Making Our Union Sronger in Tough Times: Maine Newspaper Workers To Have New Job Title: Owners

At a time when corporate media companies with far-away owners control many of the country's local news operations, what's happening in Portland, Maine, is looking close to home to keep newspapers publishing.

Led by The Newspaper Guild-CWA local at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, employees are close to owning 15 percent of the company, now owned by the Seattle-based Blethen family.

The Maine story is just one of TNG-CWA's efforts to explore alternative ownership models that could revolutionize the newspaper industry, preserving not just jobs but the lifeline of American democracy.

"The newspaper industry is more than a business and more than a job to our members. It's a calling," said TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer. "Members are not only fighting for their jobs, they're fighting to ensure that their communities and our larger democracy continue to benefit from newsrooms full of skilled and seasoned civic watchdogs who know how to dig for the truth."

As soon as the Blethen family decided to put its Maine media properties up for sale last year, TNG-CWA began working to find investors who would agree to an ownership structure that included employees.

Searching for local investors in particular, the Guild placed a ad in the Sunday paper last April stating that "Employee ownership is the best way to foster quality journalism. The newspapers' unions are ready to work with local partners."

Not quite a year later, they are on the verge of finalizing a deal. Workers will take a 10 percent pay cut in exchange for a 15 percent stake in the company under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, Local Guild President Tom Bell said. The major shareholders are outside investors, but a Maine native will run the newspaper and have a minority stake in the company.

Under the ESOP, the workers' share of profits will be invested in a fund they can access at retirement. All employees at the Portland papers, as well as the Waterville Morning Sentinel and the Kennebec Journal in Augusta will be included.

The newspapers' unions will have three of seven seats on the new company's board of directors. Two of them will be held by TNG-CWA, the largest union with about 250 members in Portland and at the Waterville Morning Sentinel. CWA also represents printing sector workers in Waterville and Augusta.

Like too many other newspapers across the country, the Portland Press Herald is losing money and at risk of filing for bankruptcy. Bell said employees believe they can turn it around.

"We believe that employee ownership is a game-changing event that will allow management and labor to work together to reinvent the company and develop new ways to serve our customers and make money," he said. "Our survival is at stake here, and the old labor-management battles have been getting in the way. What we are trying to do is change that relationship and create a new model."