fully protected.

For further reference, read:

Seymour Lipset et al, “Union Democracy: The Inside Politics of the International Typographical Union.” (Glencoe, Ill. 1956)

Harry Kelber and Carl Schlesinger. “Union Printers and Controlled Automation.” (The Free Press, 1967)

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