Hardly a News at 11 headline, but Reader does a good article on the Trib’s Labor beat writer.
As the article points out, Stephen Franklin is somewhat of a rarity at major dailies–most have phased out full-time labor coverage. Franklin points out two events that, to me, have defined a fair reporting coverage of labor issues in the Trib. The first was a series of union democratization. For anyone who follows the challenges of unions in ridding themselves of corruption, the series was fantastic. Too often, unions have become bastions of corruption that work against the interest of workers. Second, the Trib did a series of articles on the Cat Strike in 92 that was excellent. Catepillar had tried to run over its workers in Peoria and Decatur during that period and it created a divide in those communities that had never been there through other strikes, even the long ’82 strike. The reports were excellent and fairly balanced.
And from the article, let me also suggest:
Two years ago Franklin published the book Three Strikes, a study of the labor turmoil in the 90s at the Caterpillar, A.E. Staley, and Bridgestone/Firestone plants in Decatur. "I offer it," he says angrily, "as a witness’s account of what happens when workplace rules are broken, when unions no longer make workers strong, and when the fruits of progress are no longer meant to be shared, but rather worshiped by most of us from afar." Studs Terkel’s quoted on the jacket calling the book "labor reportage at its best."
I haven’t read this book, but I plan on reading it soon. I lived and worked in Central Illinois during this time and the Staley lock-out should be considered a truly ugly period in American capitalism. I saw more men broken during that period who wanted nothing, but to return to work at whatever conditions Staley offered. But Staley wasn’t interested in getting just favorable work rules, they were interested in crushing the union. Along the way they crushed a whole lot of lives.