14 years and counting
I was downtown and snapped this picture other day. The words slapped me in the face.
After 14 years without a contract, the D&C reporters, photographers, and others represented by the Newspaper Guild enter their 15th year. The issue? A 401K. Yes, folks, Gannett, a really big company, won’t offer matching 401K benefits to a selection of its workers although it currently offers 401K benefits to other employees in the building.First off this post isn’t the definitive discussion on the labor issues associated with the Democrat and Chronicle. Krestia DeGeorge of the City newspaper has been all over it. Here is the latest or more here.
But 14 years with out a contract, now working on 15 years? 15 years ago is 1992.
How does it happen that it takes more than a decade to resolve a labor contract?
Any enlightening thoughts?
I don’t know if this is an enlightening thought, but my give-a-shitter isn’t flashing red on this one.
First, the “unfair to readers” charge is hard to prove. I fail to see how the lack of a 401K match for reporters is going to change the editorial focus of the D&C from smarmy features to more real news, or increase the size of the paper so more real news can be reported along with the smarmy features.
Second, a 14-year stalemate means that the union is ineffective. When you go for almost a whole generation without a contract, you’re not a union anymore.
Finally, I think that unions in general have lost the support of the public. Fairly or unfairly, they are seen as a corrupt relic of a bygone era. Personally, when I hear “union”, my instinct is to flinch rather than genuflect. My contact with unionized companies over the years has led me to believe that a unionized shop is has a culture that includes a lot of unnecessary conflict.
I’ve had bad experiences working in union shops as well. Really crappy employees immune from firing or even discipline, projects taking way too long because the carpenter isn’t allowed to move the pipes the pipefitter dumped on his pile of lumber. Etc.
But unions played an important role in outlawing child labor, instituting 40-hour work week, and improving workplace safety. Worker’s rights in general.
The question is, in an age where corporations can’t erode those rights fast enough to suit them, how do we continue to protect workers’ rights w/o some of the more insane union-bred behavior & rules?
To some extent, I think that Profit Sharing or Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) are the union of the future. When unions were first conceived, only the wealthy owned stocks. These days, most people own stocks directly or at one or two removes via 401k or conventional pension plans, and many companies actively encourage employees to purchase company stock. Such set-ups encourage employees to discard dysfunctional work rules and incompetent co-workers because they directly affect the employee’s paycheck.
Unfortunately, such schemes don’t guarantee set work hours or safety standards. If the profit motive (or the need to appear productive) is great enough, some people will work themselves to death or ignore safety precautions.
Thomas has a good point - employee buy-in to the future of the corporation is far more effective. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, union/management negotiations are win/lose games. ESOPs and other forms of employee participation are win/win.
Also, it’s interesting that perhaps the most effective and dynamic union, the service workers union (SEIU), is in a sector with the most recent history of underpaid overworked workers. The stagnant unions (*cough* newspaper guild *cough*) are in areas where workers have a pretty good deal. Like any institution, once established, unions take on a life of their own. The newspaper guild is probably vestigial and needs to be replaced by a more functional management/employee relationship based on shared ownership. Paradoxically, by forcing things into the win/lose union/labor negotiation paradigm, the newspaper guild has probably worsened the relationship between reporters and editors, and actually hindered the progress towards a more rational, cooperative relationship between reporters and their management.
In other words, the union is part of the problem, not the solution, in a lot of cases. The less that Democrats and “progressives” treat unions like a sacred cow, the better, in my opinion.
I think Rottenchester nailed it. If your union is so wimpy that you go 14 freaking years without even being able to get a 401k plan, then it’s not an effective union.
Unfortunately, unions only work when laborers have a way of really putting the screws to management. Skilled laborers get respect because if they stop working the business is dead. Unskilled and semi-skilled workers only get respect when the labor market is tight enough, or localized enough, that they can’t be replaced. Given the vast number of sources for “news” reportage these days, and the fact that Gannet gets huge efficiencies of scale for being a national chain, a few pissed-off reporters in Rochester aren’t in much of a position to bargain.
Thanks for the comments, I would agree with most of what has been said in this thread.
14 years being represented by an ineffective organization or perhaps better stated, represented by an organization that could not close the deal isn’t cause for celebration or pity. Maybe it is me but there is no badge of honor in a 14 year dispute.
Re the ESOP as the union of the future. Oh, I don’t know, it depends on exactly what is measured and based on the results how awards are received.
The purpose of the corporation is to maximize shareholder value. So a public company will likely have more stockholders not working for the company than those working for the company so downsizing options like off-shoring and merging become attractive to increase stock price. Private companies well are private so their shareholder (owner, partners whatever) benefit.
Personally, I like the the Costco model for companies. Pay people well, earn their loyalty and companies will grow and prosper. Unfortunately, that requires vision, patience, commitment and most importantly leadership. It is easier to deny and prevent.
As the long-time president of the Newspaper Guild in Rochester, I’m always delighted when someone takes an interest in our affairs — even if I don’t necessarily agree with everything being said.
The primary point I want to make is in regard to the assertion that the unwillingness of the Gannett Co. to provide our members access to the company 401(k) plan is an act that is “unfair to readers.”
The author of that statement is right. While I’m sure quite a few members of the community recognize the spitefullness of the company’s position, many others couldn’t care less. I have no problem with that. The message we’re really trying to communicate –and it’s hard to fit all of this on a small placard — is that the same corporate mindset that leads Gannett to punish our members for daring to belong to a union has other consequences as well. The dogged pursuit of short-term profits has led to the reduction in the news staff by about 50 percent over the last decade, the elimiination of coverage in many areas of community interest and a shrinking of the amount of space alloted to coverage of local news.
What is unfair to readers is the dimunition of a valued community resource, a dimunition that continues unabated. That is not to say that our members don’t do good work — we do. We just aren’t able to do as much of it as readers deserve.
As for some of the other points made by posters here — yes, it’s true our little all-volunteer union is at a tremendous disadvantage, and yes, it’s indisputable that 14 years is far too long to go without a new contract. But the Guild continues to function as a valuable advocate for our members and for good journalism in Rochester, despite our contract troubles. And we continue to press for a new labor agreement — because we believe that it is wrong to give up simply because the other side has more clout than we do, and that it is right to fight for what’s fair no matter what.
I feel for you guys. As far as I can tell, you are so understaffed it’s hard to do proper in-depth local investigative reporting. I think there’s a need and a hunger for that, given that when we asked our readership what they wanted us to do next, the highest-rated activity was to do in-depth, local, investigative reporting.
I’d like for there to be some way to be able to contract that out and fund it. Maybe I’ll give George Soros a call!
Keep up the fight!
[...] I authored the original post about this and wanted to point out it has created a lively discussion in the comments section about the relevance of the dispute, the union representing the newspaper people and the future of unions. [...]
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