Guilded Press

Whether the American Newspaper Guild was to be a labor union or a professional society was settled at its first convention, in St. Paul in 1934. The delegates realistically conceived the reporter as a creature of wages, hours and working conditions, bluntly declared that they wanted more, fewer and better, respectively. By the time its fifth annual convention met last week in Toronto,* the Guild was beyond all doubt a labor union. More than that: It was one of the most successful of the C.I.O.'s affiliates (to Chairman John L. Lewis, its record was "magnificent"); its struggle first for existence, then for recognition had become a fight for better contracts; it had become an innovator in union procedure; it had gone beyond business unionism to fight for its program in the political field.

The past year has been the most important in the Guild's brief history. In 1937, it had 11,112 members in editorial departments. Today, the convention was told, the Guild has 16,797 members on its rolls, 13,505 in editorial departments and 3,292 in the newly acquired commercial department jurisdiction. Total number of U. S. editorial workers eligible for Guild membership is about 25,000. Since the last convention, the Guild conducted eleven strikes, more than in all its four previous years. About 450 strikers were involved, more than double the total ever on strike before. Of the eleven strikes, the Guild called nine "definite victories," one lost, one (Hollywood Citizen-News) still in progress.

The signing of 40 contracts since the 1937 convention made collective bargaining the Guild's most successful activity of the year. In all its previous history, the Guild had made only 37 contracts. In two respects, Guild agreements are rare in labor practice:

1) Provision for dismissal indemnity. Of the Guild's 84 contracts covering 90 papers, two radio stations and two syndicates, over 80 provide for severance pay ranging from one to 28 weeks' salary for from one to 15 years of service.

2) Prohibition of economy layoffs. To keep its members employed and to checkmate an excuse some publishers have used to discharge active members, Guild negotiators are meeting with increasing success in obtaining guarantees against economy layoffs for periods of four months to one year. The fact that newspapers must be produced every day even during depression helps to make such provisions feasible for the Guild.

The American Newspaper Guild has known but one President: Scripps-Howard's mussy, curly-headed Columnist Heywood Broun. Hunched over a table like a rising half moon, Chairman Broun always sits when he presides over Guild conventions. After five conventions, Sitting Broun remains a good-natured, efficient chairman. Last week he was reelected by affectionate acclamation, but with little affection Executive Vice-President Jonathan Eddy was re-elected after two ballots.

* First convention of a C.I.O. union to be held in Canada; picked by the Guild to emphasize its status as an "international union."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.