Union meh*

The union representing employees at MediaNews Group's Northern California newspapers has struck a deal that sounds a lot like what non-union employees in the chain's Southern California newspapers got - a week-long furlough and a vacation freeze in exchange for a wobbly pledge not to lay anyone off. FishbowlLA has the story here.

*Correction: As a comment rightly points out, the non-union LANGers will be forced to take 10 furlough days, not five as stated above.

Mercury News workers approve contract

Employees at the San Jose Mercury News voted Monday to approve an austerity contract that includes substantial wage and benefit cuts aimed at heading off another round of layoffs at the already stricken newspaper. The vote was 127-79. The Mercury News reports:

The contract also allows the newspaper to move its copy editing and design operations to Walnut Creek and finance and circulation to San Ramon. Pay will be reduced by 7 percent for the remainder of this year, and an additional 2 percent starting on Jan. 1, 2010. Employees also took a one-week unpaid furlough earlier this year. The company can require another five-day furlough in 2010. ...

"This is a tough contract that will hurt a lot of our members, but it reflects the terrible situation that the news industry and the country is in," said San Jose Guild President Sylvia Ulloa, who was on the bargaining committee. "The committee did the best we could do to limit the damage to our members, minimize the loss of jobs and to try to maintain the quality of the Mercury News," she said.

As the NYT goes...

The New York Times Co. has reached a tentative agreement with the union at the New York Times to cut worker pay by 5 percent. This follows the wage cut/furlough instituted for non-union employees last month.

(via Romenesko)

Employee-owned papers?

The union at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer first broached the idea of buying its threatened newspaper from Hearst Corp last month. Now the union representing workers at the San Francisco Chronicle has approached Hearst with a purchase proposal of its own. Is this something more than an effort to gain a toehold in the negotiations if the paper is put up for sale?

From the SF Weekly:

The request was made in a written set of suggestions for keeping the paper alive that the California Media Workers Guild submitted to Hearst earlier this week. "It is our intention to form a public-labor partnership to explore the possibility of acquiring the Chronicle should the paper be offered for sale," the Guild proposal states. "If necessary, we will keep the paper going on borrowed funds and volunteer labor."

Borrowed funds and volunteer labor? The former sounds like what's already been going on and the latter sounds like the very thing the guild is trying to avoid.

Union charges against MediaNews granted a hearing

The National Labor Relations Board has agreed to hear two complaints brought against MediaNews for transferring newsroom jobs from the unionized Long Beach Press-Telegram to the non-union Daily Breeze last March.

AP on byline strike

Associated Press reporters and photographers are withholding their bylines from articles and photos to protest what they deem to be an unfair contract proposal that would freeze wages and raise health care costs.

Guild tries to build pressure

Amidst contract negotiations, the guild representing the Long Beach Press-Telegram newsroom has apparently found a friend in a local auto dealer/P-T advertiser. After meeting with guild members, he sent management an e-mail warning that he might pull his advertising if they don't pull proposed contract language that would allow MediaNews to outsource editorial work.

More on Steffens

Sara Steffens, who helped successfully form a new union at Singleton's Bay Area papers, only to be laid off along with 28 other editorial employees, tells Editor & Publisher that her pink slip came in retaliation for her organizing activities. She said she is considering formal action against the company. Despite being ousted, Steffens was elected chair of the guild on Wednesday.

Union prevails

Newsroom employees at the seven BANG-Easy Bay newspapers voted 104 to 92 to form a union. A simple majority was all that was needed.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

About 53 percent of participating staff cast ballots allowing the Northern California Media Workers Guild to represent more than 200 newsroom workers in collective bargaining for pay, benefits and work conditions. Barring any successful challenges, contract negotiations could begin within a month.

Many saw the vote as a referendum on Dean Singleton's MediaNews:

The origins of the union campaign trace back to 2006, when a partnership led by Denver's MediaNews Group Inc., the owner of the Oakland Tribune and other East Bay papers, purchased the Contra Costa Times and its affiliated publications. The organizing effort began in earnest last fall, after MediaNews stopped recognizing the Oakland group's guild representation; a newsroom consolidation had left more nonunion than union employees.

