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Striking Vindy Employees Vote to Reject Contract Offer
"YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- By a three to one margin, striking employees at The Vindicator today voted to reject what the company had called its final and best offer. The vote came three weeks after 175 members of the Youngstown Newspaper Guild set up picket lines outside the offices of the Mahoning Valley's largest newspaper. The union -- Local 34011 of The Newspaper Guild -- Communications Workers of America -- represents reporters, photographers, page designers, classified ad and circulation personnel. The final tally was 99 against the contract offer, 33 in favor.Negotiators for the Vindicator Printing Co. asked the Youngstown Newspaper Guild to take back to its members the contract proposal offered yesterday during a two-hour bargaining session. In subsequent interviews with local news organizations, Mark Brown, general manager of The Vindicator, described the proposal as the company's best and final offer.But the union's executive committee voted unanimously to recommend the offer be rejected, a point of view that trumped today's vote even though a representative of the international union recommended ratification. Jim Schaufenbill, sent to Youngstown by the Washington office of The Newspaper Guild -- Communications Workers of America, told union members before today's vote was taken that he did not believe prolonging the strike would result in a substantially better offer. Schaufenbill's statements were disputed by Anthony S. Markota, president of the Youngstown Newspaper Guild, who explained, point by point, why the union's executive committee recommended the proposal be rejected."Now we wait for the federal mediator to call us back to the bargaining table," Markota said after the vote was announced."I'm gratified that the membership felt so strongly in their resolve to continue the struggle for a fair and equitable contract, and they're willing to continue the sacrifice no longer how long it takes," he added.Health care and wages remain the biggest stumbling blocks, according to Markota. "The guild has a difficult time that the company claims to be losing money yet it would continue to pay the full cost of premiums for a better plan for the management and nonunion staff," he said. Two years ago the guild agreed to health-care concessions after it was promised all Vindicator employees would pay part of their health-care costs and all employees would have to accept a lesser plan. That never happened, Markota reiterated.As for wages, he said the contract offer rejected today would provide only 10 cents more per hour for the guild's lowest classification, "people who already are making just $6.25 an hour."As of 3 p.m., Brown had not returned calls seeking comment.MORE:Out-of-State Papers Seek 'Volunteers' to Help Vindy"