Chip Scheuer, Register-Pajaronian

Striker Gloria Betencourt made her feelings known to Norcal Frozen Foods officials. To her left (in scarf) is Cuca Lomeli.

"Why we ran it"

Once in a great while a memorable news photograph comes along that captures that single instant in an event that tells the whole story.

The photo on page one Monday (March 9, 1987) showing a striker making an obscene gesture at Norcal company officials was such a photo.

All the bitterness, frustration and intensity of emotion of the 19-month-long labor dispute was caught in that single image.

The picture triggered a strong reaction among readers, as we knew it would.  Many of them called the newspaper to complain.

We may have been wrong in our judgment. But, so compelling was the photograph, and so important was it to the story, we felt we had no choice in this instance but to use it. Whether we like it or not, this was what was happening in our city. We can't shut our eyes to it.

We have not abandoned our standards of good taste. Only two days earlier, as it happened, this editor discarded and editorial cartoon by Conrad, who regularly runs on this page, because it showed the principal figure making the same obscene gesture.

Much of thew news of the past year-and-a-half has been unpleasant. There has been violence, both on the strike lines and in teh neighborhoods. There was the trashing of stores on Main Street. Our news people and photographers have brought this story to you, often in the face of hostility and verbal abuse on both sides. One reporter was physically attacked. At one point, Watsonville Canning, apparently out of snit, for several days in a row shipped busloads of non-striking workers to our doors (and inside) to complain about news coverage and disrupt our operations.

We think the picture more than any single story brought home to our readers a vivid sense of what's been going on in their community.

-- Staff Editorial, Register-Pajaronian

Photo and digitization provided by SFSU Labor Archive & Research Center