Still in Trouble?

After eight days, the strike was over. The nation's biggest newspaper, the New York Daily News, hastened back into print. News President and Publisher F. (for Francis) M. Flynn was "thrilled" at seeing his paper "come alive again," complete with written synopses of events in the lives of Dick Tracy et al. that News comic-strip buffs had missed.

Why the News felt so good about everything was not easy to discern. After a show of stubbornness, it yielded to the striking New York Newspaper Guild on nearly every contested point, including dues checkoff (automatic payroll deduction of Guild dues). Even the wage settlement in the new two-year contract--ranging from $3.50 a week more for copy boys to $10.50 for reporters--was far nearer the Guild's original demand than management's first offer. The News also suffered another embarrassment. The New York Times, not directly involved in the strike, was actively involved in ending it. It was at the request of the Times that U.S. Labor Secretary W. Willard Wirtz rushed to Manhattan to lend his authority to a settlement.

Nor did the end of the News strike necessarily mean an end to trouble. The nine printing craft unions found the terms accepted by the Guild "not satisfactory." Said Bertram A. Powers, president of Typographers Local No. 6: "It would be a colossal mistake for the publishers to expect to impose this settlement on the craft unions." This was a frank threat that New York's seven dailies may be in for further problems next month, when most of the trade union contracts expire.

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