John Hanrahan and Pete Tucker
When The Washington Post pressmen’s strike of 1975 isn’t being misremembered, it’s not being remembered at all. The event has been all but erased from history – there’s not even a Wikipedia entry for it. Yet the effects of the strike are still being felt today, including by Post reporters and workers who are currently fighting for a contract.
The forgotten pressmen’s strike was a precursor to Ronald Reagan busting the air traffic controllers’ union, which marked a turning point in labor history. “After all, if… one of the leading newspapers in the country takes a strong stand against its own unions and busts them in a very primitive fashion, then why not do it on the national level?” said former Post reporter John Hanrahan.
Hanrahan honored the picket line (unlike the famed investigative duo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein), and was the only reporter who never returned after the strike.
Here more about the forgotten strike in this clip of Hanrahan and me on The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow.
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