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"Gap Widens Between Vindicator, Newspaper Guild"
"YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Newspaper Guild claims The Vindicator is trying to break the union. Company management responds, nonsense -- the March 11 bargaining session was "positive."At press time, as the strike ended its 17th week so, too, did prospects end for a rapid resolution to a dispute that increasingly is landing at the front doors of the newspaper's largest advertisers.The latest bargaining session -- the first since Jan. 18 -- began with the Youngstown Newspaper Guild presenting a proposal that it said was intended to close the gap between the 170 striking employees and The Vindicator. But the newspaper countered with at least seven new conditions the guild interprets as "trying to break the union.""We tried to move closer and they moved further apart," said Anthony S. Markota, president of Local 34011 of The Newspaper Guild--Communication Workers of America.Calls from The Business Journal to Mark Brown, general manager of the Vindicator Printing Co., were not returned.In an interview with WKBN-TV, Brown termed the bargaining session a "positive meeting. We exchanged proposals and we'll be meeting again," he said. Brown also said the guild is wrong in claiming the company is engaging in union-busting. "We have three unions working inside our building. We have no intention of eliminating the fourth, and we'll wait to see what happens," he said.What will happen in the weeks to come, Markota vowed, is renewed and intensified leafleting at businesses that advertise in The Vindicator or have its newsboxes outside their doors. Striking union members will step up their efforts to urge patrons of these businesses, including auto dealerships and fast-food restaurants, not to spend money there.On March 10, strikers paired off in teams to leaflet six area auto dealers. Since the strike began Nov. 16, the Guild has asked car dealers to cease advertising in The Vindicator until the strike is settled, but few have acquiesced to the union pressure."We're trying to convince the area merchants that advertising in the Vindy is only prolongoing the strike and it's hurting everyone, including The Vindicator," Markota said.The Youngstown Newspaper Guild represents reporters, copy editors, page designers, circulation and classified advertising staff. In recent weeks some key reporters -- including much of the newspaper's sports staff -- have resigned from the union and crossed the picket lines. Certain other reporters and page designers who remain on strike have been approached by company managers and urged to return to work."We came to the table [March 11] with a settlement proposal," Markota said. The guild was agreeable to the company's offers on protection against large increases in health-insurance premiums, he related, and proposed a compromise on the company's insistence that circulation managers provide their own vehicles and pay their own insurance."We agreed to save the company hundreds of thousands of dollars by giving up mandatory overtime rights in circulation," Markota continued. Moreover, "we were just pennies apart on wages," Markota said. "They totally rejected it" and put forth a "counterproposal that mirrored [its] 'last and best' offer, which the guild twice rejected, with seven additional proposals" including new language on job bidding and layoffs.The newspaper's chief negotiator, Chicago attorney Charles Price, informed the guild negotiating team, according to Markota, "They'd learned a few things during the strike and needed to make a few adjustments to the collective bargaining agreement," he said.The guild interpreted these "few adjustments" as an effort "to break the union by regressive bargaining. [It has] no intention of negotiating a settlement," said the guild's vice president, Debora Shaulis Flora.The bargaining session, scheuled to begin at noon, saw The Vindicator team arrive late as usual, according to Markota. And as has been his practice, Brown was absent. In a phone interview March 9 with WKBN radio, Brown said the newspaper must run a leaner operation. "Well frankly, after eight straight years of losses, we feel we need to make some changes in our operations to get out of the red and to be more efficient," he said. "We're going to make some proposals to help us do that."Despite the apparent widening between the sides, negotiators are scheduled to meet again March 24.The strike began about 1 a.m. Nov. 16 when the guild refused to work without a contract. Since then, pickets have remained outside The Vindicator although the number will decline as as pickets become leafleters at the businesses that advertise in the paper.Earlier visits by guild members distributing leaflets at businesses such as Nemenz supermarkets and Stadium car dealerships resulted in Price and Vindicator advertising staff visiting those businesses. The owners called the local police to complain, Markota said, but the police found the leafleters complied with laws regarding demonstrations. "There's been no problem," he said.Customers exiting these businesses, Markota said, told the leafleters they were unaware of the situation. One woman reneged on the contract she signed with a dealership -- car buyers have three days to reconsider -- upon learning the dealer continued to advertise in the daily newspaper, one guild member related. The guild has also distributed more than 1,000 orange yard signs throughout the Mahoning Valley and beyond that say "No Contract, No Vindicator." The international president of The Newspaper Guild -- CWA, Linda Foley, joined the guild's rally March 6 outside The Vindicator. The labor battle that must be won is the battle in Youngstown, she said. "This struggle is front and center right now.""