Tribune Co.: ITU intransigence doomed Peninsula Times Tribune p.

By: Editorial Staff

THE REFUSAL OF the 17-employee typographical union to make concessions to a prospective buyer doomed the Peninsula Times Tribune, people close to the situation say.
The 100-year-old Palo Alto, Calif., daily folded March 14.
In a statement, Times Tribune publisher Robert E. Wood said there were 90 inquiries after the Tribune Co. last November put up for sale the daily and its nine Peninsual Community Newspapers free weeklies.
"However, only two parties emerged as qualified buyers who were willing to assume the newspapers' obligations. The last bidder withdrew this week after discussions with the Times Tribune unions. Given the outlook, we have concluded there is no alternative but to permanently cease newspaper operations," Wood said.
However, Charles A. Reynolds, president of the Graphic Communications International Union local N-4, said the bidder, Edwards Publications, had no problem with his union.
"It was strictly a problem with the ITU," Reynolds said, referring to the paper's only other union, the Bay Area Typographical Union Local 21.
"You know what's sad is all the pressmen will find work, but the printers, on the other hand, none of those 17 guys are going to get a job," Reynolds said.
Edwards Publications president Bob L. Edwards told Chicago Tribune reporter Pat Widder that the typographical union "refused to budge" in concession negotiations.
Phone messages to BATU union president Charles Tobias were not returned.
Seneca, S.C.-based Edwards had signed a letter of intent in February to purchase the Times Tribune and its community papers. Edwards publishes two daily papers in Iowa, eight weeklies in Iowa, Michigan and South Carolina, and 11 shoppers in five states.
The death of the Times Tribune did not come as a surprise. Employees were given a formal plant closing notice on Feb. 12 and individual meetings about benefits were held between employees and company representatives at the beginning of March.
Employees will be paid through April 13 and will receive severance pay of up to eight weeks' pay.
In 1978, Tribune Co. formed the Peninsula Times Tribune by buying and merging the Redwood City Tribune and the Palo Alto Times.
From the start, some observers predicted disaster because the new paper did not have the identity of either of the two quite different localities.
Pressure from the expanding San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle also hurt the paper, whose circulation fell from about 66,000 in 1978 to about 38,000 at folding. In July, the paper laid off 70 employees, leaving 332 when the paper closed.
More recently, Tribune Co. took a $7.6 million after-tax charge against earnings in anticipation of shedding the Times Tribune.