By: Staff Reports Labor Awaits Management Response To Reduced Wage Demands
Negotiations between the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild and Seattle's two dailies continue as the union reduced its wage demands for raises to $3.05 an hour from $3.50, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
Neither The Seattle Times nor the Post-Intelligencer had responded to the union's latest proposal late last week, but the latest offering from the newspapers included a 45 cents-an-hour raise.
The union said that offer falls short of keeping pace with the region's cost of living. The union reports that the Northwest's cost of living has risen 44% in the last 10 years, but salaries have increased 20% to 30%, depending on the job.
The newspapers' managers disagree with the union and consider their offer to be a serious one, leaving the negotiators far apart.
Last month, union members voted 399-32 to give their union leaders the authority to call a strike. The union has threatened to call a strike before Thanksgiving, although the earlier vote does not necessarily mean employees will walk out.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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