USA TODAY Co. to acquire The Detroit News as ownership shifts – Detroit Metro Times | Ricardo Torres
The Detroit Newspaper War was a take-no-prisoners battle between the two largest newspaper publishing companies Gannett and Knight-Ridder; it was one of America’s costliest newspaper wars.
The circulation war was so intense that it brought both newspapers to the brink of failure, Knight-Ridder and Gannett announced their application for a JOA under the newspaper preservation act. (1970) The application tagged the Free Pres as the failing newspaper. Testimony described a downward spiral of financial losses, a second-place share of advertising and declining circulation, the 100-year Joint operating agreement ended in 2026, only 36 years later.
The JOA had tremendous public and union opposition, and the DOJ initially recommended against approval of the JOA, it was barley approved.
The JOA Hubris also contributed to the newspaper strike/lockout of July 13, 1995, to Dec. 17, 2001, which I was a strike director on. During the strike, both papers saw huge readership declines from which they never recovered. (The National Labor Relations Board ruled on June 19, 1997, that the newspapers had “caused” and “prolonged” but a three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Federal Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the NLRB.After all this I was surprised that the newspapers decided to end the JOA, which saves them millions of dollars every year by combining operations until I looked deeper.
On August 3, 2005, Gannett announced that it would sell The News to MediaNews Group and purchase the Free Press from the Knight Ridder company
On January 26, 2026, USA today announced that they are purchasing the Detroit News from the MediaNews Group, the then-chairman of Gannett, Al Neuharth, envisioned the startup newspaper and Gannett’s board of directors approved the launch of the national newspaper, USA Today, on December 5, 1981. In 2025 Gannett announced it will be changing its name to USA TODAY Co., Inc., effective November 18.
Now that both the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News are owned and operated by USA Today (Gannett) will this arrangement lead to true compilation, which was the goal of the newspaper preservation act and will both newspapers survive? I am very skeptical.
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Union workers launch initiative to research options for soon-to-be-shuttered Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | Ricardo Torres
The Typographical union, Mailers union, Pressmen’s union, Journalists’ union, went on strike in 2022, all but the journalist’s union (the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh) voted to accept buyouts ending their strike.
The Supreme Court upheld the ULP status of the strike by declining to consider an appeal from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which legally obligated the Newspaper to reinstate the workers plus reimburse all costs and benefits including back wages accrued during the strike, in effect declaring that management did not bargain in good faith.
Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh President Andrew Goldstein stated to management “We’re not here for revenge. We’re not here to destroy the Post-Gazette. We are here to rebuild it.”
Without getting into the merits of the strike or the Courts decision it is the intention/strategy for striking unions to damage the company sufficiently to force them back to the table and sometimes to the point of no return.
The last strike I directed with the IBT was in coordination with 5 other national unions and 6 union locals. This strike (The Detroit News/Free Press Strike) was immediately transformed into a national strategy against two of the largest newspapers in the nation under a joint operating agreement. The strike was fierce and took almost 6 years to achieve a Collective Bargaining Agreement.
A third of all subscribers were lost. Circulation fell eight times the rate for industry between 1995 and 2001, and dozens of veteran journalists left the papers and the city, taking with them years of knowledge and public memory. The Free Press and Detroit News have never recovered their pre-strike circulation numbers.
The anger between the company and strikers resulted in hundreds of arrests and injuries. Hand to hand combat with police and private security company guards which numbered over a thousand and over 4,000 replacement workers to do everything from delivering newspapers, drive trucks, man the printing facilities and everything in between. destruction of company property was happening daily, in fact the violence got so bad at the printing plants the Newspaper Agency rented helicopters to fly newspapers out of the plants.
I have seen companies large and small go out of business and lives destroyed, companies trying to stay afloat and make payroll, people who have put every penny they have into their dream – all erased because of strikes.
I have seen workers going on strike thinking that it was going to be a party, short and sweet but nobody thought that years later they were still going to be on strike.
