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Newspaper War of Words: Will Talks Avert Strike?
"By Andrea WoodYOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- If The Vindicator is losing money, management should look in the mirror and not at members of the Youngstown Newspaper Guild, the union said today as the war of words escalated and a midnight strike deadline loomed.Last-chance negotiations began at 9 o'clock this morning and are expected to continue all day and night. In authorizing a strike in a nearly unanimous vote Thursday, members of the guild also agreed not to extend their contract and to give their executive committee authorization to publish a strike newspaper.The guild represents 179 reporters, pre-press, classified advertising and circulation personnel whose contract expires at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. The company is seeking various contract concessions, "just as it did [and the guild granted] during negotiations in 2000 and 2002," the union statement noted.What angers members of the guild, leaders say, is that only unionized employees have contributed to the cost of health insurance in the last two years. "The company has not asked the same of its non-union and management workers, who also enjoy better health care coverage," the union said.Moreover, most guild members have not had a pay raise since May 2000 -- and those who did, some truck drivers, saw their hourly rate increase from to $6.25 from $6.10."When we last bargained with the company in 2002, we were asked to give them two more years to 'turn things around.' Now they want four more years of concessions which, if accepted, would mean our members would go eight years without a raise," the statement continued. "If the company says its financial outlook hasn't improved despite concessions we made in our previous two rounds of negotiations, our question is: When will the company stop blaming its unionized work force and start looking inward?"Last week the company distributed two statements, one of accusing the union of not facing economic realities, the other of stonewalling during negotiations. The guild's contract proposals would increase annual costs "by about $2 million in the first year, would be ruinous to the attempts to return to profitability and are not responsive to the current economic conditions of the area," the company said."During the negotiations, the company has told the guild committee that over the last 25 years the company has been faced with a shrinking advertising and circulation revenue base, major recessions and increased competition from consolidating, non-union area newspapers. The economic base of the area has permanently shrunk, which means that the company's advertising and circulation revenue base is much smaller. Expenses have to be reduced to meet current economic realities," the company said."The reality of this newspaper's situation is what should be driving the discussions."Mark Brown, general manager of The Vindicator, called the abrupt end to Friday's negotiations "a strange turn of events."The talks broke off when the guild refused a request by the regional director of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service to extend its contract to Nov. 29 and move the talks to Cleveland where a panel of federal mediators would preside, he explained."I've never heard of anything like this happening before. It's pretty bizarre," Brown said in a voice-mail message recorded late Friday.The guild statement countered the company's account. The union said it heeded the mediator's advice and made five proposals Nov. 12 on economic and non-economic issues. "The committee waited five hours for a response. When the mediator returned, she said the company had no proposals for us," then suggested extending bargaining and moving the talks to Cleveland, the union said. "That is why the guild committee believes the mediator is not helping us to progress toward a settlement."The guild proposed to the company Aug. 25 that they begin negotiations, the union told its members, "and offered to meet every day with the exception of one week in October. The company did not come to the bargaining table until Oct. 13 -- 49 days after our request was made," the union said. "We were barely through shaking hands and exchanging some proposals when the company called for a federal mediator."Forty years ago the Youngstown Newspaper Guild went on strike against The Vindicator -- and didn't return to work until nine months later. The union workers published a strike newspaper, The Steel Valley News.Visit The Vindicator at www.vindy.comMORE:Negotiations Resume at Vindy as Midnight Deadline LoomsStrike Looms at The Vindicator in Youngstown"