Tim Kelleher, Detroit Newspapers Inc. senior vice president for labor relations, said managers would discuss the issue after receiving the offer from The Newspaper Guild Local 22 - the last of the six to submit its offer.
"We'll have to sit down today and decide what to do," Kelleher said yesterday morning. "When the time is appropriate, we will be sitting down with the unions."
Local 22 faxed the offer yesterday afternoon, said union spokesperson Nancy Dunn. Guild members had approved it Sunday.
Newspaper officials have five days to respond after all the offers are submitted. But disputes, including whether the strike is over unfair economic practices or economics, are expected to drag on for months in the courts regardless of what the newspapers do.
And the unions have said they will continue strike-related activities such as leafletting and a subscriber and advertiser boycott. Allan Lengel, a striking federal courts reporter for The Detroit News, said he thinks the unconditional offer "applies more pressure on the companies."
"The potential to cause disruption from within is great," he said.
Dunn said yesterday that the disruptions would not come from inside the building, although last week she said they would.
"When we take our jobs back, the people who are going to be waging this are primarily outside," Dunn said. "The warriors outside the building will not be taken back immediately."
Kelleher called plans to continue strike-related activities "bizarre."
"As far as we're concerned when they make an unconditional offer, the strike is over. We're not sure what tactic these guys are taking," he said.
Detroit Newspapers runs business and production operations for the News and the Detroit Free Press under a joint operating agreement. The News is owned by Gannett Co. Inc. and the Free Press by Knight-Ridder Inc.
If the newspapers reject the offer, the unions say they will ask the National Labor Relations Board to seek a federal injunction to immediately return them to their jobs.
Rejecting the offer also could begin the accrual of back pay for striking workers - if the newspapers later are found to have committed unfair labor practices. An administrative law judge is expected to rule on that matter in coming months, and appeals are likely.
Newspaper officials have said that if they accept the offer, they would bring back striking workers as jobs become available. They have said they do not intend to displace the 1,300 replacement workers hired during the strike.
Susie Ellwood, another Detroit Newspapers vice president, said the newspapers would set up procedures for the hirings in conjunction with the unions.
NLRB regional director William Schaub said he would view it as improper if the newspapers took back only some workers. He said he would consider seeking a federal injunction to reinstate all workers - even if it wasn't sought by the unions.
"In an unfair labor strike, the strikers are entitled to their jobs back even if that means firing the replacements," Schaub said.
Schaub has ruled that the newspapers committed unfair labor practices, but that ruling is under appeal.