SJ-R contract negotiations at turning point
The union that represents State Journal-Register newsroom employees is weighing options now that a “final and best” contract offer has been rejected by workers.
The Jan. 29 vote rejecting management’s contract offer was unanimous. According to the United Media Guild that represents newsroom workers, it is now up to management to decide whether to unilaterally install all or part of the contract proposal that has been rejected. If management installs wages and working conditions rejected by employees, the union could appeal the company’s decision to the National Labor Relations Board, which would have the final say on whether an impasse in negotiations exists that would allow management to move ahead without agreement from union members. The union expects to know more after Feb. 11, when another bargaining session with the company is scheduled.
Newsroom employees have gone without raises since GateHouse Media acquired the newspaper eight years ago, and workers soundly rejected the company’s proposal for $600 annual bonuses over the life of a three-year deal that came with an openshop provision, according to the union. The company’s offer included a starting wage of $13 an hour for new employees, according to a Jan. 27 memo written by union leaders who recommended that employees reject the offer.
A strike might not be realistic, given a glut of unemployed journalists and fallout from other newspaper strikes. A Detroit strike that began in 1995 and ended in 1997 resulted in strikers being replaced with non-union members and courts rejecting arguments that the city’s two daily newspapers had engaged in unfair labor practices. In Seattle, a seven-week strike that ended in 2001 prompted the Seattle Times to seek judicial approval to dissolve a joint operating agreement with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on the grounds that the work stoppage had resulted in financial losses sufficient to end the agreement that combined business operations at the two papers. The papers eventually agreed to end the JOA, and the Post-Intelligencer ceased publication in 2009, although an online edition remains.
Shannon Duffy, administrative officer for the United Media Guild, said that the union is now organizing a phone bank to contact advertisers and subscribers. A subscription or advertising boycott is possible, he said.
“We’re looking at all this stuff that we can do and probably should do,” Duffy said. “It just comes down to when we need to pull the trigger. I don’t think we’re there yet.”
The stakes may extend outside Springfield. GateHouse has been buying up newspapers across the nation for nearly two years. Thanks to a buying binge fueled with borrowed money, GateHouse went bankrupt in 2013 but was resurrected in 2014 under the umbrella of New Media Investment Group, a holding company that, at least so far, has held its own on the stock market as it has snapped up newspapers that include some of the nation’s largest and most respected publications, including the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio, the Providence Journal in Rhode Island and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida. While other large newspaper chains, notably Lee Enterprises and the McClatchy Company, have seen their stock plummet to the neighborhood of $1 a share, New Media Investment Group stock has increased in value since shares started selling two years ago.
By Duffy’s count, GateHouse owns more daily newspapers than any other company in the nation. And what happens in Springfield could set the tone for other GateHouse papers, Duffy said.
“I believe GateHouse is afraid that, after Springfield, the dominoes may fall,” Duffy said. “I believe a lot of their concern is, ‘What do we do if we give Springfield raises?’ This, I think, points to how unprepared they were to absorb all these papers. They don’t have a plan.”
Duffy points to a conversation he had with Kirk Davis, GateHouse chief executive officer, during a shareholder meeting last year. Davis, Duffy recalls, seemed to have a good understanding of the newspaper industry and could easily discuss cash flows and stock prices of newspaper companies.
“He said ‘You guys are mostly about raises, right?’” Duffy recalls. “Bottom line, I said, ‘Really, our big thing is, nobody’s had any raises.’ He nodded and said, ‘We haven’t really figured that part out yet.’ “Who has this size of operation and doesn’t have a strategy for payroll? Who buys all these new companies without a strategy? I appreciated his honesty, but it was a little bit scary, when you think about it.”
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
