Mile-High Blog III

News flash!
Milwaukee Local 51 President Jennie Tunkieicz has been elected president of the Midwest District Council. Janet Ortega, president of the Sheboygan local, was elected vice president. Laurie Faliano of the Denver local was elected secretary. Mike Ulreich of the Chicago local was re-elected treasurer.

Also during the afternoon session of the Midwest District Council meeting of The Newspaper Guild in Denver some notes for across the Midwest:
From St. Louis: Local 36047 did a survey of members and 478 responded. The big concern? Surprise: health care. Also, 89% of those surveyed said they do not trust management. A photographer at the St. Louis Post Dispatch got a three-day suspension and was ordered to reimburse the company for $9,000 in photo equipment stolen from his car. The photo editor earlier had directed staff to sign a form that they would agree to these conditions but the guild was never informed. It appears that the matter will be resolved in the favor of the photographer.
From Sheboygan: Local President Janet Ortega said the 50-member union has a tentative agreement with Gannett and will vote on it on Wednesday after four years of sometimes acrimonious talks. She said the union gave up a lot but is still intact. They gave up stepped wage increases and now get only merit pay. They gave up the eight-hour work day (meaning no overtime until after 10 hours of work in a day). The new contract includes pay cuts for advertising personnel and an open shop.
From Minneapolis-St. Paul: Supposedly a two-page a day reduction in newshole is coming in order to cut costs at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, according to Bill Weyandt, secretary of the St. Paul local. He sees this as one of the results of the dissolution of former owner Knight Ridder and the acquisition by the Hearst organization on the way to being acquired by Media News. Other instability related to the sale includes the company not turning over union dues or telling new hires that they will have to pay dues. Also looming is a pension shortfall estimated at up to $22 million. “We have grievances upon grievances,” Weyandt said. He said there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 grievances pending at the paper.
From Kenosha: Pretty quiet except for the possibility of job cuts at a small unit of the local, the Labor Paper.
From Peoria: The local found out two weeks ago that the paper is up for sale by Copley newspapers. Also up for sale are six small papers in Ohio and Illinois.
From Denver: Shrinking membership because of the joint operating agreement is a concern. There were also recent layoffs and more may be on the way.