Media Watch

Dec. 2, 2000

Media Watch

Strike no more:
The byline strike at The Union Leader ends, and not a minute too soon

By Dan J. Szczesny
HippoPress.com

The Manchester Newspaper Guild agreed to end its byline strike at The Union Leader Friday following a heavy round of talks that resulted in the paper's withdrawal from several hard line stances against the union.

Union president John Whitson said that the agreements made by the paper included:

- Bargaining with the union for the introduction of new management positions, and creating new guild positions in response. The union had complained that the paper was creating new management position and filling them without union input.
- Withdrawing its decision to reduce the Manchester Sunday News staff by 40 percent.
- Settling, in the guild's favor, two outstanding arbitrations.
- Withdrawing two disciplinary letters from guild members' files.
- Agreeing to fill a position in advertising that Whitson said had been empty for four years.

In return, Whitson said the union took "a couple of grievances" off the table which involved jurisdictional editorial violations.

"We are very happy and very pleased with the publisher's response," he said.

And not a minute too soon, it would seem, as some non-editorial union members had begun to grumble about the strike.

The guild not only covers The Union Leader editorial department employees, but the advertising and circulation department employees as well. Thus, since not all members even have a byline, the strike was not universally supported, despite the fact that all members participated. Many advertising staffers dismissed the issue as a newsroom concern, and refused to wear the Guild's "Respect for Respect" badges.

According to one worker at the paper, an accounting department employee came into the advertising department one day before Thanksgiving and began ordering advertising staffers to wear the stickers, which have an unfortunate tendency to peel off on their own. The paper's retail advertising manager, David Rousseau, had to order the accounting employee to leave the department.

Another advertising department employee lost his "Respect" sticker, only to find it on the floor in an area of heavy traffic. He then reapplied it, complete with a dusty footprint on the sticker.

Dan J. Szczesny is the editor of HippoPress.com, as well as a correspondent for The Union Leader covering the town of Londonderry. On the radio, he has a smooth, silky voice that has been compared to that of Mel Torme.