Strikes serve nobody’s interest. People must realize that. It is the absolute last resort and, frankly, both sides should do everything possible to prevent one. The best way to avoid a strike is to stay union free but that also involves communication, effort, determination, and a desire to do right by your employees within reason.
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Statewide Strike Encouraged in Minnesota in Response to Heavy Handed Immigration and Customs Enforcement Action
With federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showing no signs of leaving Minnesota, loca
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Unions Winning Nearly 80% of Elections, But Fewer Elections are Held – HR Daily Advisor | Ricardo Torres
As published by Gallup, it reports that in 2025 68% of U.S. adults approve of Labor Unions, essentially unchanged from the 2024 poll. This is the fifth consecutive year that approval of Organized Labor has been in the 67% to 71% range and even through the number of elections are down and with smaller units, at nearly 80% the union election win rate is significant.
First of all unions have patience, they have a long history of looking for easy targets regardless if it is a complicated corporate campaign or a single unit, they will calculate their odds of winning and only quit when they come to the conclusion that it’s not worth their time or expense, the organizing department/organizers have one job and one goal, that is to grow the membership and advance their individual careers.
The CWA spent six years organizing 40,000 New Jersey state workers, they spent five years to win card check recognition at SBC Communications Inc which later merged with AT&T, as a result today there are more than 54,000 new CWA-represented workers, 18 years with American Airlines Passenger Service Agents leading to more than 9,000 new CWA-represented workers largely in the South.
The first attempts to organize farm workers started in 1890, In 1914 the Agricultural Workers Organization and the Industrial Workers of the World engaged in one of the first serious attempts in Washington State to organize the farm labor force, the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee started in 1965 when Filipino and Mexican migrant farm workers joined together to strike against the Delano-area grape growers. The UFW and other unions are still organizing Agricultural Workers today.
Tech union organizing started getting serious around 1970 and was considered one of the hardest groups of workers to organize. Unionization has picked up speed since 2019 as several unions have successfully launched initiatives to organize tech workers, such as the Communications Workers of America, United Steel Workers and Office and Professional Employees International Union.
Many times, unions are only communicating with your employees for a short time before an RC petition is filed, so how did you lose them and why didn’t you see it coming?
A union petition is usually the result of a breakdown of communications that has existed for some time and the union organizer’s goal is to trigger that discontentment, this is the point when they are telling you that they don’t trust you anymore.
A majority of workers want a friendly and respective relationship with their managers but don’t want to be their friends, they want leaders who will have their best interests at heart, look at it as if someone believes that they are in a perilous situation, they will turn to anyone that might be able to help them, that is why the unions can have a tremendous amount of influence over workers in a short time.
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Kaldi’s Coffee Workers Vote To ‘Go Union,’ Join UNITE HERE – WNY Labor Today: Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, Bringing You Labor News From Across The Nation, New York State & Western New York
Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, Bringing You Labor News From Across The Nation, New York State & Western New York
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5 Minneapolis Unions Call for General Strike – Largest Ohio ArcelorMittal Plant Workers on Strike – UPMC Altoona Nurses Win Violence Protection Measures Following Attack
ATU Local 1005, SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, CWA Local 7250, and St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28 are supporting the call for a general strike and organizers expect the list to grow in coming days.
Read the full article at: paydayreport.com
AFGE | Major Union Victory–NIOSH Employees Win Full Reinstatement After Nine-Month Fight
Reversal follows sustained pressure from AFGE members, labor allies, public health experts.
Read the full article at: www.afge.org
Portland City Council aides unionize
Two unions are vying to represent 41 Portland City Council staffers, triggering a public-sector union election.
Read the full article at: nwlaborpress.org
Can Unions Strengthen Their Political Muscle?
Labor unions have long been central to the fight for democracy. But they can only play that role when members are engaged and trust their unions to fight for them.
Read the full article at: dissentmagazine.org
