Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

AA News Editor Vindicator Scab

10. February 2005 • Scott Trudeau
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Ed Petykiewicz is a scabAnn Arbor News editor Ed Petykiewicz temporarily went to Youngstown, Ohio to work as a scab at the Youngstoung paper The Vindicator when workers there walked out on strike:

We’d heard that the editor of The Ann Arbor News, owned by the Newhouse chain, was among a group of employees who’d temporarily relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, to serve as scabs at The Vindicator, an independent daily rag where 170 workers have been on strike since Nov. 16.

Union members in the editorial, classified and circulation departments walked out over issues ranging from pay increases and overtime rates to increasing health care costs, according to Deb Shaulis Flora, vice president of the Youngstown Newspaper Guild.

> From the MetroTimes: Winter (strike) break



  1. Remember, the Ann Arbor news endorsed George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.
       —Rob    Feb. 10 '05 - 03:25PM    #
  2. Right. I’m not saying this is shocking or surprising in any way. Just thought I’d point out one of the more important figures in local journalism (not that that adds up to a whole lot of importance) is a scab.
       —Scott    Feb. 10 '05 - 08:16PM    #
  3. The Scab
       —Mark    Feb. 11 '05 - 03:46AM    #
  4. Dear Arbor Update editors:

    It sounds like Ed is a scab for sure.
    Glad you pointed that out.

    And it sounds like Coke is just as you call it—KillerCoke.

    All this strong language you use is justied, about Ed and about Coke.

    * Why is it, though, that never once has any of you used such outraged abandon in your language about Israel, and are not even thinking about demanding divestment from Israel——the same Israel that openly kills so many thousands of innocent, occupied Palestinians on their own land, with U.S. money, U.S. weapons, and massive U.S. diplomatic protection?
    —the same Israel putting millions of Palestinians in conditions of dire siege, poverty, and malnutrition, using purely racial justifications which you’d never accept on the U-M campus?
       —Divest Now    Feb. 11 '05 - 05:49AM    #
  5. Hee hee. I think there are plenty of Israel conversations here and on the predecessor Goodspeed. Some people agree with you, others disagree…
       —js    Feb. 11 '05 - 01:16PM    #
  6. Not to defend Petykiewicz or the News, but I think this is a little misplaced. I mean, he’s Management, after all, part of the same organization that the strike is against (I assume the Youngstown paper is also owned by Newhouse).

    The executives and board members at GM continue to work when the auto workers are on strike, and they’re not generally called scabs for that.
       —Larry Kestenbaum    Feb. 11 '05 - 04:37PM    #
  7. Divest Now,

    There’s been plenty of outraged abandon on the Palestine + Israel situation. Outraged abandon from both points of view, in fact. Actually, I think I’ve seen people call Ari a “Zionist” on AU and GU about, oh, eight billion times—how much more outrage do you want?

    I’m not sure outraged abandon is something that’s useful in that particular situation right now, though.
       —Murph    Feb. 11 '05 - 06:28PM    #
  8. Larry,

    Actually, management who take over jobs of the employees they supervise during a strike are often referred to as scabs, even if it isn’t the most common use of the term. For example, a UPS manager driving a truck during a UPS strike might be labeled a scab… Since he’s filling in for striking workers, I think the term applies well enough. And editors are in a different kind of management position than at a lot of companies, since they typically don’t worry much about the business-side of the aisle in the newspapers (at least at decent papers), and focus on supervising the actual work that gets done… But they often have hire/fire power, so that does put them in a different class.
       —Scott    Feb. 11 '05 - 09:20PM    #
  9. Blaine (Divest Now),

    We’re not making any demands for the AA News regarding Ed the Scab. We’re just calling him what he is. When I wrote about SOLE’s Killer Coke campaign, I mostly quoted their email and didn’t insert my own opinion into the primary piece. We try to cover events, actions and issues related to Palestine/Israel and those are probably the most discussed topic in this forum.

    IMO, our bias at least strives to be in what we cover, not how we cover it (admittedly, this isn’t always true, but I think we do OK and might do better) ... I called Ed a scab because I thought it was funny, a relatively accurate label and I think the site could use a little humor and personal voice in it’s primary content. I didn’t call Coke “Killer Coke”—SOLE did, and I quoted them.
       —Scott    Feb. 11 '05 - 09:32PM    #
  10. Larry- Newshouse does not own the Vindicator. Just as an FYI. The Vindicator is an independent, family-owned joint.
       —js    Feb. 13 '05 - 02:07AM    #
  11. Ed was a winner of the George Polk Award when he worked at the Bay City Times. He used this award for journalism that requires uncovering important truths to advance his career. It’s disappointing that he has changed over the years to become just another talented reporter who tasted too many of the fruits of management enticements when he could be adding to the sadly-missing truth from most of today’s sources.
       —buzz    Feb. 25 '05 - 12:05AM    #