The Union Label

AT 3:15 A.M. Sunday, November 8, 1995, Lance Young, a Detroit newspaper carrier, left a Detroit News-Free Press distribution center, his pickup truck loaded with papers for his 550 customers. The two related newspapers were publishing successfully in the fourth month of a strike by six of their eleven unions, chief among them the Teamsters, representing 2,500 strikers. A couple of blocks away, as Young pulled onto a freeway ramp, he realized he had three flat tires. Marauding striker squads would often throw a couple of five-gallon bucketloads of star nails around delivery trucks and carrier vehicles congregating at one of the newspapers’ installations. This time a flying squad of masked men had hit the Plymouth distribution center; some had dumped the nails, disabling 14 vehicles, while others shattered windows and lights, and bashed and scratched cars with clubs and keys.

As Young changed a tire, a hundred-vehicle squadron of raiders headed up the ramp toward him. Several threw beer bottles and tried to hit him on the head with signs. After the first thirty vehicles passed, three vans stopped and men with baseball bats, tire irons, and picket signs got out. Young retreated into his own truck, locked the door, and tried to dial 911. A brick shattered his window, and he fended off the missile with his arm. One man broke the window with a tire iron and flailed at him. Others battered his truck, rocked it, and tried to push it off the hill. Horns honked, and the attackers fled. Young went to the hospital, and resigned as a carrier the next day.

EH

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Eugene H. Methvin

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AT 3:15 A.M. Sunday, November 8, 1995, Lance Young, a Detroit newspaper carrier, left a Detroit News-Free Press distribution center, his pickup truck loaded with papers for his 550 customers. The two related newspapers were publishing successfully in the fourth month of a strike by six of their eleven unions, chief among them the Teamsters, representing 2,500 strikers. A couple of blocks away, as Young pulled onto a freeway ramp, he realized he had three flat tires. Marauding striker squads would often throw a couple of five-gallon bucketloads of star nails around delivery trucks and carrier vehicles congregating at one of the newspapers’ installations. This time a flying squad of masked men had hit the Plymouth distribution center; some had dumped the nails, disabling 14 vehicles, while others shattered windows and lights, and bashed and scratched cars with clubs and keys.

As Young changed a tire, a hundred-vehicle squadron of raiders headed up the ramp toward him. Several threw beer bottles and tried to hit him on the head with signs. After the first thirty vehicles passed, three vans stopped and men with baseball bats, tire irons, and picket signs got out. Young retreated into his own truck, locked the door, and tried to dial 911. A brick shattered his window, and he fended off the missile with his arm. One man broke the window with a tire iron and flailed at him. Others battered his truck, rocked it, and tried to push it off the hill. Horns honked, and the attackers fled. Young went to the hospital, and resigned as a carrier the next day.