Final Speed Bump in 'Sun-Times' Deal: A Six-Member Union

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By: E&P Staff When five Chicago Newspaper Guild units at Sun-Times Media Group properties finally acceded to renegotiated contract concessions, it seemed like the last obstacle to the purchase of the Chicago Sun-Times parent by a group of local investors headed by financier Jim Tyree had been removed.

But it turns out one union, representing just six workers, has not agreed to the concessions. In Tuesday's Chicago Tribune, reporter Michael Oneal chronicles the resistance to the givebacks by Chicago Typographical Union (CTU) No. 16.

The CTU balked at Tyree's first proposal, made in early September, that the members should give up lifetime job guarantees they won in 1975, when the union represented 450 employees in the chain and agreed to changes in work jurisdiction rules.

In addition to end the job guarantees, the proposal asked the union to give up severance rights and assurances of further work with the company, the Tribune reported. A new proposal was delivered to the CTU Monday, it added.

"I can't sign a document that gives the company the ability to discharge my people without any assurances," Berman told the Tribune. He suggested the union would take its time considering the new proposal: "We're not running to vote on this one."

The remaining typographers earn about $45,000 annually, working to set up pages of ads and classifieds that can't be handled by other departments.

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