The Detroit Newspaper Strike: A City-Wide Display of Solidarity

When the company decides they want to break a contract and clear out the workforce, they usually expect people to just put their heads down and take it. On July 13, 1995, over 2,500 workers from six different unions walked off their jobs at the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News to prove them wrong. Management had decided it was time to bust the unions, cut hundreds of jobs, and slash the bargaining power of the workers who actually produced and delivered the papers every day.

But the publishers didn't just pick a fight with the newspaper workers, they picked a fight with a union town. The UAW, the Teamsters, and members from locals all over the region poured into the streets to back the strikers. When the companies tried to bring in scabs and private security to get the papers out of the printing plants, thousands of union brothers and sisters held the line, physically blocking the gates in massive displays of solidarity. The strike lasted for years and showed the whole country that when one union is under attack, every union is under attack.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_newspaper_strike_of_1995%E2%80%931997