Upset by an "insulting" contract offer, union members at the St. Paul Pioneer Press engaged in a byline strike Thursday, withholding their names from articles and columns in the newspaper.
"It's an industrial action," said Bill Weyandt, strike coordinator for the Pioneer Press unit of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union. "It definitely sends a message to management that people are organized and working together."
The byline strike garnered attention in other local media, including comments by Dave Lee, morning host on WCCO-Radio. "We're hoping to get more coverage on tonight's news," Weyandt noted.
Also Thursday, the union and management met for a regularly scheduled negotiations session. In a written statement before the meeting, the Guild called the management contract proposal "insulting." It would provide inadequate wage increases, shift health-insurance costs onto employees, and eliminate language allowing Guild members to honor picket lines of other unions at the paper, the union said.
The Guild represents 450 workers in the news, advertising, circulation, customer service and other departments. Their contract expired July 31, and members have gone 19 months without a raise.
Weyandt is on leave from his job in the newspaper's technical department to help prepare the union for a possible strike.
"Nothing is imminent," he said. "The strike is our ultimate lever that we will use if necessary."
The issues facing workers at the Pioneer Press should matter to newspaper subscribers and to the entire community, Weyandt said. The newspaper is owned by the Knight-Ridder Corporation, a giant media conglomerate headquartered in San Jose, Calif.
"Whenever there is a choice to be made between the profit margin Knight-Ridder in California has set as its goal and quality journalism in our community, the choice will be the profit margin," he said.
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Upset by an “insulting” contract offer, union members at the St. Paul Pioneer Press engaged in a byline strike Thursday, withholding their names from articles and columns in the newspaper.
“It’s an industrial action,” said Bill Weyandt, strike coordinator for the Pioneer Press unit of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union. “It definitely sends a message to management that people are organized and working together.”
The byline strike garnered attention in other local media, including comments by Dave Lee, morning host on WCCO-Radio. “We’re hoping to get more coverage on tonight’s news,” Weyandt noted.
Also Thursday, the union and management met for a regularly scheduled negotiations session. In a written statement before the meeting, the Guild called the management contract proposal “insulting.” It would provide inadequate wage increases, shift health-insurance costs onto employees, and eliminate language allowing Guild members to honor picket lines of other unions at the paper, the union said.
The Guild represents 450 workers in the news, advertising, circulation, customer service and other departments. Their contract expired July 31, and members have gone 19 months without a raise.
Weyandt is on leave from his job in the newspaper’s technical department to help prepare the union for a possible strike.
“Nothing is imminent,” he said. “The strike is our ultimate lever that we will use if necessary.”
The issues facing workers at the Pioneer Press should matter to newspaper subscribers and to the entire community, Weyandt said. The newspaper is owned by the Knight-Ridder Corporation, a giant media conglomerate headquartered in San Jose, Calif.
“Whenever there is a choice to be made between the profit margin Knight-Ridder in California has set as its goal and quality journalism in our community, the choice will be the profit margin,” he said.