Article published May 30, 2007
Last Blade union OKs contract; lockouts and boycott to end
BLADE STAFF
Members of the Toledo Newspaper Guild voted by a nearly 2-1 ratio yesterday to ratify a new contract with The Blade, agreeing to wage cuts, fewer days off, a longer work day, and a commission-sales plan for advertising sales representatives.
The Guild was the last of the newspaper’s eight unions to vote on a contract. Six other unions ratified new agreements last week, and a seventh approved a new pact last summer.
The ratification ends more than a year of negotiations and a nine-month lockout of 215 of the newspaper’s craft employees. Union leaders said it also brings an end to their call for a newspaper boycott by readers and advertisers.
The contracts approved by the unions last week and yesterday become effective immediately and expire on May 31, 2010. The Guild, representing newsroom, circulation, finance, and advertising workers at Toledo’s only daily newspaper, has about 300 of the paper’s 525 union members.
Lillian Covarrubias, president of the Toledo Newspaper Guild, declined to give a vote tally last night but said that 85 percent of her members cast ballots.
Ms. Covarrubias said she was pleased with the voting turnout. Her union will soon prepare a plan to help increase the newspaper’s advertising business and circulation numbers, she said.
“We’re going to work on mending some of the hurt inside the building,” she said, as workers removed a boycott banner from above the entrance to the Guild’s office on Huron Street downtown. “The boycott is officially over, and we’re looking to have the locked-out workers back in a couple of weeks.”
Joseph Zerbey IV, vice president and general manager of The Blade, said he was happy.
“We’re very pleased that the Guild has ratified the contract as have the other six unions, and we look forward to working with the unions in the days ahead.”
The contract will result in higher-paid workers having immediate wage cuts of about 8 to 8.5 percent, or about $92 a week, a Guild outline states. Employees will also lose two of four paid personal days and must pay 22.5 percent of health care premiums, or about $40 a week, the outline said. The work week also was extended by 30 minutes per day.
The agreements offer staff reductions through employee buyouts, the outline said. Material distributed to Guild members also said that up to 40 employees will be offered buyouts as a means of reducing staffing levels.
Spokesman Luann Sharp said the newspaper will begin notifying locked-out workers that they can return to work with the expectation that some can begin as soon as June 10. Replacement workers will begin leaving as soon as their counterparts return, she said.
Contracts for most of the eight unions at the newspaper expired March 21, 2006. The Blade said it was financially strapped and asked for financial concessions as well as new work rules. One Blade craft union, representing electricians, reached an agreement last summer.
By August, craft union members were locked out, and temporary replacements were hired. The company said at the time that it hoped the move would spur more intense bargaining.
Over the weekend, Linda Foley, national president of the 34,000-member Guild, urged adoption of the agreement in a letter she sent to her Toledo union members.
“Things will be rough for you financially if this contract is approved, but they will be worse if your ratification vote fails on Tuesday.’’
Ms. Covarrubias said that she believed Ms. Foley’s letter played a critical role in the voting.
“I think her letter was significant because she could speak to the [business] climate that’s out there,” Ms. Covarrubias said.
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