Bloomington 'Pantagraph' Workers Reject Guild

By: E&P Staff Employees of The Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill., have voted against membership in the St. Louis Guild.

Staffers from creative services, prepress, technical services, maintenance, packaging, and distribution voted 37 to 5 against joining the guild. The news, sales and circulation employees of the Lee Enterprises-owned newspaper earlier rejected membership of the Newspaper Guild, Communication Workers of America.

"This overwhelming rejection of these outsiders, especially during challenging economic times, expresses a powerful vote of confidence in our family at the Pantagraph," Publisher Richard Johnson said in a statement. "With a substantially union-free environment, we will have the clear ability to safeguard the most vital elements of the Lee Enterprise culture -- direct and open communication, a one-to-one working relationship between employees and supervisors, a climate of trust and teamwork, the ability for all of us to deal with each other honestly and fairly, and recognition of individual achievement."

Lee said that most of its newspaper properties are not represented by guilds except those that "were inherited in our more recent acquisitions." The guild and other unions represent about 8.5% of Lee's employees, mostly in St. Louis.