FLICKR/PAUL SABLEMAN
The union representing Post-Dispatch workers is headed for a showdown with parent company Lee Enterprises.
The union that represents workers at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is urging members to say no to cost-cutting furloughs ordered by parent company Lee Enterprises — risking further layoffs in a show of defiance.
Last year, Iowa-based Lee avoided a hostile takeover from the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, which is known for slashing the publications it acquires to the bone. But in the months since Alden dropped its bid, Lee has forced its own series of painful cuts. In St. Louis, that's included dropping beloved comic strips to move to the chain's one-size-fits-all format and, in January, layoffs that included the newspaper's librarian and much of the staff covering high school sports.
In February, Lee ordered two-week furloughs across the chain, basically ordering workers to take unpaid two-week vacations. The Post-Dispatch has seen, and accepted, such furloughs before.
But this time, the United Media Guild, which represents journalists and ad sales staffers at the daily, offered a counter-proposal: a two-year moratorium on any layoffs, a change in some job classifications and a 4 percent raise for workers in 2024 to make up for the furloughs' lost wages.
Lee rejected the proposal four days later without a counter-offer. And that hardened the union's resolve. "The fact that Lee wouldn't even discuss offering layoff protection in exchange for taking the furlough spoke volumes," says United Media Guild President Jeff Gordon.
Rather than reject the proposal, though, the union decided to put it to a vote of its membership. That's now set for tomorrow, Wednesday, March 8.
The vote has tough implications: By agreeing to furloughs, the union believes it would be at risk of setting a terrible precedent. As union leaders note in a blog post, the furloughs basically negate the hard-fought raises won by workers in 2021.
"Few things would make Lee happier than to know that during future contract talks, they could begrudgingly agree to raises — and then simply come back to Guild members later and get that money back by saying they needed furloughs," they write. "The chance of Guild members ever getting any pay raise at the Post-Dispatch would be severely threatened by the approval of Lee’s furlough plan."
But saying no to furloughs means the near-certainty of triggering other cuts (read: layoffs). One sobering example: The union representing Lee workers in Buffalo last month rejected furloughs. Days later, the company announced it was shutting down its printing press there and would instead print the paper in Cleveland — a loss of 160 local jobs (albeit in a different union).
The spectre of jobs being affected is one reason union leadership opted for the furlough decision to be made by its members, not just the executive committee, Gordon says.
"The executive committee of our Post-Dispatch unit was tempted to reject the company request out of hand, but because of the potential layoff implications we wanted to give our members a chance to decide," Gordon says.
And Gordon believes the members will vote no on the furlough proposal tomorrow, despite the risks.
"My guess is that they will vote it down overwhelmingly," he says. "Could a no vote lead to layoffs? Yes, but the staff has seen a steady reduction in the workforce already, mostly through unfilled positions, and there is little confidence that taking a furlough would prevent more cutting."
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