Dismembered Eagle

Outside the Brooklyn Eagle one day last week, a ring of pickets circled the plant. The striking Guildsmen, whose wage and benefit demands closed the paper down (TIME, Feb. 28, et seq.), still did not believe Publisher Frank Schroth's announcement that he would never reopen. "We're not convinced" said one Guildsman. "We're not really sure they're folding." Inside the Eagle building, Publisher Schroth sadly demonstrated in the only way he could that the paper was closed down for good. Unable to find a buyer for the Eagle, Schroth put it up for auction piecemeal. Bidding was slow, with only one $8,000 bid for the paper's name, good will and list of 124,000 subscribers (it was rejected as too low). Machinery dealers and printers paid $108,000 for some of the paper's mechanical equipment and another $19,500 for office equipment.

Of the paper's 630 former employees, only about one-fifth have found jobs elsewhere. And the union last week suffered another defeat. The Guild had asked for a court order compelling the Eagle to arbitrate the union's claim for $750,000 in severance pay. But the court ruled that the question of severance pay should not be arbitrated. Said the court: "The strike clearly constituted a repudiation by the employees of the continued existence of the contract." With arbitration out as a means of pressing its $750,000 claim (unless an appeal reverses the decision), the Guild plans to sue the Eagle for the money.

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