Victory on Points

Last week the American Newspaper Guild's seven-month strike of 24 editorial workers against William Randolph Hearst's Milwaukee Wisconsin News came to a peaceful conclusion. Only twelve Guildmen had stuck it out since the February walkout. In Manhattan, General Manager Harry M. Bitner of the Hearstpapers insisted: "The Wisconsin News has accorded no recognition . . . made no settlement with the Guild. The Guild has simply called off its strike." Nevertheless, many an observer felt that, while the Guild had scored no knockout in Milwaukee, it had certainly won a victory of a sort on points.

Last March, when the strike was six weeks old, the News management offered a settlement, in the form of a standard employment policy developed with other Milwaukee newspapers. It included restoration of the five-day week, minimum wages, vacations with pay, dismissal notice with pay, sick leave with pay. This offer was rejected by the Guild because the Hearst management would not agree to its being witnessed by Milwaukee's Federated Trades Council. In time's course, while Guildmen and sympathizers busily made deep cuts in News circulation and advertising, the national Guild organization joined the American Federation of Labor and, with the support of other union groups, shut down Publisher Hearst's Seattle Post-Intelligencer (TIME, Aug. 24 et seq.).

Result was that News Publisher John H. Black brought out the old March "employment policy," this time agreed to let it be witnessed by the Trades Council, added a few other concessions. On its part, the Guild agreed to start at once rebuilding the lost lineage and advertising of the News.

Said Publisher Black: "Wages and working conditions are highly satisfactory to all concerned."

Said International Guild Secretary Jonathan Eddy: "We regard the News management's verbal agreement through an intermediary group as a contractual obligation on the part of the Hearst management. . . . When they went out. men of long experience were working for as little as $15 and $18 a week. Now men of three years' experience are promised a minimum of $40 per week."

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