Since the acquisition, employees have complained of slipping journalistic quality within the chain, which became a key issue in the campaign, by some accounts eclipsing compensation concerns. Many departing employees have not been replaced. In March, the company said it would buy out 107 employees, or about 10 percent of its staff, citing slumping advertising revenue.

"We've been alarmed since the merger at some of the changes we've seen," [organizing committee co-chair Karl] Fischer said. "Morale was poor and a lot of people were leaving."

Date for BANG union vote set*

Newsroom employees at Singleton's Bay Area papers will get to decide whether or not to unionize in a secret ballot election on June 13. The memo from Bay Area News Group Publisher John Armstrong follows:

Colleagues:

Based on an oral agreement between representatives of the company and the guild, the National Labor Relations Board will schedule a secret ballot election on Friday, June 13th, on the union’s petition to become the exclusive bargaining agent for pay, benefits and working conditions for nonsupervisory news employees of Bay Area News Group-East Bay. Yes, you read correctly: Friday the 13th.

The agreement, which we expect will be formalized and signed tomorrow, will include election locations, which will be on company premises, and the hours for voting.

The following employees will be eligible to cast a ballot: All full-time and regular part-time nonsupervisory news division employees at our Alameda, Antioch, Hayward, Fremont, Tracy, Pleasanton, Oakland, Richmond, San Mateo and Walnut Creek locations.

John Armstrong
President and Publisher

*The guild's news release can be found here.

BANG publisher on union petition*

Jack Armstrong, publisher of the Bay Area Newspaper Group, LANG's Northern California cousin, sent out a memo Monday about efforts to unionize the Bay Area papers. He opposes the effort, stating that the organization "can best tackle the challenging issues we face in a union-free environment."

The complete memo follows:

Dear Colleagues:

The guild last week filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking an election on the union’s effort to be the exclusive bargaining agent for non-supervisory employees in the newsrooms of Bay Area News Group-East Bay.

Over the next several days we will deal with the NLRB over issues relating to the definition of the proposed bargaining unit and who is eligible to vote. We anticipate that the election most likely will be held in June.

You can expect to hear a lot from us before the election because this represents a potential turning point in the history of our newsrooms. The outcome will impact all of you, whether you vote or not, whether you favor or oppose the union, whether you feel strongly or not about the issue.

In the meantime, here are some things to keep in mind:

The outcome of the election will be determined by how a majority of those who vote cast their ballots – “yes” for union representation, “no” for a union-free environment.

It is important that each of you do your homework so you can make a studied decision. For example, we encourage you to examine closely what has happened in recent negotiations at union-organized newspaper companies in the Bay Area and across the country. It is important to know what the union actually has delivered for its members.

If you signed a union authorization card, that does not mean you are in any way obligated to vote for the union. (Some employees have said they signed a card, changed their minds and asked that the cards be returned; the union refused.)

The election will be by secret ballot. No one will ever find out how you voted.

Kevin Keane and I are opposed to unionization of our newsrooms. For good and ample reasons, we believe unionization would not be in your best interests or the best interests of our organization and our audience. We will explore those reasons in the weeks ahead.

Kevin and I are confident that on the day of the election a majority of you will agree with us, that our organization is poised to do great things and we can best tackle the challenging issues we face in a union-free environment.

John Armstrong, Publisher

*The union organizers have a letter of their own for Armstrong.

Re-union

Newsroom employees in Singleton's 9-member Bay Area group, which includes the Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times, have petitioned to form a union. MediaNews broke up the guild that had represented his Alameda Newspaper Group newspapers by combining their editorial functions with those of the papers he bought from McClatchy.

All together now

The Newspaper Guild plans to spend $500,000 to organize a union at the Contra Costa Times. It's a response to the union-busting ways of owner Dean Singleton, who merged news desks at his Bay Area papers to break the union at the Oakland Tribune.

It's not clear to me what unions have done to help reporters at the Singleton papers where they exist. From my standpoint, they misunderstand as well as anyone the challenges facing newsrooms and the Singleton business model. These misunderstandings threaten to bring about bad collective bargaining agreements.

Here's the success anecdote: A veteran reporter at the Hayward Daily Review collapses from all of the extra work she has to do and takes two weeks sick time to recover. When she returns, she's reassigned to a rookie beat. Two union employees show up at her house and offer to help.

Punchline: The guild was not able to get her regular beat back, but (the reporter) says she was able to retrieve her self-respect.