On this day in Labor History the year was 1990.
That was the day that eight of the ten unions at the New York Daily News went out on strike.
The paper had had one of the highest daily circulations in the United States.
The New York Daily News was owned by the Chicago-based Tribune Company.
The strike began when management demanded major concessions from the delivery drivers, essentially forcing them to strike.
Seven more unions joined them on the picket line.
In retaliation management brought in scab labor.
This caused a ninth union to join the walkout.
The Newspaper Guild workers had planned to honor the picket lines, but not go on strike themselves.
But according in an article in the Los Angeles Times, “said local Guild President Barry Lipton, the editorial employees decided almost immediately at an afternoon meeting to go on strike rather than to work with any “imported scabs and goons.”
Well known journalist Juan Gonzalez, was a strike leader for the local.
By using replacement workers, Daily News management was able to keep the paper in production.
But they found it much more difficult to get the paper distributed.
Even where they could make delivery, many newsstands refused to sell the struck paper.
The New York Times blamed this on intimidation from delivery drivers.
But they also acknowledged that some refused distribution “either out of sympathy for strikers or an unwillingness to offend pro-union customers.”
To support the strike, the unions put on a concert headlined by Lou Reed, along with Pete Seeger, Q-Tip from a Tribe Called Quest and other musicians.
The strike lasted for five months, prompting the Tribune to sell the paper.
Under new management the strike was finally settled.
February 20 - Angelina Grimke is Born
February 19 - Philly Street Car Workers Spark General Strike
February 18 - Anti-Slavery Begins in America
February 17 - Standing Up By Sitting Down
February 16 - The Wisconsin Uprising Begins
February 15 - The Uprising of the 20,000 Comes to a Close
February 14 - Kansas City Laundresses Walk Off the Job
February 13 - Martial Law Declared to Crush the UAW
February 12 - The NAACP is Founded
February 11 - Cutting Corners on Safety at Sequoyah I
February 10 - Forty-Three Workers Buried Alive
February 9 - Organizing Bloody Harlan
February 8 - Butte Copper Miners Join the 1919 Strike Wave
February 7 - Strike at Cripple Creek
February 6 - Philly Garment Workers Win!
February 5 - The Fight for Craft Governance
February 4 - Solidarity on the Coast
February 3 - Anti-Trust Injunctions Used Against Labor
February 2 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
February 1 - A Pivotal Moment in the Flint Sit-Down
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