Before placing a road barricade that blocked one of only three entrances to the Barton Hills Village section in Ann Arbor, roughly 15 newspaper strikers planned their protest strategy in nearby Bandamer Park.
"Our main purpose always is to get word out that we are locked out," said Dia Pearce, unit chair for the Newspapers Guild at the Detroit News. "Our goal is to get contracts."
Pearce said they protested yesterday in response to the companies' - The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press and the Detroit Newspaper Association - refusal to follow up on the union's contract offer.
According to the protest fliers, "Heath Meriwether, Free Press publisher and Barton Hills Village resident, has been leading the company's deceitful media campaign against workers."
During a February agreement, the union members offered to return to work after 20 months of resistance without settling their contracts. But Pearce said that not all strikers have been able to return.
"We made an offer to return to our jobs," Pearce said. "The company accepted our offer, but unfortunately, they called back a handful. So there are about 2,000 of us out."
Soon after the protesters put a wire across the entranceway at Barton Shore Drive and Whitmore Lake Road, they pulled away in their cars, careful not to run into the police.
Sgt. Don Steele of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department said they were unable to track down the protesters, and police officers removed the barricade about 35 minutes after it was secured by the protesters.
"It's a public safety issue," Steele said. "This is unique. It's something in 22 years I've never encountered - blocking a road like that."
Steele said they would keep an eye on the area all night, which he said is the best they can do.
He also said his department has been in touch with the Meriwether family.
"We have made contact with them and they're alright," Steele said.
Les Adler, an Ann Arbor resident, waited in his car before turning around to head out from another exit. While Adler waited, protesters handed him a flier explaining their plight.
"I'm supporting this," Adler said. "I've supported the strike all along."
Adler said he was annoyed to learn that the Detroit newspapers have not taken back all of their employees.
Barton Hills Village resident Chris Holmes said the protesters honked their car horns and possibly put fliers in residents' mailboxes.
Holmes said she originally thought the four-car procession was a wedding party until one of the cars stopped and someone asked her if she wanted a flier.
"They're probably taking a small risk," Holmes said. "I sort of see it as an adventure."
Holmes said she has "seen them outside the lower gates two times before."
However, Pearce said one of the reasons for the protest was "mainly because this is an area we haven't had a lot of visibility in."
JONATHAN SUMMER/Daily
Protesters from the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News blocked a street yesterday in the neighborhood of Free Press Publisher Heath Meriwether.