“It’s a hardball tactic—but would the company, owned by local business giants like Gerry Lenfest and George Norcross, really destroy the papers if they can’t secure a pay cut for reporters?” the Philly Post asks. “We’re about to find out.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News were recently acquired by new owners who apparently have no patience for union contract negotiations: They’ve threatened to “liquidate” both papers if concessions aren’t made.
“In a letter to members of the Newspaper Guild, union president Dan Gross and executive director Bill Ross say that Interstate General Media — which bought the papers last year, along with Philly.com — is seeking $8 million in immediate wage and benefit cuts from the editorial staffs of those papers, even though the guild’s contract runs to October 2013,” Philadelphia Magazine reports.
Unsurprisingly, as it’s made clear in a guild memo, union leaders are none too pleased with the proposed cuts:
When they acquired the company in April, Interstate General Media was well aware that the Newspaper Guild had a contract in place through October 2013. It was also at this time that owners George Norcross and Lewis Katz both stressed how much the newspapers meant to them and how they were in this business for the long haul. We will not be held out as scapegoats, to be blamed for not bargaining a new agreement while we have one standing. The owners are smart businessmen who do not leap into business deals or investments blindly.
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