Locked-out workers at the Detroit
News and Free Press marked the fifth anniversary of their strike against the papers
July 13, 2000 with rallies at the Detroit News building and at the papers' printing
plant in suburban Sterling Heights (shown here). It was at the printing plant
five years ago that thousands of unionists defied police, blocking the gates to
keep Sunday papers from being delivered. The Witness' Jeanie and Bill Wylie-Kellermann
became involved in the controversy when they organized a group of religious and
civic leaders called Readers United in an effort -- sometimes involving civil
disobedience -- to bring both sides to the bargaining table. With a recent ruling
by a three-judge federal appeals court that the strike was not caused by management's
unfair labor practices (saving management from owing workers as much as $100 million
in back pay), the unions are renewing their call for a boycott of the papers.