Newspaper Strike Ends December 8, 1953

Photo UPI

Beginning November 28, 1953, six of New York’s seven daily newspapers went on strike. 400 photo engravers demanded better pay and working conditions and the other newspaper employees honored their picket lines. For eleven days New York City had only one newspaper available to them, The New York Herald Tribune. Because the Herald Tribune had an outside commercial firm doing their photo engraving, they were the beneficiaries of added readership.

The six newspapers that were on strike had a combined daily circulation of 5,169,000 and a combined Sunday circulation of 7,736,697.

When the strike ended eleven days later on December 8, New Yorker’s rejoiced as they read the news in that evening’s Herald Tribune as shown in the photograph above. The other newspapers resumed publishing the next day. The strike was settled by Federal Mediators’ who worked out a compromise between the paper’s publishers and the union. The photo engravers received a $3.75 per week pay increase.