P.M. BRIEFING : Mediator Enters News Strike
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NEW YORK — A top labor mediator met secretly in Washington with both sides in the Daily News strike as time runs down on a mid-March sell-or-settle deadline set by management for the once-mighty New York tabloid, it was reported today.
Federal mediator William Usery met with Publisher James Hoge on Wednesday, after meeting last Monday with the newspaper’s four largest striking unions, the New York Post said.
Usery’s record as a mediator includes the resolution of such bitter disputes as the 1989 Pittston Coal strike.
The News strike began Oct. 25.
The Post said it is unclear how Usery would be involved in the often acrimonious labor situation at the News.
Tribune Co., the newspaper’s Chicago-based parent, has threatened to close the News by the middle of March unless a settlement or a sales agreement is reached.
Interest in purchasing the tabloid has been reported from British media magnate Robert Maxwell and from Mortimer Zuckerman, a real-estate developer who owns the magazine U.S. News & World Report.
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