Why the 1975 Post pressmen's strike matters today

On what would have been former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham’s 100th birthday in June, the Post ran a story that continues the paper’s decades-long effort to rewrite the history of the 1975 pressmen’s strike. It provoked a response in Union City by Fred Solowey, long-time union editor, and former co-chair of the Local 6 Legal Defense Committee and now local journalist Pete Tucker has weighed in on the Huffington Post with "Wash Post Busted Pressmen’s Union in 1975 Strike. Why It Still Matters Today." The thorough report not only recounts the genesis of the strike -- which was intentionally provoked by Graham so she could break the pressmen's union -- but shows how it “wrote the template" for Ronald Reagan to bust the air traffic controllers strike six years later, noting that "The anti-union wave Katharine Graham helped usher in has only grown stronger in the years since." Tucker tells Union City that his interest in the strike was sparked by hearing former Post reporter John Hanrahan speak at the "All the President's Men" screening at the 2011 DC Labor Film Festival.

---