The union representing employees of Newsday, the Long Island newspaper owned by the Tribune Company, agreed to a new contract yesterday that would eliminate the 3 percent raise for this year that it had negotiated as part of its current contract.þþIn return for giving up the 3 percent raise and other concessions, employees would receive lump-sum cash payments - $10,400 for editorial workers and $25,000 for members of the craft unions, including truck drivers.þþEmployees represented by the union's six bargaining units voted on the contract yesterday. It could have implications for other Tribune-owned newspapers as their union contracts come up for renegotiation. þþThe difference in the amount of lump-sum payments given to various employees reflects the difference in the dollar value of the concessions by each unit. Press operators and drivers could face more job cuts and deeper concessions than editorial staff members.þþThe negotiations come during a crunch period in the newspaper industry, with the elimination of an estimated 2,200 jobs at papers across the country last year. Advertising revenue has been sagging and circulation is static, although the newspaper industry had average profit margins last year of more than 19 percent, double that of the Fortune 500.þþNewsday has experienced added difficulties because it inflated its circulation, generating a scandal that cost its parent company millions of dollars. Newsday has trimmed its editorial staff by 150 people in the last year and a half.þþAfter no change in pay for 2006, the tentative contract provides for 2 percent pay raises in the next three years, plus a 0.5 percent bonus in 2007 and 2008. It would also shrink buyout packages and discontinue company contributions to employee pensions, although it would improve employee 401(k) plans.þþÿWe thought this was the best thing we could produce, given the climate at Newsday and nationally, and given the time constraints and the pressure the negotiations were subject to,ÿ said Zachary R. Dowdy, a Newsday reporter who is vice president of the editorial unit of Local 406 of the Graphic Communications Conference of the Teamsters union. ÿIt's a compromise. It's a concessionary contract. There are a lot of things we're giving up.ÿþþIn terms of gains for the union, Mr. Dowdy cited long-term disability payments and the length of the contract, which is four years and three months instead of the standard three years.þþA Newsday report on the tentative contract said that it would allow the company to cut up to 60 jobs, primarily those of drivers and press operators, but that this was fewer than the 165 jobs that the company had threatened to cut.þþÿI'm not happy with it at all,ÿ Dennis Grabhorn, president of Local 406, was quoted as telling Newsday. He told the paper that the alternative was ÿwarÿ with the paper in which ÿwe would actually have to destroy the paper we work for.ÿ þþA Newsday spokesman could not be reached for comment, but the newspaper quoted the company's chief negotiator, Howard Weinstein, as saying in a statement: ÿWe appreciate the hard work of the Newsday and Local 406 bargaining teams in reaching these tentative agreements.ÿþþ
Source: NY Times
