Knowing that they could use some editorial neutrality and to retain some forced union dues generating jobs, Union Bosses caved on their members to support the bigger picture.
Now we (the consumer) all appreciate the continued availability of both the Rocky and the Post, after all choice is a good thing to have.
http://www.rockymountainnews.c…
With rumors swirling about the financial viability of both papers we should be concerned, but not as concerned as the union members. Their jobs and economic viability are at stake even after a 12% whack in pay.
The costs here are not only to the employees, but we the people will likely be faced with a neutral to supportive editorial from the Post.
Now it won’t be a full sail promotion of the EFCA as introduced, but it will be cover for Bennet and Udall’s cloture votes and supportive of their negotiation to modify the introduced bill.
The editorial(s) will focus on support for check-in check-out processes, forced arbitration, and the backsliding on a host of other factors that support Boss thuggery and nothing to the workers.
A 12% paycut could force some to re-work mortgages
Unions representing workers at the Denver Newspaper Agency have reached a tentative agreement on wage and benefit cuts that average 11.7 percent.
The agency, a joint venture that handles the business operations of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post, approached its unions in December. The agency sought $18 million in concessions as part of a broader $35 million cost-cutting package.
It’s not clear if the tentative agreement, reached at 1 a.m. today, meets that $18 million goal.
Some employees could still get the ax, even after coughing up a 12% paycut
Mulligan could not rule out agency layoffs even after a deal is approved. “I don’t know if there will be staffing reductions or not,” he said.
The agency has about 1,080 union employees, including about 900 subject to today’s deal.
In 2007, the last year for which financial results are available, the agency had about $295 million in expenses, not counting depreciation.
When profits return, so will union negotiators
Mulligan said if the agency has “verifiable profits” – something that will be checked twice a year – some of the concessions, including wages, 401(k) company match, dental insurance, vacation and mileage reimbursement, might be reversed.
Backstopping any risky behavior by Post editorial minds is a great concern
Mulligan said Denver Post union employees are close to completing negotiations on similar concessions, with a bargaining round scheduled for this afternoon.
Mulligan said a vote on the tentative deal will happen as early as March 8, but the union will wait until the Rocky’s fate is learned.
Although some are not certain that the Post will not collapse 1st
DonaldJohnson writes:
Pay cuts always hurt. But the employees are showing they are willing to sacrifice to save their jobs. Good for them. Hope things turn around soon, but I’m not counting on it. Hearst, which is MediaNews’ partner/creditor, is selling or closing the San Francisco Chronicle. That makes me wonder how much more they’re willing to put into MediaNews.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: JohnNorthofDenver
IN: I’m Gabe Evans, and This is the Worst Ad You’ve Seen in Years
BY: Conserv. Head Banger
IN: I’m Gabe Evans, and This is the Worst Ad You’ve Seen in Years
BY: davebarnes
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: harrydoby
IN: Get More Smarter on Friday (Oct. 4)
BY: MichaelBowman
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Gilpin Guy
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: JohnNorthofDenver
IN: Friday Open Thread
BY: spaceman2021
IN: I’m Gabe Evans, and This is the Worst Ad You’ve Seen in Years
BY: 2Jung2Die
IN: Friday Open Thread
BY: psyclone
IN: BREAKING: Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters Gets 9 Years
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
Denver have to do with the EFCA? These are already union shops. The EFCA deals with organizing employers that are non-union.
That right, union bosses have, see nor use any linkage between existing ratified contracts and potential ‘partners’.
Walt Isenberg (WSage Hotels) had the same virginal heart that Ohwilleke has, in his agreement with Andy Stern to make a multi million dollar business pay-off to Union Bosses in their effort to stop real employee free choice aka the Right-to-Work.
A financially assisted neutral to supportive editorial from the Post.
I predict an editorial that provides political cover to Bennet and Udall’s cloture votes first.
Second and it may take two editorials, one that supports check-in check-out processes, supports forced arbitration, and the provides backsliding on a host of other factors. Factors that don’t assist workers, but due assist Corporate and Union Boss thuggery.
So I guess if you don’t post otherwise, you are passively accepting this as a very likely scenario.
Just as the union members will find out down the road, the story here is not about their paycut, but the arrangements made behind the scenes.
The Post went ballistic over Ritter’s support for a union-backed bill last year.
And Dean Singleton clearly is anti-union. So I wouldn’t expect any neutrality at all, because Singleton realizes the damage increased unionization would do to his retailer advertisers and many other businesses.
The big mystery seems to be the financial viability of MediaNews and its relationship with Hearst.
While both papers are liberal and reflect that in their political news stories, I prefer the Rocky. Unfortunately, that’s the one that seems most likely to close.
Once bleeders, always bleeders. When kids paid up to the bully in school, the bully then owned those kids … always scared, they would forever let the bully have his way.
I guess it is up to the Post, the RMN is gone.
If I’m in a DNA union, my number one concern is that me and everyone else in my union is going to be out of a job in a year and a half when Rocky Mountain News business columnist David Milstead’s prediction that the Denver Post will die a little more than a year after the Rocky does will come true.
One of the other major printers in Denver has already gone under. My union members will have no careers left if the DNA goes under.
The EFCA and national union solidarity rate about fifteen or twenty items down the list, and asking for editorial content changes would poison the well of the neogotiations.
All politics is local, even union politics. Jobs first, living wages second, fellow union organizing rights somewhere around the same level of importance as a right to have employer paid donuts at staff meetings.
Both the Post and the News have already, and repeatedly, editorialized against EFCA.
The prisoners are business and labor is the law.
Seriously, if you don’t know business is divided and compromised here in Denver then you have been hanging with Tvert & Phelps way too much.
The business pay-off to labor last fall was just an example of a failure to cooperate for maximum economic benefit.
Seriously – your post isn’t even remotely coherent.
PDF of statement,
http://epi.3cdn.net/1eb9aba519…
Creating (and saving) 4 million jobs
I’ll bet most of the economists are liberal lefties and labor economists who lack much intellectual integrity. How many are tied in some way to unions through grants, consulting contracts and brainwashing?
I see several Dems and liberals on the list who’ve worked in Dem administrations and probably want to again. Ray Marshall, for example, I think was once Sec. of Labor under Carter.
When I heard him speak back in the 70s he couldn’t or wouldn’t give an accurate definition of productivity, and I called him on it.
That’s why their opinions are solicited and those of discredited Friedman disciples are not.
That’s why their opinions are solicited and those of discredited Friedman disciples are not.