Albany 'Times Union' Cancels Union Contract

[marmar]

AP via Editor & Publisher:



Albany 'Times Union' Cancels Union Contract
Published: April 10, 2009 3:06 PM ET


ALBANY, N.Y. The Times Union of Albany has canceled a union labor agreement as it tries to reduce costs.

The collective-bargaining agreement with The Albany Newspaper Guild covers about 240 of the newspaper's 450 employees, including reporters. The Hearst Corp.-owned newspaper announced the cancellation Thursday after negotiations failed to produce agreement on a new labor contract to replace one that expired in August.

The cancellation does not affect wage and job-protection provisions. But it does remove mandatory arbitration in disputes, mandatory deduction of union dues from employees' paychecks and a no-strike, no-lockout clause.

"We took this step only after making every effort to reach an agreement at the bargaining table," George R. Hearst III, the newspaper's publisher and chief executive, said in full-page letter addressed to "our loyal readers and advertisers" in Friday's edition.

Key contract issues are whether the newspaper can outsource some jobs or lay off workers outside current seniority rules. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003961389

[aquart]

1. Hearst. His name is Hearst.

[BlooInBloo]

2. They're going out of business slowly, due to their own shitacular decision-making.

[notesdev]

4. newspapers are the modern day horse-drawn carriage

made obsolete by the Internet (and their own lack of integrity), as carriages were made so by automobiles.

[JVS]

3. As someone who has been in this situation before, this is nothing unusual.

It would help if journalists actually knew their some facts. The "No strike, no lockout" clause is actually part of NLRB law that forbids workers and employers in a contract from striking/ locking out. When contract negotiation goes beyond the agreed period of a contract it has expired and is void. Workers at that period time are not technically under contract and employers are free to set terms of work on their own. Similarly, the union can file an intention to strike notice with the NRLB and choose to strike any time they wish and as frequently as they wish at any point 2 weeks after notification. Generally the more the company alters conditions at this time during the negotiations, the more hostile they are considered to be.