THE STRANGE TRANSFORMATION
Harris, George Carlton
The Domestic Scene: The Strange Transformation The Case of J. David Stern and the Philadelphia Record By George Carlton Harris PHILADELPHIA.—One of the biggest mysteries perplexing...
...MEANWHILE, the Philadelphia Inquiver (the big morning competitor of the Record) had offered its own Guild employees pay...
...In this article, George Carlton Harris probes the focal issues in the altercation...
...harped upon the theme that his employees are ingratcs for calling a strike against him...
...At these meetings, Stern's representatives insisted (1) f'wt negotiations must proceed as if there never had been a eontract between Stern and the Guild...
...The increases wero erjtcted as inadequate by the Inquirer Guild members, but negotiations continued under an Inquirer pledge of full retroactivity...
...Stern, publisher of the Philadelphia Record and the Camden (N...
...Management's stand- convinced the Record and Courier-Post Guild members that Sern had discarded his pose of liberalism and friendliness to labor, and simply did not desire to bargain...
...The Guild agreed, in effect resclndlng Its no contract, no work motion...
...THROUGHOUT the strike the Record and Conrltr-Post have continued to publish., Although all the papers operated as Guild shops, there were more than a score of exempt executives in each plant available with the aid of some strikebreakers, to put out some sort of paper...
...another week...
...The principal radio stations refused time for the Guild...
...He jj80fht to knock 'down contract conditions which the Guild had achieved over the years...
...SlNCE the walkout began, more than a score of pickets have been injured at Stern's plants in melees precipitated by the police and hired goons...
...In addition, the national convention of the CIO adopted an unprecedented resolution of support for the Guild strikers...
...Yet today, 580 Guild members, employees of Stern, are walking the picket lines outside the Record and the CourierPost buildings, on strike since November 1 for improved wages and working conditions and for the preservation of their union...
...It gave the Record, overnight, the reputation of being the foremost liberal newspaper m America...
...And in his public Statements during the strike, he has...
...Like the Inquirer Guild unit, the Record and Courier-Post units turned the offer down...
...Stern's 12 percent offer does not even meet the 18',4 percent rise In the cost of living since January 1, 1940, Negotiations halted for three weeks, until the Guild asked the...
...These are easy answers, but perhaps not accurate, for .even now Stern considers himself as touch a liberal as ever...
...That first Guild contract which Stern signed for the Record won him the friendship of organized labor and an enormous labor circulation...
...It helped make him a power In the New Deal at Washington and in Pennsylvania Democratic politics...
...In an effort to prevent a strike almost on the eve of Election Day, Michael Harris, president of the Philadelphia Industrial Union Council (CIO) and regional director of the Unlted'Stttlworkers, asked the Guild to continue 'negotiations for...
...The Guild during that week made a total of 11 specific recessions in its proposals on wages and working conditions...
...US Conciliation Service to Intervene...
...Everywhere, the question is asked: How can an original backer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a man who for a decade and a half wrote editorials against reactionaries and labor-baiters, a liberal from the darkest days of the depression, suddenly turn his coat and emerge as a onion-smasher on his own account} It is a question of the deepest significance, not merely Jn Philadelphia, but for progressives everywhere, for the answer may throw a harsh light not •nly upon Stern, but upon others elsewhere who in the past found it convenient to profess humanitarian principles but who now may seek to ride the rising tide of reaction...
...Through his representatives, Stem faring the war years bitterly resisted tt» Guild's'every attempt to get raises • meet the rising cost of living...
...He refused to budge on his fitter, which amounted to an average of 12 percent increase...
...waged a sub-rose, •toggle to undermine the union of his •WO employees...
...They struck because they found , that while he editorialised In behalf of higher pay for teachers, in behalf of ¦octal legislation and a square deal for •¦Ions, he had...
...which they won In IS years of collective bargaining...
...WPEN, controlled by the Ilnlletin, and KYW, the Wcstinghouso station...
...With no choice but to surrender or strike, they walked out on November 7. Since the strike begnn, there have been three negotiating meetings...
...The standards were keyed to $100 a week for reporters and $55 for experienced commercial employees...
...The Guild's chief method of telling its story to Philadelphia and Camden newspaper readers has been by leaflets, pickets, sound trucks, speeches at union meetings and the publication of Its own newspaper, "The HEAL Record...
...He refused,.and still refuses, to accept the Guild as bargaining agent for a group of maintenance workers on the Courier-Post.' He resisted the Guild's attempts to obtain better treatment of returned service men...
...The Guild has the full and active support of other CIO unions in the Philadelphia area, of some AFL locals outside the Ster.i plants, and a large segment of the public at large...
