By: Dave Astor A grievance filed against the
St. Paul (Minn.)
Pioneer Press for laying off editorial cartoonist Kirk Anderson will go to arbitration.
The Minnesota Newspaper Guild-Typographical Union filed the grievance because it felt Anderson had some seniority in the paper's art department. But Pioneer Press management apparently argued, during a meeting to discuss the grievance, that Anderson was in a category of one as an editorial cartoonist.
"I was not surprised at all [that the paper didn't rescind the layoff]. But we wanted to give it one last shot," said Mike Sweeney, the union's executive officer. He added that the arbitration hearing probably won't take place for several months.
Sweeney noted that the eventual decision will be important not only for Anderson, but also for other Pioneer Press staffers who could lose seniority rights if the paper decides to classify them in a category of one. Under that system, he said, a paper's only economics reporter would have seniority if classified in the general pool of reporters, yet no seniority if classified as an economics reporter.
Pioneer Press President/Publisher Harold Higgins and a spokesperson for the paper have both declined several E&P Online requests to talk about Anderson's layoff, which was effective April 24. Anderson had been a thrice-weekly staffer for the paper since 1995.
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