For once a Hearst newspaper was in trouble and no other publisher was pleased. This was no ordinary strike. As Newspaper Guild (C.I.O.) pickets circled the Los Angeles Herald & Express’ baroque, block-sized plant for the second week, it shaped up as a test case for the press of the nation.
When the American Newspaper Guild met in Scranton last June, it served notice that all new contracts must provide a $100 weekly top-minimum for reporters (Herald & Expressmen now get $70*), $50 for employes in other departments. That meant that the Herald & Express would have to shell out a 40% pay boost. To Hearst’s 10% offer, the Guild said “no contract—no work,” claimed that management’s suspension of publication amounted to a lockout. Replied the Herald: “A mass walkout prevents publication. It is not a lockout.” At week’s end Federal Conciliator Harry C. Malcom had got almost nowhere.
The Herald’s competitor, the round-the-clock Daily News (circ. 280,000), was not cheering. On the Guild’s Los Angeles list, it was next.
*Other reporter top-minima under existing Guild contracts: New York, $90; Philadelphia, $78; Detroit, $65; San Antonio, $56; San Francisco, $73-
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