The Union Leader's Newspaper Guild Is Still Without a Contract

By Brian Early on Friday, June 1, 2007.

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Drive to the Union Leader offices on a Thursday and you may see pickets.

Three of the four unions at the state's largest newspaper are currently in contract negotiations.

But after nearly a year and half without a contract, one union is growing increasingly impatient with management.

From Manchester, NHPR correspondent Brian Early reports.

On Thursdays, members of the Manchester Newspaper Guild stand near the Union Leader offices trying to draw attention to their plight.

The Guild represents about one hundred and seventy employees at the paper.

They include reporters, janitors, secretaries, accountants, and members of the sales and classifieds department.

Their last contract expired at the end of two thousand and five.

And Union Leader reporter Mark Hayward is tired of waiting.

MH (23 secs): We need to get our message out to the people of Manchester and to management that the Manchester Newspaper Guild wants a contract. â€¦â€¦ We're not asking for the sky. We're asking them to sit down and talk reasonably to us about working conditions and compensation.

The Union Leader, like many papers across the country is feeling a financial pinch.

According to reports by the paper's publisher, the daily circulation has dropped nearly thirteen percent over the past nine years.

At the same time, employees at the newspaper are among the best paid in the state.

NW (9 secs): There are going to be differences on how to keep the company going. We understand the industry is in trouble.

That's Norm Welsh, president of the Manchester Newspaper Guild. He's also a copy editor at the paper.

NW (9 secs ): Make no mistake that the Guild fully understands that we need the company as much as the company does because that's our jobs. That's what pays for our homes our cars and all of that.

Members of the Guild continue to work under the terms of the last contract, but in April that arrangement was in doubt.

The Union Leader's President and Publisher, Joe McQuaid, told the Guild the paper was going to terminate that contract in June.

The union maintained that was illegal, and the company backed down.

Three weeks ago, according to the Guild, McQuaid announced that each employee needed to give back a weeks vacation, or workers would face layoffs.

They were given three days to decide.

At first, three out of the four unions agreed to give vacation time back.

But all unions needed to agree.

Again, Guild president, Norm Walsh.

NW (34 Secs): In our opinion, giving us that short of a time period in that short of a window is a bit of bullying in our opinion. We also saw it as perhaps an attempt by the publisher and the attorney to split the four locals and to pit each other against each other as each of us had to decide this and any one could nix it for everybody and lead to layoffs.

In the end, all unions agreed to forgo the week's vacation.

With bargaining at a standstill, the sides have agreed to bring in a federal negotiator.

But that's not expected to happen until later this month.

Publisher Joe McQuaid would not comment for this report except to say, the company doesn't comment on ongoing negotiations.

The Guild particularly objects to one change in the proposed contract.

Guild President Norm Walsh

NW (18 Secs):They have a clause that they are proposing that would eliminate that language that would protects our full time jobs so that they could hire as many part timer as they want to, in fact, he could probably turn around and make us all part time as soon as we agree to with no benefits. That's something that we can't agree to.

The other two unions without a contract, the Pressman and the Mailers union, won't comment on their negotiations.

Though Guild president Norm Walsh says that there is good solidarity between the unions, the other union presidents won't say much themselves.

MG (2 secs): This is a crisis time for newspapers.

That's Miles Groves, former chief economist with Newspaper Association of America.

MG (33 secs): Revenue has dropped dramatically. Advertising revenue continues to be in the doldrums and continues to be another difficult year. â€¦. It's expensive to tell the news of the day. It continues to me more expensive in the context of the competitive world. Yes, this is a crisis a time for this industry. It's a difficulty time to be making union statements when you might not have a job anyway.

The Guild says the have no plans to strike, though the union plans to picket at the Democratic and Republican debates next week at Saint Anselm's College.

And they are hopeful that the federal negotiator will have more success.
They're just not sure how much longer they'll have to work without a contract.

For NHPR News, I'm Brian Early in Manchester.