Can't We All Just Get Along?

By: Joe Strupp Can't we all just get along? That memorable plea that Rodney King uttered famously as most of Los Angeles was being destroyed around him more than a decade ago would do very well in today's newspaper labor situation. While the current union-management battles at several shops don't compare to the destructive riots that devastated L.A., they have the power of inflicting severe damage to the biz if they linger and spread.

Specifically, the scary events that have sparked my worry are in Toledo, Ohio; York, Pa.; and Santa Barbara, Calif. Newspapers in those three cities, which have little else in common, are reaching new heights in employee-management tit-for-tat.

At a time when the newspaper industry in general needs to unite in its current fight for survival, the last thing we need is severe infighting among our own troops and leadership.

The nearly two-month saga of the News-Press has been well-documented, starting with the resignation of a handful of editors in early July, including Editor Jerry Roberts, after alleging that owner Wendy McCaw was meddling in newsroom decisions. So far, up to 14 News-Press staffers have bolted, while the rank-and-file has engaged in a National Labor Relations Board tug-of-war with management.

News-Press managers raised the stakes this week with an unfair labor practices charge against the union, coming shortly after the newsroom, seeking representation by a Teamsters unit, complained first. Add to that a subscriber boycott effort and it is a wonder that any news is getting covered in Santa Barbara, or read about. Readers there must be wishing for the calm days of the Michael Jackson trial.

Head east to Toledo and The Blade has engaged in its second union lockout in three days, telling paper handlers to go home, or join the locked out engravers at the union hall. Six other unions remain on the job, but only one has a contract. Management says they want to cut a new deal so they can put salary reductions and new health benefit fees in place. Union leaders have countered with a request for subscriber and advertiser boycotts.

A Blade editor even hinted that the paper's 350 guild members could be locked out next. So who is going to cover the news? The janitors? Or are they locked out as well?

Speaking of lockouts, in York, The York Daily Record and Sunday News is nearing a month of a byline lockout of sorts. Guild members there spent a week withholding bylines in late July to protest the lack of a new contract. When they agreed to put their names back on their stories, editors said, "No! no!" Guild writers have yet to see their names on stories, or a new contract, since. Some of it reminds me of my two-year-old and five-year-old fighting over the last Sponge Bob popsicle.

In each of these cases, the failure to get a new contract is the key sticking point. What else is new? Unions and newspaper management have been engaging in such tactics at the bargaining table since Ben Franklin's news carriers sought horse feed mileage reimbursement increases.

But today, the stakes appear a bit higher as the industry remains in a battle for survival. Every negative move, by workers or owners, that hurts the product or diminishes its image means potential lost audience that might not come back.

In the past, when strikes and bitter labor battles hit The Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, and even the San Francisco papers, audiences could often be counted to come back, at least for the most part. But today, the daily miracle is holding on for dear life. Give a reader a reason to stop picking up the paper, or logging onto the Web site, and they will go to hundreds of other outlets, most for free.

And as the York, Santa Barbara, and Toledo newsrooms engage in such internal disputes, the tactics appear to be getting more heated and more extreme. Without being inside each newspaper, it is difficult to know which side is being unfair or over-the-top.

Is Santa Barbara owner McCaw truly overstepping the wall between business and editorial? Are union leaders in Toledo failing to see the true economic hardships of the paper when they reject a salary reduction proposal that at least one other union there has accepted?

And what about York? This rare, small two-newspaper town has seen a number of strange happenings in its history, the last being the swap of ownership between the Daily Record and the rival York Dispatch a few years ago. A swap some guild leaders contend never really happened, prompting a claim that Daily Record owner MediaNews Group actually runs both.

Whichever sides are in the right, or whether both have valid arguments, or none, the nit-picking tactics and accusations are not helping anyone. The newspaper industry least of all. And if other newspaper owners and workers see these disputes and choose to imitate them in their own labor negotiations, the losers will not just be those at each newsroom, but the newspaper industry in general, which will wonder what happened to its audience while owners and workers were fighting among themselves.