'Sun-Times' Negotiator to Union: 'Looted' Hollinger Money Gone

By: Mark Fitzgerald Ted Rilea, lead labor negotiator for the Chicago Sun-Times, says he can understand why Newspaper Guild-represented employees are angry -- he's not happy, either, about what happened to the paper under former CEO Conrad Black and Publisher David Radler.

But speaking Thursday -- the day the tabloid's labor agreement with union newsroom employees expired -- he said reporters and copy editors have to understand that the paper will not agree to the 9 % upfront pay raise the Guild is demanding. The union argues that it was making do with small salary increases in recent contracts at a time when, according to an independent Hollinger International report, Black, Radler, and other top executives were "looting" the company of $400 million.

"The answer to that is, that money is gone. I mean, it's not there, and they can't get past that," said Rilea, vice president of labor relations for the Sun-Times and Hollinger's Chicago Group. "I mean, they're angry and, OK, a lot of people who were here during that period -- including me -- are not happy about that period."

Guild members voted overwhelmingly Sept. 14 to authorize a strike. As their current bargaining agreement expired Thursday, the union did not walk out but instead conducted an informational picket outside the paper's offices. A phone message to a Guild official was not immediately returned.

A federal mediator Tuesday urged both sides to rethink their positions before they returned to the next scheduled talks on Friday afternoon.

"The problem, really, is that we're talking about a difference that is a Grand Canyon between the two positions on economic issues," Rilea said. "We've told them we're not going to do anything like that, and won't. ? There isn't anything happening like that (wage increase) anywhere in the United States - particularly at a paper with a pending circulation situation."

Rilea said the paper, with several other unions in its production facility, cannot allow a high increase to set a precedent for other bargaining units. The last offer made public by the Sun-Times was for a first-year increase of 2%.

The Sun-Times has admitted inflating its circulation over the past two years and is expected within a few weeks to formally offer compensation to advertisers.

Rilea said the labor dispute comes as the paper is turning around under new Publisher John Cruickshank. "He's adding jobs," Rilea said. "Across the street (at Tribune Co., whose two New York papers have admitted circulation fraud) they're cutting jobs."