Too far away
While I am here in Germany on a trip long planned and paid for, the Patriot-News is moving forward with its plan to decertify the Newspaper Guild local that has represented reporters, editors, and other newsroom employees there since the late 1930s. Our strong effort to fight decertification is in the capable hands of Guild officers Chris Millette, Janet Pickel, and Chris Courogen, as well as Bruce Nelson, who is with the national staff of The Newspaper Guild.
Oh wait--technically, the decertification effort is being led by Pete Shellem and Fred Sprunk, two former Guild members. Pete has a longstanding personal grievance against the Guild because he was hired too late to qualify for a "retro pay" provision that earlier hires get. He's a contract "notch baby" and can't get over it. This dates from the late 1980s and I won't bore you with the details. The sports department, where Sprunk works under Nick Horvath, has been aggressively anti-Guild for years, and I've always suspected, though have no evidentiary proof, that it's made clear that plum beats and promotions will not go to a Guild member. We lost all our members there over the years.
But to say that Shellem and Sprunk are really in charge of this is a polite fiction for legal reasons. The company has been actively preparing for decert for over a year, softening people up by issuing increasingly scary forecasts of what it planned to charge them for health insurance. We don't pay anything now. Publisher John Kirkpatrick all but said that if we decertified, we wouldn't have to pay anything. He is now backtracking on that "pledge" as fast as he can. In truth, the company has been trying to decertify the Guild since the early 1980s. There used to be several craft unions in the building as well, but they were picked off one by one by the former publisher, Ray Gover.
Why does the newsroom still need a union? For economic security for starters. In an industry driven by crazy men who seem to have forgotten that our purpose is to write news, not entertain people, and who want only to cut costs, I feel a lot better with a contract. But there's another reason as well. If we reporters do our job well, we on occasion make powerful people angry. The Guild contract prevents anyone from being fired except for "just cause." An editor can't fire you on the spot because you disagreed with him over the editing of a story, or because an advertiser called to complain.
So how did we come to this?
By using part-time sports "phoners" (they take info over the phone on game nights) who we don't believe are members of the bargaining unit, the Patriot-News got enough signatures to have a decertification election. Now editor David Newhouse is calling in people in small groups for the full-court press on why they should vote to decertify.
The Guild is fighting back aggressively and will win this election. It's really quite simple why decertification is a bad idea: Here's what I tell people:
--The Patriot-News isn't seeking decertification so they can pay you more. They can do that now, and in fact we are bargaining for a new contract.
--The Patriot-News isn't seeking decertification to give you more control over your personal lives. We have a fair arrangement on that now through the contract, and protections against abuses.
--The Patriot-News isn't seeking to stop bargaining with the Guild so they can negotiate separately with each and every one of you. They will tell you what the terms of your employment are if you decertify, and there won't be a damn thing you can do about it.
--Together we can beat this back and win a new contract. But it takes each and every one of you.