San Jose Mercury News Design and Copy Desks On the Chopping Block
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By that, the reporter meant that the San Jose Mercury News, once a shining beacon of tech reporting and news design with two Pulitzers to its name, has become just another gutted carcass of the Bay Area News Group.
The reporters were reacting to a new contract that a bargaining committee from the Media Workers' Guild negotiated with MediaNews Group Inc., the Denver-based company that purchased the paper a year and half ago and has since laid off more than a third of the editorial staff. The new contract, which has yet to be ratified by union members, allows for cuts in pay and vacation time for many employees. It also allows MediaNews to consolidate the design and copy desks with those of its other papers in the East Bay.
Although Merc designers and copy editors would get preference for the jobs that the consolidation will create in Walnut Creek, there are no guarantees -- and their pay would decrease. The potential loss of the Merc's design desk is particularly troubling to many at the paper, as the Merc was named one of the five best-designed newspapers in the world by the Society for News Design in 2001.
"We tried," said California Media Worker negotiator Carl Hall. The goal, he said, was to preserve as much editorial quality and as many jobs as possible, and to secure extra severance for those whose jobs could not be saved.
Key aspects of the new contract are published on the Guild's Web site, which also informs us that the newspaper industry isn't doing so hot. Thanks for the newsflash.
1 comment(s) / Post a Comment
I'm surprised you made no mention of the open-ended, possibly double-digit, paycuts that the Newspaper Guild caved into for the East Bay workers.
Those possible open-ended pay cuts can begin as soon as Oct. 1, 2009
It's also surprising that nobody has asked union boss Carl T. Hall about why the East Bay newspaper workers are saddled with open-ended pay cuts when a 7 percent cap for year-one wage reductions was good enough for San Jose newspaper workers.
Why did the union screw East Bay workers while San Jose workers are being protected with limits on their pay cuts?
Want the evidence, Snitch?
Here's the language in the tentative agreement for the Guild to sell out East Bay workers. The key is that there is no cap on the extent of the potential pay reductions.
The language is in section 17.5:
*****
The Guild recognizes that the Company may propose wage reductions in
order reduce costs during the term of this Agreement. In the event the Company
announces a general wage reduction program, the Guild agrees to enter into a wage
reopener for the sole purpose of negotiating the wage minimum and other wage-related
items under the following conditions:
1. Terms of such pay reduction program, including pay reductions for nonrepresented
employees, shall be communicated to the Guild, along with the
aggregate amount of cost savings the Company seeks to achieve through any
bargaining unit pay adjustments.
2. The Guild reserves the right to propose alternative means of achieving the
aggregate amount of cost savings sought by the Company in bargaining unit pay
reductions.
3. In the event the parties cannot reach an agreement within two (2) weeks, the
Company shall reserve the right to implement a pay reduction under the same terms
as were applied to non-represented employees.
4. No such pay reduction for the Guild bargaining unit may be implemented before
the first pay period beginning after Sept. 30, 2009
*****
-George
Posted On: Monday, Jun. 1 2009 @ 12:38PM
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