St. Paul Guild members withhold bylines, wear black

Pioneer Press unit conducts job actions on Black Friday

17 Jul 2009

Minnesota Newspaper Guild

   Guild members in the Pioneer Press newsroom today conducted a byline strike, while their brothers and sisters in other departments of the newspaper wore black as a show of solidarity and to protest the manner in which recent layoffs occurred.

   No bylines of Guild reporters or taglines of photographers or artists appeared in today’s edition of the newspaper. The 300-member unit of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union last week voted overwhelmingly to conduct the byline strike, along with the Black Friday action by union members outside the newsroom.

   The job actions were in response to the June 30 layoffs of 11 Guild members, including nine in the newsroom. The layoffs occurred the same day the Guild had scheduled a vote on whether to begin negotiations on concessions requested by the company.

  The meeting was cancelled at which the vote was to occur when Pioneer Press management on June 25 abruptly withdrew its request for concessions. The Pioneer Press, owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group, initially asked the Guild to consider more than $2 million in concessions on May 20, but cut the financial request in half two weeks later after the Guild objected to inequities in the request.

    The job actions got the attention of Pioneer Press management - Thom Fladung, Pioneer Press editor, wrote a front page note to readers about the byline strike. While citing the Guild’s contractual right to withhold bylines, Fladung noted the action was done by Guild members to “express their dissatisfaction over recent events that ended in a layoff, which included newsroom personnel.”

   Pioneer Press unit leaders explained the motivation behind the byline strike and Black Friday actions.

   "We're not protesting against the layoffs; we're protesting how they were done," explained St. Paul crime reporter and Guild Unit Co-Chair Mara Gottfried. "We know the company, like the entire newspaper industry, is under tremendous financial pressure and sees the need to cut its costs. But they chose a course that was disrespectful not only to workers, but also to readers and the entire metro. The larger community suffers when fewer journalists are gathering news and checking facts."

   The Pioneer Press has saved an estimated $2.3 million so far this year from cuts to the Guild, including more than two dozen layoffs and other work force reductions and a five-day furlough negotiated in February. None of the other unions at the newspaper have been asked for concessions.

   Unit Co-Chair Gayle Grundtner, an advertising artist, said, "Through its actions, the owner and publisher have shown tunnel vision. Guild members throughout the paper stand ready to work hard and come up with imaginative solutions to keep the Pioneer Press alive through these challenging times. But these recent actions lack vision and seek to balance the financial books by gutting the essence of what makes the Pioneer Press great.
   "We're frustrated and disappointed and believe we can do better."