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Youngstown Guild Back to Work After Long Strike
After 261 days on the picket line, members of the Youngstown Newspaper Guild in Ohio narrowly accepted a new 3-year contract Aug. 3 and returned to work at the Vindicator newspaper.
The vote was 50-41 for the settlement, which includes workers' first raises in five years and resolves layoff issues for editorial staff that led Local 34011 members to overwhelmingly reject the company's previous offer.
TNG President Linda Foley credited Bernie Lunzer, the Guild's international secretary-treasurer, and Representative Jay Schmitz with forging a breakthrough in the difficult talks.
"The Youngstown Guild members hung together and showed incredible solidarity to get a contract that resolved all the issues that led to the strike," Foley said.
In addition to language protecting newsroom jobs, the contract includes raises totaling 45 to 63 cents per hour over three years; signing bonuses totaling $600 for each employee over two years, as well as another $1,000 bonus in November 2006 for circulation district managers; no worker contributions toward health care for at least four months, and only then if management and other non-union staff are being charged; continued use of company cars in the circulation department; and establishment of a joint union-management committee to discuss issues affecting Guild members.
"These were long, tough, protracted negotiations, but we achieved things we didn't think we could accomplish," Lunzer said. "We're very proud of the local and happy to have a deal."
The contract covers about 170 workers in news, circulation and classified advertising departments. Despite a bitter winter and steamy summer, members steadily maintained the picket line, with only about 20 members crossing in 8 1/2 months. It was a measure of solidarity that "just stunned" management, Local 34011 President Tony Markota said.
The strike - five days longer than the paper's previous record walkout in 1964 - hurt the Vindicator's circulation and advertising revenues, as readers and businesses showed strong support for the union. Two more major advertisers pledged to cut their ads last week when the company began carrying through on its threat to hire permanent replacement workers. Although the process was underway, no workers had been hired by the time the Guild ratified the contract Wednesday.
"The Guild and CWA are committed to the future of the Vindicator," Lunzer said. "It's time to rebuild circulation and we're committed to helping them do it." Toward that end, TNG-CWA will contribute financially toward a readership campaign.
Markota, whose members published the Valley Voice, a popular weekly newspaper throughout the strike, said the feeling now "is a sense of relief and jubilation."
"It's fantastic that this long ordeal is finally over," he said. "Was it worth it? Absolutely. We established that you have to negotiate to settle a contract, otherwise the consequence can be a strike. In the future, management will have to take bargaining seriously and not presume that they can bully their way through it."
Such bullying included the company's late demand for language giving management the right to lay off reporters and other editorial staff. Even though many contract issues had been resolved for workers such as Markota, a circulation district manager, he said the union stood solidly behind its newsroom members. "Circulation and classified employees could have gone back to work but we weren't going to abandon our brothers and sisters in editorial," he said.
The vote was 50-41 for the settlement, which includes workers' first raises in five years and resolves layoff issues for editorial staff that led Local 34011 members to overwhelmingly reject the company's previous offer.
TNG President Linda Foley credited Bernie Lunzer, the Guild's international secretary-treasurer, and Representative Jay Schmitz with forging a breakthrough in the difficult talks.
"The Youngstown Guild members hung together and showed incredible solidarity to get a contract that resolved all the issues that led to the strike," Foley said.
In addition to language protecting newsroom jobs, the contract includes raises totaling 45 to 63 cents per hour over three years; signing bonuses totaling $600 for each employee over two years, as well as another $1,000 bonus in November 2006 for circulation district managers; no worker contributions toward health care for at least four months, and only then if management and other non-union staff are being charged; continued use of company cars in the circulation department; and establishment of a joint union-management committee to discuss issues affecting Guild members.
"These were long, tough, protracted negotiations, but we achieved things we didn't think we could accomplish," Lunzer said. "We're very proud of the local and happy to have a deal."
The contract covers about 170 workers in news, circulation and classified advertising departments. Despite a bitter winter and steamy summer, members steadily maintained the picket line, with only about 20 members crossing in 8 1/2 months. It was a measure of solidarity that "just stunned" management, Local 34011 President Tony Markota said.
The strike - five days longer than the paper's previous record walkout in 1964 - hurt the Vindicator's circulation and advertising revenues, as readers and businesses showed strong support for the union. Two more major advertisers pledged to cut their ads last week when the company began carrying through on its threat to hire permanent replacement workers. Although the process was underway, no workers had been hired by the time the Guild ratified the contract Wednesday.
"The Guild and CWA are committed to the future of the Vindicator," Lunzer said. "It's time to rebuild circulation and we're committed to helping them do it." Toward that end, TNG-CWA will contribute financially toward a readership campaign.
Markota, whose members published the Valley Voice, a popular weekly newspaper throughout the strike, said the feeling now "is a sense of relief and jubilation."
"It's fantastic that this long ordeal is finally over," he said. "Was it worth it? Absolutely. We established that you have to negotiate to settle a contract, otherwise the consequence can be a strike. In the future, management will have to take bargaining seriously and not presume that they can bully their way through it."
Such bullying included the company's late demand for language giving management the right to lay off reporters and other editorial staff. Even though many contract issues had been resolved for workers such as Markota, a circulation district manager, he said the union stood solidly behind its newsroom members. "Circulation and classified employees could have gone back to work but we weren't going to abandon our brothers and sisters in editorial," he said.