Ultimatum p.

By: George Garneau

Rupert Murdoch tells New York Post unions to accept extreme concessions or he'll walk away from the bankrupt newspaper
IN YET ANOTHER game of chicken with the New York Post's survival at stake, Rupert Murdoch gave employees an ultimatum: Accept extreme concessions by July 9 or he'll walk away from the bankrupt paper.
A Post spokesman said that without labor agreements, the Post could close as early as today.
Murdoch has been operating the Post under an agreement with its bankrupt owner, Peter Kalikow. Murdoch has won Federal Communications Commission approval to buy the paper, but he needs labor agreements and formal bankruptcy court approval to see the deal through.
To raise the pressure on unions, Murdoch July 6 gave notice ? according to terms of his management agreement that give him the right on three days' notice to terminate the agreement if it becomes economically unfeasible ? to Kalikow and the Post's creditors of his "intention" to terminate the agreement July 9.
"We regret that this notification has to be made, but as we have said since we began managing the New York Post, one absolute condition of our acquisition of the paper was reaching satisfactory labor agreements," said Patrick Purcell, president and CEO of News America Publishing Inc., the U.S. publishing subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp. "We hope this can be accomplished by Friday so that the New York Post can be saved."
The Post has been losing about $300,000 a week since Murdoch emerged as the buyer of last resort to rescue the faltering tabloid from a succession of dubious managers with no publishing experience.
The unions representing 700 Post workers were meeting with management days before the deadline. Demands on the unions were different as were their responses.
"If he keeps asking for us to save the paper by accepting a contract that will kill the union, we're not going to go for it," said Tom Pennacchio, secretary-treasurer of the Newspaper Guild local that represents 295 white-collar Post employees, who have not had a raise in eight years and who took a 20% pay cut in 1990.
Murdoch is not trying to eliminate Guild jobs because crises over the last three years have already slashed staffing to the bone.
Guild leaders say Murdoch is demanding a five-year contract that includes: a six-month "evaluation" period during which management could fire anybody, regardless of seniority; ducking responsibility for most of the $7 million in accumulated Guild severance pay; cutting maximum severance to eight weeks; and expanding rights to subcontract work to non-union workers.
In return, Murdoch is offering restoration of pay cuts if Guild workers return to a five-day week, from four days, and a 2% raise if they expand the workday to seven and a half hours from seven.
"We want to reach an agreement, but we can't go along with what's on the table," said Harry Leykis, chairman of the Guild unit, which voted unanimously to give union leaders the authority to call a strike.
A spokesman for the Post declined to discuss terms of the demands.
Murdoch is demanding cuts in pressroom staffing from 50 press operators, according to Eddie Fleming, president of the New York Newspaper Printing Pressmen's Union No. 2. He was unsure of the numbers.
"I'm going to give it my best shot and hope we can save it from going out of business," Fleming said. He stated that he was scheduled for negotiations July 8 "and I'll stay up there all night, if I have to, to reach an agreement."
Murdoch owned the Post before but was forced to sell it to comply with FCC regulations banning cross-ownership of television stations and newspapers in the same market. He retained WYNY-TV Channel 5.
The FCC recently granted Murdoch an unprecedented waiver of the rule to permit his second Post acquisition.
"We were tickled to death when Rupert came in," said Leykis of the Post's Guild unit. "We didn't expect him to bring this kind of club."