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Youngstown Guild Rejects Scrooge-like Offer
More than three weeks into their strike against The Vindicator newspaper in Youngstown, Ohio, members of TNG-CWA Local 34011 have rejected the company's last, paltry contract offer.
The offer continued to raise employee co-pays for health care and upped the wage increase for most workers from a miserly 6 cents an hour to just 10 cents each of the first two years, 20 cents the third. Workers in the top three classifications would get raises of 70 cents an hour over three years. The vote was 99 to 36 against it.
"Where's the common sense?" Local President Anthony Markota said. "More than half of our people are in that 10 cents an hour range. Which way do they think more than half of our membership is going to vote? Of course it went down substantially."
As of Friday, Dec. 10, Markota hadn't received a response to a letter he sent to the paper's general manager and part owner reviewing the vote and asking him to return to the table right away. The strike began Nov. 16.
Meanwhile, the Guild continues to get tremendous community support as it pursues an aggressive subscriber and advertiser boycott of The Vindicator. Many businesses, including a large car dealership, have agreed to pull out. Markota said readers are canceling subscriptions right and left - or trying to do so. Reports that the paper has refused to stop subscriptions is leading the Audit Bureau of Circulation to come to Youngstown to audit The Vindicator, he said.
The Valley Voice, the weekly print and online newspaper being published by the Guild, is running a front-page story this week that illustrates clearly that scores of Vindicators are going unsold. Read it at www.valleyvoiceonline.com.
"The front page shows a picture of Vindicators still bundled and dumped in bins at a recycling center," Markota said. "The headline says "Trashed: Are subscribers and advertisers getting their money's worth?"
CWA is buying ads, with a holiday theme, in the Youngstown Business Journal and on radio. To the melody of "The 12 days of Christmas" an announcer says, "On the last day of contract talks The Vindy offered me, 10 cents an hour, higher health care costs and a shrinking paycheck for employees."
"This holiday season, there's a new Scrooge in Youngstown - the management of The Vindicator," the radio spot continues. "All Vindy employees want for Christmas is a fair contract. Instead, the paper's owners offered workers raises as low as 10 cents an hour. Ten cents, after years of worker givebacks, pay freezes and increased health care costs. While Vindicator managers get free health care, management wants workers to pay even more."
The offer continued to raise employee co-pays for health care and upped the wage increase for most workers from a miserly 6 cents an hour to just 10 cents each of the first two years, 20 cents the third. Workers in the top three classifications would get raises of 70 cents an hour over three years. The vote was 99 to 36 against it.
"Where's the common sense?" Local President Anthony Markota said. "More than half of our people are in that 10 cents an hour range. Which way do they think more than half of our membership is going to vote? Of course it went down substantially."
As of Friday, Dec. 10, Markota hadn't received a response to a letter he sent to the paper's general manager and part owner reviewing the vote and asking him to return to the table right away. The strike began Nov. 16.
Meanwhile, the Guild continues to get tremendous community support as it pursues an aggressive subscriber and advertiser boycott of The Vindicator. Many businesses, including a large car dealership, have agreed to pull out. Markota said readers are canceling subscriptions right and left - or trying to do so. Reports that the paper has refused to stop subscriptions is leading the Audit Bureau of Circulation to come to Youngstown to audit The Vindicator, he said.
The Valley Voice, the weekly print and online newspaper being published by the Guild, is running a front-page story this week that illustrates clearly that scores of Vindicators are going unsold. Read it at www.valleyvoiceonline.com.
"The front page shows a picture of Vindicators still bundled and dumped in bins at a recycling center," Markota said. "The headline says "Trashed: Are subscribers and advertisers getting their money's worth?"
CWA is buying ads, with a holiday theme, in the Youngstown Business Journal and on radio. To the melody of "The 12 days of Christmas" an announcer says, "On the last day of contract talks The Vindy offered me, 10 cents an hour, higher health care costs and a shrinking paycheck for employees."
"This holiday season, there's a new Scrooge in Youngstown - the management of The Vindicator," the radio spot continues. "All Vindy employees want for Christmas is a fair contract. Instead, the paper's owners offered workers raises as low as 10 cents an hour. Ten cents, after years of worker givebacks, pay freezes and increased health care costs. While Vindicator managers get free health care, management wants workers to pay even more."