'We're Still a Union Shop,' Says 'Vindy' GM as Talks Stop

By: Mark Fitzgerald A rotating staff of six to 10 journalists recruited from newspapers around the country, plus dozens of local blue-collar workers, are helping to put out The Vindicator in Youngstown, Ohio, during the strike by the Newspaper Guild. But General Manager Mark Brown says the paper is "still a union shop."

"These are still only temporary replacements," Brown said in an interview Wednesday. "We're still a union shop."

Negotiations between the family owners of the 67,523-circulation daily and Guild local 34011 have been stalled since last week, when management made what it called its "best and final offer." Union members rejected that contract proposal by a 99-to-33 vote last week. The strike by 179 reporters, copy editors, photographers, circulation district managers, and delivery drivers began when their last contract expired Nov. 16.

According to the union's vice president, Debora Shaulis Flora, four newsroom replacements have come from The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, including the paper's managing editor, Dan Shea. The paper is not commenting on its participation in the strike, Shea wrote in an e-mail to E&P: "As much as I appreciate what you're trying to do, we don't think comments by us will be helpful."

Shaulis Flora said the union believes journalists have also come to the Vindicator from other Advance Publications in Alabama and Michigan.

So far nine employees have abandoned the strike and begun working again, Shaulis Flora said. One is a reporter and the others are delivery drivers, she said.

"We ended the fourth week of the strike on Tuesday and have had only eight people go back, out of 179 -- none out of classified, and only one out of editorial," she said. "So I think that's pretty good."

The union felt confident about rejecting the "best and final offer" based on past experience negotiating with the Vindicator, Shaulis Flora said. "The thing about it is, most of us on the committee have done this a number of times, and we know they have 'final offer' and a 'final, final offer' and a 'final, final, and best offer,'" she said.

General Manager Brown has said repeatedly that the paper has been operating in the red for the past seven years, and that the final offer is generous under the circumstances. As outlined in an open letter to readers last week, it includes a "combination of wage increases and bonuses totaling 2% a year for three years," with higher increases in lower-paid job classifications; a waiver of employee-paid health insurance premiums for four months; and a one-time $1,000 bonus to circulation district managers.

There has been no violence during the strike and only minor incidents of vandalism or theft, General Manager Brown said: "Everybody's been fairly well behaved."

Last Sunday, though, there was an incident that each side sees differently. According to the union, two striking circulation drivers noticed about 50 bundles of papers stacked in front of a tire store at about 1:30 in the afternoon. They went to check the date of the editions, looking, union Vice President Shaulis Flora said, for more evidence that the Vindicator is dumping copies that it cannot sell during the strike.

A Vindicator manager happened upon the scene, and, according to General Manager Brown, saw them attempting to steal the bundles. "We've had a few problems with bundle thefts," he said. The manager was scheduled to meet with prosecutors to press charges Thursday. The union's Shaulis Flora said, "Obviously, we take issue with [the newspaper's] explanation," and questioned why bundles would be undelivered at 1:30 on a Sunday afternoon.