1962 New York City newspaper strike

The 1962–63 New York City Newspaper Strike ran from December 8, 1962, until March 31, 1963, lasting for a total of 114 days.

A preliminary action took place when The Newspaper Guild went on strike against the Daily News just after midnight on November 1, 1962. Guild vice president Thomas J. Murphy indicated that the Daily News had been singled out as the union's first target "because there we have had more aggravation, more agitation, more issues, more disputes and more anti-unionism from management." The Daily News was able to keep printing on November 2, 1962, by using the presses of the New York Journal American. Workers at the Daily News settled their issues, accepting raises of $8 per week in talks mediated by United States Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz, with employees receiving an added $4.25 per week in the first year, with an additional $3.75 weekly in the subsequent year, allowing the paper to start with a print run of 1.5 million copies, short of its nation-leading normal circulation of 2,075,000 copies.

On December 4, 1962, negotiators representing the nine major newspapers offered a deal that combined an $8 increase in wages and benefits spread over two years, combined with changes in work procedures that would cut costs for the papers. Union negotiators rejected the offer from the newspapers the following day, setting their requirement of a $16 weekly raise over two years, and set a deadline of midnight on December 8 if an agreement could not be reached before then. Representatives of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, including Frank H. Brown and Stephen Schlossberg, attempted to help both sides reach agreement on December 6, with "the public interest" cited as justifying federal intervention.

The strike began at 2:00 AM on December 8, when workers from the New York Typographical Union, led by their president Bert Powers, walked out from the Daily News, New York Journal American, The New York Times, and New York World-Telegram & Sun. In addition, the New York Daily Mirror, New York Herald Tribune, New York Post and both the Long Island Star Journal and Long Island Daily Press all suspended operations on a voluntary basis. The newspapers kept their offer of an $8 increase per week spread over two years, while the unions were looking for a $38.82 increase in the two-year period.

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