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December 12, 2006
The Nuclear Weapon (and more on replacement workers)
Just got some more details on last night's events from Guild spokesman Stu Bykofsky.
"There was an exchange of proposals and modifications," says Bykofsky. "The federal mediator is going to talk to [management] at 11 a.m. and our negotiating team will be over at the Guild's headquarters, waiting for a call they hope will come for another meeting."
Bykofsky says talk that the union is demonstrating an unwillingness to strike is inaccurate. "The strike is the nuclear weapon," says Bykofsky. "If you use the nuclear weapon, everybody gets radiation burns. We've said all along it would be the last resort and we haven't gotten there. If you're in talks for 13 hours, and there's some progress, even if it's measured in millimeters, you probably shouldn't call a strike."
Management's ability to withstand a strike could be sorely compromised. Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO and Publisher Brian P. Tierney is already talking about an unspecified number of layoffs from the Inquirer newsroom, no matter how much he receives in contract concessions from the union.
Since purchasing the paper last spring, national advertising dropped industry wide, leading Tierney to write his staff a two-page letter outlining the company's financial plight, which he said was so severe that without serious cost cutting the company might not be able to make its debt payments.
Whether or not the company has strike insurance—there is such a thing—is one of the many questions company spokesman Jay Devine hasn't answered despite repeated phone calls.
On the other hand, a strike is not something union members can take lightly either. A November 30 memo from the Guild to its members laid out their own stark financial situation: On the eighth day of a strike, members would receive a check for $150; on the fifteenth day, a check for $200; on the 29th a check for $300, to be followed by another such check every week until the strike ends.
That's just enough for Guild members to purchase towels they can cry in.
There is also the possibility that a strike could lead to a bigger war. Tierney has stated he has no intention of hiring replacement workers.
Tierney's spokesman Jay Devine hasn't returned more than a half-dozen phone messages or e-mails requesting comment on an ad for temporary editorial workers that ran on careerbuilder.com. An operator handling calls about that ad for a company called Strom Engineering said they were looking for temporary editorial employees to cross a picket line on the East Coast in late December. Strom Engineering specializes in hiring strike replacement workers. They would not reveal the name of the newspaper company for whom they are hiring.
As of today, another call revealed they are still taking applications.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is currently involved in highly contentious labor negotiations. Their contract is set to expire December 31. Here in Philadelphia, a series of contract extensions were signed after that point was reached. Pittsburgh's Guild President Mike Bucsko isn't concerned about the ad. "I don't think it's related to us," says Bucsko, "because of the way [the ad] is worded and the way things are proceeding here."
Posted by steve at December 12, 2006 09:33 AM
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