Dow Jones Tells Union it Will Close Naperville Plant

By: Jim Rosenberg Teamsters Local 706 (including the former Local 7 of the Chicago Web Pressman's Union) confirmed that Dow Jones & Co. informally informed members of a decision (reported here previously) to close its Chicago-area printing plant, probably by year's end.

A Dow Jones spokesman declined to comment about closure of the plant in Naperville, Ill., or outsourcing of its printing to a third party in the area. Copies of the Journal have been printed at the Naperville plant since the 1970s.

While "they did not give an official [written] notice," said Local 706 Vice President John Giannone, "they had a general meeting with all the production people" last Wednesday, telling them the Naperville plant will close by year's end.

Giannone said it remains unknown where Dow Jones plans to print the Journal. The three possible sites believed under consideration are the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times (whose press operators are Local 706 members).

"We're going to do all we can to get them to change their mind," Giannone remarked.

Earlier this summer, Dow Jones outsourced printing of the Journal from its Denver plant to the Denver Newspaper Agency, the business agent of The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News.