MaineToday Media investor Donald Sussman is pledging to stay out of news decisions, and Guild-represented reporters plan to hold him to it. A sidebar to "Longest of Long Shots Pays Off in Portland."
Employees at The Hour newspaper in Norwalk, Connecticut, have voted unanimously in favor a new three-year contract between The Newspaper Guild of New York and The Hour management. The pact provides for a general wage increase of 2 percent a year, with pay hikes also added to the starting minimums in every category.
The Tragic Consequences of an Employer’s Broken Promise
Michael D. Sorkin —
March 1, 2012— Member, United Media Guild
Stripped of the retiree health care his company had promised and turned down for Medicare, laid-off St. Louis Post-Dispatch clerk Robert Douglas couldn't afford regular medicine and doctors' care for his diabetes and high blood pressure. The consequences were tragic.
Fighting for a fair contract, between 200 and 300 New York Times Guild members lined a third floor hallway in silent protest Wednesday afternoon as top editors headed to the daily Page One meeting.
As the New York Guild fights to save workers' pensions, the company has gifted newly retired CEO Janet Robinson with an estimated $21 million golden parachute that includes $4.5 million in consulting fees. The website Footnoted, which combs hundreds of SEC filings each day, has determined that those fees amount to $25,000 an hour under Robinson's Retirement and Consulting Agreement.
The Providence Newspaper Guild's musical-comedy romp through Rhode Island politics marked its 39th annual side-splitting performance Feb. 24. Benefitting the local's scholarship fund, the Follies was first held to heal the wounds from a bitter 12-day strike at the Journal in 1973.
TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer addresses the winter meeting of the New England District Council Saturday, Feb. 25, at Providence Newspaper Guild headquarters in Rhode Island. The conference took place the day after the 39th annual Follies, a PNG’s politically satirical song-and-dance show that attracted an audience of about 1,000 people, including all the state’s top politicians. TNG-CWA Secretary-Treasurer Carol Rothman also attended the meeting.
Despite all rumors to the contrary, McGraw Hill will not be making a decision about the potential outsourcing of the Client Services Department of Standard & Poor’s when its Board of Directors meets this week. A company official told the New York Guild last week that it may be several months before a decision is made. More than 40 Guild-represented jobs are at stake.
The Guild and the Hour have reached tentative agreement on a new three-year contract that includes significant savings in medical insurance, including lower deductibles and lower employee contributions; wage increases for the life of the contract; increased reimbursement for car expenses; and some enhancements to job security.
Calling the proposal the "definition of a compromise," the Indianapolis Newspaper Guild says most workers will get raises, while the company gets leeway to outsource up to eight jobs. Guild members have waged a lively campaign in Indianapolis to protect journalism and jobs.
