Cleveland Newspaper Guild. Local 1.

First chartered (1934) local of the American Newspaper Guild, founded in 1933. Editorial employees of the Cleveland Press and Cleveland News had previously organized in 1933 as the Cleveland Editorial Workers Association, which then united with other newspaper guilds to form the American Newspaper Guild. The first contract of the national Guild was successfully negotiated in 1934 with the Cleveland News by William Davy, executive secretary of Local #1 for its first 30 years. By 1935, the Guild had adopted the industrial-union form of organization and in 1937, Local #1 expanded to include all non-mechanical employees. By 1944, the guild included workers at the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Catholic Universe Bulletin, followed by the Cleveland Citizen, Cleveland Union Leader, Call & Post, and others. In 1968 the Canton Repository became a unit of Local #1, and in 1969 the Massillon Evening Independent local merged with the guild. Cleveland hosted the 50th anniversary convention of the national Guild in 1983, when members voted to merge with the International Typographical Union to form the Media Workers International Union.

From the description of Records, 1933-1983. (Rhinelander District Library). WorldCat record id: 22655811

The Cleveland Newspaper Guild, Local #1 (f. 1934) was the first chartered local of the American Newspaper Guild, founded in 1933. Editorial employees of the Cleveland Press and Cleveland News had organized in 1933 as The Cleveland Editorial Workers Association, which instructed its executive committee, in October of 1933, to affiliate with newspaper guilds in other cities, to the end of forming a national association and a national convention to be held in Cleveland, Ohio. In December 1933, a national convention was called to Washington, D.C. and the American Newspaper guild was formed, with Heywood Broun, columnist at the New York World-Telegram, as the first president. The charter and bylaws adopted by the Guild were largely those of the Cleveland Editorial Workers Association, which had limited membership to editorial employees. During the Great Depression, the American Newspaper Publishers Association had lobbied successfully for the classification of editorial employees as "professionals", and therefore exempt from minimum wage and hour provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act. Editorial employees received pay cuts totaling 35% by 1933 and the average salary for a reporter was $29 a week. The need for a union of editorial workers was realized, particularly since the NIRA had required that the "no pay-cut" clauses of craft union contracts remain in force. In 1934, the first contract of the American Newspaper Guild was successfully negotiated with the Cleveland News by William Davy, executive secretary of the Cleveland Newspaper Guild. In 1935, the national convention of the American Newspaper Guild was held in Cleveland. The convention adopted a resolution favoring the industrial-union form of organization and amended the constitution to state that one of the guild's purposes was "to promote industrial unionism in the newspaper industry." In 1937, the guild expanded its jurisdiction to include all non-mechanical employees in order to strengthen the union in its coming battles with publishers. Although the guild had been chartered by the American Federation of Labor in 1936, Heywood Broun had wanted it to affiliate with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, with the entire newspaper industry under the same contract. In 1937, a referendum of the membership instructed the guild to leave the AFL and affiliate with the CIO. In 1936, the Guild negotiated a contract with the Cleveland Press which set a precedent for future collective bargaining for the entire Scripps-Howard chain. By 1944, the editorial rooms of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Catholic Universe Bulletin became units of the Cleveland Newspaper Guild. Subsequent units of the guild included the Cleveland Citizen and the Cleveland Union Leader, the King Features Syndicate ( Central Press ), Newspaper Enterprises Association (NEA), an At-Large unit, and the Call & Post unit, organized in 1963. In 1968, the Canton Repository became a unit of the Cleveland Newspaper Guild and in 1969, the Massillon Evening Independent local merged with the guild. Local #1 has been involved in several strikes of Cleveland newspapers, beginning in 1946. In 1956, a strike caused the publishing of a triple-masthead newspaper. In 1962-1963, a 129 day strike occurred in an effort to secure a closed shop in the business department of the Cleveland Press . Although the guild failed to achieve the union shop in 1962-1963, it was later obtained in all active units of the guild, requiring membership and payment of dues within 30 days of employment. During most of the strike of 1962-1963, Local #1 itself published the Cleveland Record as an effort to circumvent a virtual news blackout throughout the Cleveland area. In 1963, William Davy, executive secretary of the Cleveland Newspaper Guild for its first 30 years, retired and was succeeded by Jack Weir. In 1978, Stephen Hatch succeeded Weir as executive secretary. At the national convention in Cleveland in 1968, Davy pointed to the existence of 12-15 separate unions in the newspaper industry and called for the American Newspaper Guild to merge with a larger organization if the separate unions within the industry did not merge. At the 50th Anniversary convention of the guild, also held in Cleveland in 1983, the membership voted overwhelmingly to merge with the International Typographical Union to form a new union, the Media Workers International Union, with over 70,000 members.

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for the Cleveland Newspaper Guild, Local 1

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for the Cleveland Newspaper Strike of 1962

From the guide to the Cleveland Newspaper Guild, Local 1 Records, 1933-1983, (Western Reserve Historical Society)