...How the Stern of old would have ripped Into that violation of civil . rlghtsl But his paper did not even mention the incident...
...J.) Courier and Post, *irst won national prominence and a million dollars' worth of free publicity in 1934 when he signed tha first contract with the fledgling American Newspaper Guild (CIO...
...That this has been effective is evidenced by the fact that Stern has publicly implied that the Guild is a 'Communist-led, dictator-ridden union seeking to wrest control of his papers...
...Guild negotiators pleaded for some concession from management, as evidence to the members that the Etern management was bargaining in good faith...
...His employees realized that Stern was out to smash the Guild...
...The reporters, editorial writers, sub-editors, advertising men, "Cartoonists, artists and photographers, the employees of the accounting, business and circulation departments—all of them In the 10th week of their strike— Were forced to,walk out because they believe the policies he preached for others were equally applicable to himself...
...They are WCAU, Columbia outlet recently purchased by Stern for $5,500,000...
...2) that the Guild could expect no betterment as a result of the strike, and (3) that the Guild must accept Stern's one and only wage offer before there could even be a discussion of any other clause in the contract, Stern's "fair and generous" offer is unfslr and penurious compared to agreements on 20 percent and 25 percent increases made on newspapers elsowhere in the .country...
...Stern made not one...
...But they know, through blttt»r experience, that he has been as uncompromising an anti-union tovard them as any Glrdler or Grace or jWelr would e. They suspect he wishes to undermine the union security and Job security clause...
...They suspect, but don't know, because Stern won't say, -A PUZZLING ATTITUDEThe case of the Philadelphia Record employees versus J. David Stern is an interesting one, for it revolves about a curious attitude in this instance on the part of Stern, whose long record of liberalism is admirable, that can be interpreted only as being anti-labor...
...When Stern refused to improve his one and only wage offer, the Record and Courier-Post unlta met October 80 for a strike vote—18 hours before the still unsigned 1946-40 contract was to expire...
...Because of that situation, employees of the Record and Courier-Post voted a policy of "No contract, no work...
...Why "the change in Stern...
...His employees don't consider themselves ingrates...
...The Domestic Scene: The Strange Transformation The Case of J. David Stern and the Philadelphia Record By George Carlton Harris PHILADELPHIA.—One of the biggest mysteries perplexing progressives is the strange disappearance, if J, David Stern as a liberal...
...When Guild women distributed handbills in Camden, they' were arrested because they were destributlng leaflets without a license...
...The implications ore ridiculous, for the Philadelphia Guild was in the forefront of the campaign which several year" ago ended pro-Communist control of the national Guild...
...WF1L, owned by the Inquirer...
...They are picketing newsstands, distributing handbills and printing their, own newspaper...
...When the Guild began negotiations last August with the Stern management, it was aware that Stern had not yet signed the 1945-4G contract and had refssed to honor some of the clauses \eibally agreed to by him...
...Stern's representatives, after weeks' of sparring across the negotiating table, finally made the same wage offer as the Inquirer had, but did not offer full retroactivity...
...Stern in Philadelphia is a Democrat...
...Lack of cooperation by other organized employees on the Stern papers has not dampened the Guild's determination...
...He ttrried to the/War Labor Board hie Unsuccessful battle to keep from giving 'hi* employees all they were entitled to l£fer the 'Little,Steel" formula...
...Their efforts were in vain...
...Th<t strikers are as baffled as anyone else.as to the csuse of Stem's about-face on liberalism...
...At times, more than two-thirds of Camden's police force have been deployed around the Courier-Post plant...
...He refused to settle grievances except after months of delay that ultimately led to tortuous arbitration procedure...
...So there's the story—and the enigma remains...
...But in Camden, whore he has u monopoly, ho divides his support between the Republicans and Democrats, and controls them both—hence he controls the police force...
...It would be easy to say that Stern never was .sincere in his New Deal professions, that his liberal policies enabled him to Corral depression-era loans that lifted ' his Philadelphia newspaper out of the 'red, helped him get valuable political advertising and won for him enviable political influence...
...And to cap it all, he refused even to sign a contract for 1945-46 until tiro days after its exjriration date I This year the Guild decided that with the wartime blackout on real collective bargaining lifted, it would drive for new and decent standards for all newspaper employees, commensurate with their specialized talents and background...
...rises ranging from $5 to 110 a week...
...They are battling against an "iron curtain" erected by the city's newspapers and radio stations to keep their -story from the public...
...The Guild's picket lines arc crossed by members of AFL unions, which adopted a "neutrality policy" in the dispute...
...The Juild, it should be mentioned, is the only CIO affiliate among the 18 unions in the plants...
Vol. 30 • January 1947 • No. 4
