Go back to news pageHerb Caen and Art Hoppe from the San Francisco Chronicle, Rob Morse, Stephanie Salter and Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Examiner, and other prominent writers such as Examiner Washington bureau chief Chris Matthews, and photographers, joined in signing a letter to management.
Caen, who was on the picket line Monday, said there was a smell of "union-busting" in the air and more hostility on management's part than in the 52-day strike of 1968.
The newspapers have threatened to permanently replace any of the 2,600 striking workers who do not return to the job by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Examiner publisher Will Hearst III, and Chronicle executive editor Matt Wilson issued a joint statement after the columnists' letter was delivered.
"We want them to come back to work. We would be heartbroken and saddened if they were not to return," the statement said. "We still hope for a settlement."
The management threat to replace strikers has deepened the crisis in the negotiations, said Mayor Frank Jordan's press secretary, Noah Griffin. "That obviously adds to the earnestness of the talks and might very well be on the table for discussion itself," Griffin said.
As the strike entered its sixth day, the union leadership began a campaign of support for striking employees, urging them not to return to work Wednesday. "Most of the people we've contacted are standing firm,"a union spokeswoman said. "They realize that by staying together we can get the talks moving and obtaining a settlement, which will end this strike."
Despite the mutual threats and the death of a Teamster striker over the weekend, negotiations between the two sides had resumed at the mayor's office Monday with federal mediators present.
The talks followed the weekend death of 45-year-old Examiner driver Kent Wilson, who was found unconscious next to an electrical box outside the newspapers' Mountain View distribution center.
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