500 Union Employees at Plain Dealer Agree to Pay Cuts & Furloughs

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/10357

Submitted by Leader Staff on June 19, 2009 - 9:46am.

When times are tough, the first employees at any unionized company to feel the negative effects will be the non-union employees simply because they can't put up much of a fight. But when things begin to worsen even more, even union employees will suffer the wrath of reduced budgets, pay cuts, and even furloughs. That is exactly the case at the local Cleveland newspaper, The Plain Dealer, where nearly 450 non-union employees saw pay reductions of 12 percent just a few months ago. Now, about 500 union employees have agreed to pay cuts and furloughs in a desperate attempt to keep the paper afloat.

Reporters, editors, delivery truck drivers, and other members of the Northeast Ohio Newspaper Guild Local 1 and Teamsters Local 473 unions at the PD agreed to 8.1 percent pay cuts, as well as 11 unpaid furlough days to be taken before June 2010.

Workers agreed to the reductions in order to avoid further layoffs. Since last year, 55 union employees have been laid off, and 43 have left voluntarily.

Two groups of union workers did not agree to the wage cuts, including 57 printing press operators represented by Graphic Communications International Union Local 546 and 11 paper handlers represented by the Teamsters. Their decision not to come to an agreement resulted in an immediate impact - a dozen part-time press operators received reduced hours. Paper handlers made it through unscathed as their contract requires that the PD maintain the staffing.

PD Publisher and Editor Terry Egger said that previous layoffs were not enough. He added, "There has been an acceleration in the decline of the economy, which has impacted essentially every category of advertising nationwide." Advertising sales, as we all know, are the life-blood of the newspaper industry.

FULL story at link.