In traditional union style, the employees of the Inquirer and the Daily News are up in arms over the newspaper's new management and ownership. Their demands? The usual: Permanent pensions despite company fiscal performance and seniority privileges for long-time employees regardless of job performance. From the list of demands:
Seniority. As with most labor unions, the current Guild contract calls for workers with more experience at the company to be protected in case jobs are cut for economic reasons. After a drop in national advertising, the newspapers are considering as many as 190 layoffs company-wide, and they have floated the possibility of up to 150 job cuts in the Inquirer newsroom. The company wants wider latitude in being able to pick who goes; the union says the company has not developed any objective alternative system for choosing who would keep their jobs.
Pensions. Current Guild employees qualify for pensions equal to 1.6 percent of their yearly pay for each year served, within certain limits. While that is less than what teachers and many other public-sector employees earn, Tierney says the pension liability is more than the company can afford at a time when other companies are shifting from traditional pensions to 401(k) plans and other retirement arrangements whose costs are less expensive and easier to predict. The union says the company has not proposed an alternative of comparable value.
If they don't get what they're demanding, then they're threatening to strike. The current publisher plans to continue operating the paper with non-union work. The site that will host the news from the picketing journalists in that event is here.
They appear to think they are working in the public sector. They also appear to think they are entitled to their jobs. How quaint. Maybe they should look at who signs their checks, and after that, the declining revenues of their shrinking industry.
Not that journalists would want to be bothered with details like business or profit margins.



















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Comments Policy
I love it!! Unions continue
December 3, 2006 - 18:54 ET by ncstevemI love it!! Unions continue to drive the industries in which they 'work' out of business. Ford & GM will be out of business in 10-15 years unless they switch from union to a non-union work force. They can't compete with the unions in place and if the unions give back all the perks they get to be competative with non-union auto makers, then there's no point in having a union to begin with.
As far as newspapers are concerned, unions are not the main reason for the demise of the print media. Unions are only contributing to an earlier demise than what would otherwise happen. Newspapers and news weeklies (Time, Newsweek) will begin to disappear in about 10 years and most will certainly be gone in 20 years. These entities can't compete with the immediacy of the internet.
The coal miner story from a year ago is a perfect example. I read on the internet before I went to work one morning that 8 of the 9 miners were found dead and the ninth was in critical condition. I get to my office and one of my co-workers newspaper read in bold headlines, "MINERS FOUND ALIVE".
Only the 50 and over crowd read newspapers on a regular basis. The same is true for the audience of the network news. Young people get their news from the internet. Newspapers, newsweeklies and network news will all be a thing of the past in the next 10-20 years.
Gosh, if we could convince em
December 3, 2006 - 21:15 ET by Clear thinkerGosh, if we could convince employees at the NYT to strike. What a dream huh?
If the NYT could not publish for a week, would anyone care?
NYT
December 3, 2006 - 21:27 ET by pocomocoTheir stockholders sure in hell would!
The web site that you've refe
December 3, 2006 - 22:41 ET by seanrobinsThe web site that you've referenced is NOT what would be coming from the papers themselves. It is the STRIKERS' web site, and might contain the product of the picket lines.
sean robins
www.seanrobins.com
It wasn't that clear from t
December 3, 2006 - 23:48 ET by Eric ArrIt wasn't that clear from the post. Adjusted and noted.
Thanks.
No progress
December 3, 2006 - 23:17 ET by acumenSo giant Big Print is getting over on the lowly working class? Not very progressive these progressives. I'm looking forward to seeing which side of this big corporate media giant vs little guy issue Senator elect Bob Casey D - Pa (who just happened to be endorsed by both papers) will take - balls in your court Mr Casey, welcome aboard.