Dispatches from the Next Newspaper War

Wounded egos, labor actions, and Powerpoint presentations at the Pioneer Press

by David Schimke

A Pride Swallowing Siege: A month ago, I wrote a story about the growing possibility of a newspaper strike at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where 449 members of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild have been working without a contract for over a year. The main thrust of the piece was that the publicly traded, San Jose-based Knight Ridder, which owns the Pi-Press, wants to raise the bar for print media profitability, and is looking to beef up its bottom line on the backs of an already burdened workforce.

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Information Overload: A few weeks ago, Jill Taylor, vice president of employee relations at the Pi-Press, put together a PowerPoint presentation and began gathering together small groups of employees for a "review of the negotiations process." She says the purpose of the exercise was to bring people up to speed, not to change minds or carry water for the company: "We have taken information that's been presented at the table and put it into a very straightforward format."

By the time Taylor finally contacted the Guild office to tell them about the informal confabs, however, a number of meetings had already taken place. The union cried foul. Mike Sweeney, the Guild's executive officer, fired off a letter to Taylor on July 28, requesting a complete list of when and where the gatherings took place, the names of all managers who participated, and a digital copy of the PowerPoint presentation. Additionally, the Guild demanded "equal time to meet with union members in similar-size groups, at the paper, during the workday."

The Guild also filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that management was attempting to skirt the bargaining process by negotiating directly with union members. A spokesperson at the NLRB's regional office says the agency has 75 days to make a decision as to whether or not the charge has merit. If the case goes forward, an administrative law judge will pass nonbonding judgment. If the union prevails there, and management decides to contest the ruling, the case could go all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals. "These sorts of complaints take a long, long time to process," explains Professor Rachleff. "And even in the rare cases when the union prevails, it happens long after the situation has changed."

More, and worth the read ....

http://citypages.com/databank/24/1184/article11436.asp