Investors Warned of Stalled Talks at Post-Dispatch

President Linda Foley of The Newspaper Guild-CWA alerted investors about stalled contract negotiations at the flagship newspaper of Pulitzer, Inc., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and urged them to question Pulitzer management about the impact this may have on shareholders.

Management's refusal to engage in meaningful negotiations with TNG-CWA, the union representing employees at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "is ill-timed and may ultimately undermine the longterm viability of Pulitzer's largest and most profitable operation," Foley wrote in a letter to investors.

Workers at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch voted overwhelmingly, by a 96 percent margin, on Dec. 7 to authorize a strike and take other economic action at the newspaper if a fair settlement is not reached and negotiations reach an impasse. TNG-CWA represents about 600 newsroom, advertising and circulation workers at the newspaper, members of TNG-CWA Local 36047. The members' contract expired last January but includes a provision that keeps its terms in effect until a new agreement is reached.

Key issues include management's demands for greater health care cost shifting and restrictions, as well as the company's insistence on an open shop, a position that contradicts the newspaper's editorial position taken when the state legislature was considering a so-called right to work law. Newspaper workers also are looking for a fair wage increase; workers last saw a weekly increase five years ago, the local reported.