"The union representing newsroom employees at the Lexington Herald-Leader has made public their concerns after an 11-month negotiation has failed to produce a new contract, and representatives say it should come as no surprise to the newspaper's management.
"The company is saying it's at its final offer now. When a company starts doing that it pushes our back up against the wall," said Brandon Ortiz, president of the Communication Workers of America local 33229 and a courts reporter for the Herald-Leader.
"Well, that's really surprising to me because I thought we were very close to settlement," said James R. Green, vice president for human resources at the Herald-Leader, who serves as one of management's chief negotiators. Green is a former local guild president who in earlier times as a newsroom employee bargained from the other side of the table.
Indeed, according to Ortiz, the two sides are closer than they had been when negotiations began in February for the contract that expired on New Year's Day. But two major sticking points and an Oct. 24 offer from management titled "Final Comprehensive Settlement Proposal" have raised enough concern to the guild that the union's leaders have decided to go public "to try to shame the company into doing the right thing," Ortiz said.
The union, referred to by newsroom employees as a "guild," is not related to the Writers Guild of America, which represents striking film and television writers.
At issue is the newsroom staff's paid time off (PTO), which ranges from 21 to 36 days per year depending on time with the company and benefits for part-time employees.
PTO, which was new to the paper with the most recent contract that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2002, combines an employee's vacation and sick leave. Other than two days that can be rolled into a successive year, the contract stipulates that all PTO must be used or lost by the end of each year.
Ortiz said the guild does not oppose altering the PTO plan or replacing it with a more conventional arrangement that segregates sick leave and vacation, but feels management is not acting in good faith because it hasn't offered specific language spelling out what the changes will be.
"We're just uncomfortable just giving them carte blanche authority to just make whatever changes they want," Ortiz said.
According to Green, management has moved away from its original stance to allow a change in PTO at any time and has offered to leave PTO in place — as is — for 2008 and allow negotiations to reopen, focusing specifically on the issues of vacation and sick leave, after the first year of the contract.
"That would have closed this contract, (and) given us the opportunity to take this right off the table," Green said.
"We've offered them an opportunity to resolve the contract now and our proposal is that we may or may not open it up; we just say we want the right to be able to talk about it. It doesn't mean we will change it," Green added.
But that would place the union at an unfair disadvantage, according to Ortiz.
"The real big problem would be that we would be bargaining and be bound with a no strike clause, so they want us to bargain at the table with one arm tied behind our back," he said.
The other major sticking point, according to Ortiz and Green, is the benefits extended to part-time employees. While both sides agree that medical benefits for part-timers are rare in any industry, Ortiz said the guild is concerned about a plan offered by management that could leave part-time benefits open to elimination.
Currently, part-time newsroom employees are offered the same coverage as full-time guild workers. Under management's proposal, the part-time newsroom staff's coverage would mirror that of non-union part-time employees throughout the rest of the paper's operations.
Ortiz said the guild has "concerns about (the plan) being a Trojan horse offerwe trust local management, we don't think local management wants (to cut benefits for part-timers), but we certainly don't trust McClatchy," the paper's parent company, which has taken a massive hit in the stock market with prices over two years falling nearly 70 percent by the beginning of November.
The McClatchy chain had been a solid performer on Wall Street until its deal to absorb the Knight-Ridder chain in early 2006. McClatchy quickly divested some of Knight-Ridder's profit drags after closing on the deal, but that hasn't prevented the stock from falling.
Considering the recent fortunes of McClatchy and a daily-newspaper industry that has seen outsourcing, buyouts and layoffs almost monthly at major city papers, Green said the guild should help find efficiencies. The Herald-Leader, he notes, has been able to avoid newsroom cuts, a trend management hopes to continue.
"There've been massive cuts in guild covered units across the countrybut we haven't chosen that path here," Green said.
That isn't an argument that appeals to the guild, according to Ortiz, as the paper's staffing is fairly skin and bones and has been operating under a hiring freeze predating the corporate sale with only temporary thaws to replace some "essential" staff.
"This is a newspaper that has long editorially supported universal health care, but it makes no promises to its own workers about health care. It seems to me the paper should be practicing what it preaches. I don't think the public is going to care for the paper's hypocrisy on this," said Ortiz, who became guild president this summer, midway through negotiations.
Before taking the issue public, Ortiz said the guild had staged events to show solidarity by wearing the same colored clothing to work, donning leis to convey the message "lay off our PTO," and sending postcards to Herald Leader publisher Tim Kelly stating their positions.
At this point there are no plans for a strike that would effect the paper's reporters, photographers, copy editors, designers and other newsroom support staff, but Ortiz doesn't want to take that option off the table.
"The strike is the nuclear option, it could lead to mutually assured destruction and I don't think it would be beneficial for the company or the guild to have to go through that," Ortiz said.
As of presstime there had been no further bargaining meetings scheduled since the most recent sessions in mid-October. Ortiz said he would like to resume talks in December and Green said management is willing to meet at anytime.