[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 111 (Thursday, July 25, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT: 381 DAYS; DETROIT NEWSPAPER STRIKE: 378 DAYS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 25, 1996

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, 378 days ago more than 2,500 employees of 
the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press went on strike after management 
and their unions were unable agree to new contracts.
  This strike has been terribly disruptive to the social, economic, and 
cultural fabric of the Detroit area. Both the newspapers and the 
strikers and their families have paid a heavy price for this year-long 
strike. The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press have seen their 
circulations drop, advertisers flee, and profits plummet; every week 
that the strike continues, the newspapers lose another million dollars. 
But more importantly, some striking workers have had to file petitions 
for bankruptcy or have lost their homes; others are in bad health and 
cannot pay their medical bills; they have seen their jobs filled by 
replacements recruited from out of State or eliminated entirely.
  This strike has become more than just a dispute between a company and 
its employees. It is about corporate social and economic responsibility 
and the need for employers, regardless of size, to threat their 
community and employees fairly and with respect. It is critical to the 
future of this Nation that we recognize the importance and validity of 
the collective bargaining movement. If unions in Detroit can be 
willfully broken, then the future of the collective bargaining movement 
in the United States may be in jeopardy.
  Economic and political struggles have never been easy. The Montgomery 
bus boycott went on for 381 days, it took 15 years to make Martin 
Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a Federal holiday, Nelson Mandela was in 
prison for 27 years in the long battle to end apartheid, and the right 
to vote, even with a constitutional amendment and a variety of Federal 
statutes, has only recently become available to all citizens.
  Now is the time for all persons on all sides of this dispute to join 
with me in urging the Detroit Newspapers and the striking workers to 
once again come to the bargaining table or alternatively submit to 
binding arbitration and end the stalemate that is tearing Detroit 
apart.

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