Lockouts, Protests, and Scabs: A Critical Assessment of the<i>Los Angeles Herald Examiner</i>Strike

Abstract

This essay uses the case of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner strike, 1967–1977, to show how a critical labor perspective offers historically grounded, politically informed, and culturally situated analyses of media practices and uses. The decade-long strike analyzed here, which has been virtually ignored by media historians, highlights the devastating economic consequences for both the newspaper and the Guild. This essay focuses on the political and cultural implications of class conflict, read through the power struggle between Los Angeles Newspaper Guild members and the Hearst-owned Herald Examiner over issues of identity, work, and economics.