Rebels and the Union

The American Newspaper Guild decided last week to teach rebel members the full lesson of its disciplinary powers. For the first time it cracked down really hard on members of the working press who did not like the Guild's kind of unionism.

An A.N.G. "trial board" tried five writers on Hearst's New York Daily Mirror, condemned them to pay fines totaling $1,400 or be expelled (and perhaps lose their jobs in the bargain). The charges: 1) attempting to form a rival union, the A.F. of L. American Newspaper Writers Association; 2) refusal to pay dues to the A.N.G. (on the grounds it was Communist-controlled); 3) refusal to accept the Guild as bargaining agent. The condemned: Ruth Phillips, rewrite girl ($500); Walter Marshall, ship-news reporter ($400); Charles E. Lang, head of night copy desk ($400). Stiff fines, they carried a stiffer time limit for payment: 30 days. Reporters Frank Doyle and Gregory McCullah, repentant sinners, got off with $50 fines plus back dues, payable in three months.

Presumably no less guilty under Guild bylaws are 40 rebel Guildsmen on the New York Times who petitioned the Labor Board to recognize the same rival A.F. of L. union as their bargaining agent for Times editorial workers. Difference is that the New York Times does not have a "Guild Shop," whereas the Mirror is now negotiating a union contract which will include such a clause. If it is signed, the Guild contract will bind the Mirror management, "upon formal notice from the Guild," to fire employes for the following reasons: 1) if they do not join the Guild within three months after being hired; 2) if they fall two months behind in dues; 3) if they lose good standing for any other reason. If so fired, the banished Guildsmen do not even get dismissal pay.

Under the usual Guild Shop clause a paper does not have to fire old employes who refuse to join the Guild, but this is not the case of the rebels in question. They were once members of the Guild and according to the Guild they still are, for although three of them resigned from the Guild in writing, Guild bylaws do not allow anyone to resign.

"Most recalcitrant" and stiffest-fined of the condemned Mirror rebels, Ruth Phillips, 35, blonde author of three books of fiction, is also the most articulate critic of her accusers. Twelve years on the Mirror, she was a charter Guild organizer, a militant member of the Executive and Grievance Committees. She changed her mind last summer when 18 Mirror Guildsmen unsuccessfully petitioned the National Convention to oust Executives Milton Kaufman and Victor Pasche. Then began the rebel movement for the A.F. of L. American Newspaper Writers Association. A war of nerves followed at the Mirror.

Called "the Feverish Five" and "the non-union gang" by the Guild shop paper, the rebels fought back with charges of Guild intimidation, spying, "forced" repudiations of the A.F. of L., calculated suppression of unfavorable Guild news, union decisions based on an average 4% attendance at unit meetings, rigged elections and much else.

Reflection of Mirror atmosphere in recent months was the case of a regular Guildsman who wrote a sympathetic article on the anti-Communist best seller Out of the Night. Next day as he seated himself at the copy desk, a fellow writer held aloft a sheet of copy paper for him to read. On it was scrawled in big letters: RAT

Mirror rebels admitted last week that the Guild, according to its own bylaws, had a right to impose the sentence it did. They also thought they got a dirty deal. Their chief hope was the reaction of the Mirror staff to the notice of their punishment posted on the Mirror bulletin board by the Guild. Said Rebel Phillips: "This notice was intended to scare the rebel faction, but it has had a different effect. Staff men are talking about oiling up their shotguns."

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