Inside the 1962 Newspaper Guild Strike at Milwaukee Sentinel

Ken Germanson, president emeritus of the Wisconsin Labor History Society, was interviewed by Michael A. Gordon, associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, for eight hours during the summer of 2009.  His life, including the 40 years he spent in the labor movement, was transcribed onto 78 pages.  A small portion of that interview was devoted to the 1962 strike by the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild at the Milwaukee Sentinel, then owned by the Hearst Corporation.  The strike lasted ten weeks, and was ended when the newspaper was sold to the Journal Co.

Germanson was executive board member of the Guild in that memorable strike as well as the strike chairman, which meant administering the strike activities on a 24/7 basis for some 400 union members.  Read the inside story of that strike here in this portion excerpted from the oral history.

To read the entire 77-page transcript of the complete oral history of Germanson, click here.