The Press: The Chess Players

After 80 days of one of the friendliest strikes in U.S. newspaper history, editorial staffers last week settled their disagreements with the Seattle evening Times (circ. 214,377). Terms of the settlement: a wage increase of up to 7% per week ($2.50 to $7) and an increase in editorial maximums (to $109) and fringe benefits. The Newspaper Guild, which wanted a 7-8% boost, and the Times, which offered 3-5%, were never very far apart financially or even socially. Throughout the strike, picketing staffers chatted amiably with members of the Times management entering the plant, and even got together for a "poverty poker" session with a $2.50 limit. All talk of the strike was barred.

The prosperous Times suffered little from the strike, since it was covered by strike insurance and had an excess-profits-tax cushion. (But another dispute with three mechanical unions prevented the paper from coming back on the streets immediately after settling its Guild strike.) Its rival, Hearst's Post-Intelligencer (circ. 184,301) picked up close to 50,000 readers and more ads than it could print, but the Times confidently expects to hold its circulation lead. Striking editorial staffers found temporary jobs, from unloading bananas and canned salmon on the city's docks to doing cleanup jobs for the park department. Said Federal Mediator Barney Toner: "Negotiators from both sides never raised their voices and debated issues as quietly and carefully as two old men playing chess."