Drivers Reject Pact, Newspaper Strike Still On in Philadelphia

Negotiators shook hands Friday on a tentative accord to end the city’s 42-day newspaper walkout, but hours later Teamsters Union drivers narrowly rejected the pact, and other unions said they would remain on strike with them.

Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., publisher of the morning Inquirer and afternoon Daily News, had just launched a radio campaign to lure readers back and was planning a press run tonight to print its first Sunday editions in seven weeks.

The newspapers, owned by the Knight-Ridder chain, had a Sunday magazine and comics in a warehouse waiting to be used in the Inquirer this Sunday, said PNI spokesman Bill Broom.

Contract Rejected

The vote by the drivers was 175 to 163 against a proposal calling for an increase in wages and benefits of $150 per week over four years, said union negotiator Rick Penater.

Penater said the drivers rejected the contract because it was four years instead of three. “The money was more up front in the first year than the other years,” he said.

In all, 4,774 workers are on strike. Each union had agreed before negotiations that none would return to work unless all accepted their contracts.

After the drivers’ vote, the Newspaper Guild, representing 1,269 workers, postponed a vote on its tentative accord, and typographical workers said they rejected their contract by almost 2 to 1.