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WASHINGTON (AFX) - The Supreme Court sided Monday with Detroit newspaper unions and some employees who were fired for their actions during an 18-month strike in the mid-1990s.
Justices declined to hear the newspapers' appeal of a National Labor Relations Board ruling ordering the partnership that prints, distributes and sells advertising for The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press to reinstate fired employees.
A Gannett Co. spokeswoman, Tara Connell, said settlements were being worked out with two former workers connected to the court's decision. She estimated it would result in "less than a couple hundred thousand dollars" in total financial impact for the company.
The workers lost their jobs after the newspapers said they blocked entrances at a distribution facility and the Detroit News Building in violation of court orders during the strike that ran from July 1995 to February 1997.
The labor relations board determined that the employees had not engaged in misconduct, but were instead exercising their right to strike. It ordered the employees reinstated with back pay.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the board's ruling. Solicitor General Paul Clement, representing the labor relations board, urged justices not to take the appeal from the Detroit Newspaper Agency, which handled the newspapers' business operations at the time of the strike.
The Detroit News was owned by Gannett during the strike, while the Detroit Free Press was owned by Knight Ridder Inc. The Free Press now belongs to Gannett and the News is owned by MediaNews Group Inc. The company handling the newspapers' business operations now is the Detroit Newspaper Partnership, with Gannett as the general partner and MediaNews Group as the limited partner.
Connell said settlements were being worked out with two former workers, Mike Youngmeier and Gary Rusnell.
A brief filed by Clement in August named three former workers, Douglas McPhail, Youngmeier, and Rusnell, who lost their jobs because the newspapers said they engaged in strike misconduct. Connell said McPhail has since died.
McPhail and Youngmeier were among 40 to 50 union officials and striking workers who picketed a newspaper distribution center in Roseville, Mich., on Aug. 29, 1996.
The two workers, along with 20 others, were discharged by the newspapers after the picketing. The brief included a Sept. 18 letter that year from the newspapers saying McPhail and Youngmeier had "physically blocked ingress and egress of traffic" to the facility.
The brief said Rusnell was among several striking workers who participated in an Aug. 30, 1996, Labor Day rally in front of The Detroit News building. Rusnell and seven other strikers who sat down on the steps of the building at the end of the rally were fired, according to the brief.
Robert Vercruysse, an attorney for the newspapers, said he could not immediately comment on the decision.
The case is Detroit Newspaper Agency v. National Labor Relations Board, 05-1427. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
Copyright 2006 AFX News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
