Storm Clouds Remain at Baltimore 'Sun'

By: Joe Strupp Life at The Sun in Baltimore may never be the same after the recent bitter contract talks, which ended last week with union members voting overwhelmingly for a new contract, while voicing resentment toward a management team that stripped them of automatic raises and some job security -- and trained replacement workers to step in if a strike had occurred.

Even though Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild workers at the Sun voted, 319 to 102, to approve a new four-year contract, most admit they did so because they felt they had no choice as scabs waited in the wings to take their jobs and uncertainty lingered over what future talks might bring. "It was seen as a very aggressive act," David Folkenflik, a nine-year Sun reporter, said about the replacement workers. "People felt their work was not being valued."

Other employees said they would not forget the shabby treatment in the future. "If someone asks me to work on a weekend, I'm going to remember this," said Candus Thomson, a sportswriter and 16-year Sun veteran. "They may have won a battle, but they lost the goodwill war."

Howard Libit, an environmental reporter, also believed the company might see a boomerang effect. "Will we be a little more willing to put in for overtime pay? Yes," he said.

Newspaper managers, however, said the contract was a good one. Although the agreement includes a first-year wage freeze, a change allowing the company to transfer employees to other jobs, and a new partial merit raise system, it also provides a $1,500 bonus -- $500 more than the original offer -- and keeps layoff protection based on seniority.

Still, newspaper executives cautioned union members that such changes would be the norm from now on as the paper seeks to compete in a growing news market. "This is a hard lesson for unions," said Linda Geeson, director of marketing and communication for the Sun, who defended the replacement worker plan as a necessity for today's daily newspapers. "Papers cannot afford to not publish," she stressed. "Competition is so great, it is easy for readers to go on the Internet and get free news and never come back."

The contract approval came late last Tuesday, just hours before the old agreement was set to expire, and a possible strike could have occurred. Although the two sides had been negotiating for just over two months, Sun employees have a tradition of not working without a contract, union members said, indicating a contract rejection could very well have meant a walkout.

In the end, the membership overwhelmingly approved the deal despite the local Guild leadership's recommendation that it be rejected (and that members keep working without a contract while talks continued). "Nobody liked the contract, but each member had to make their own calculation about ratifying it," said Bill Salganik, Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild president.

Several reporters defended Salganik and the union, saying their pro-contract vote was not a reflection on the union leadership. "I think they sensed this was a gun to the head and that people were going to accept it," Thomson said of the Guild negotiators. "But I don't think they could, in their heart of hearts, tell us to swallow it."

Libit agreed. "I think the leadership did a tremendous job and I don't think the vote is a reflection on them," he added. "I think they were so close to it, they got caught up in [negotiations] and thought they could move it closer to something better. It is over with now."

A few staffers showed concern that the contract approval might be seen by management as a sign of a weakening Guild leadership. "We are worried about what this means for the future of the Guild," said Tanika White, one Sun reporter, "and how [Tribune] will or will not view the Guild as a threat."