More Than Money

NEW YORK, JAN. 9 (AP)--THE WIRE SERVICE GUILD STRUCK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TODAY IN A DISPUTE CENTERING ON WAGES AND A DEMAND FOR A FORM OF UNION SHOP.

Thus the AP led its own story last week on the first strike by editorial employees in its history. While most Guild reporters, photographers, cartoonists and clerks (total AP Guild membership: 1,374) either manned or respected picket lines in front of AP bureaus across the country, nearly 2,000 non-strikers, supervisory personnel and unaffected overseas staffers continued to churn out a steady flow of teletype news to AP's roughly 8,500 worldwide subscribers.

If the issue were only money, the strike could probably be settled quickly. The Guild is demanding a minimum salary of $264 a week for experienced newsmen; AP offered $14 less, or $250. A more basic difference is the Guild's insistence that eight out of ten new AP employees must join the union. AP General Manager Wes Gallagher has called the demand "non-negotiable." If the AP "is to maintain its standards of objectivity," he said, "it cannot force its news employees into any organization, including a union."

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