Star-Ledger unions ratify new 4-year contracts, agree to buyouts

After months of negotiations under the cloud of a threatened shutdown of the state’s largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger’s production unions have ratified new four-year contracts, agreeing to buyout packages for at least 55 workers.

Union officials today said all four unions have voted to approve the deals after separate membership meetings, bringing an end to months of often bitter and angry negotiations with the newspaper’s management.

Publisher Richard Vezza said as a result of the agreements, The Star-Ledger will continue to publish.

“This has been a difficult time for all of us at The Star-Ledger, but finding a workable resolution is a tribute to the strength of our newspaper and to the resilience of our dedicated employees,” he said in an announcement of the ratification vote. “Of course the print newspaper business continues to be challenging and unstable. Mindful of these challenges, we cannot let our guard down. More than ever, we must work together to continue to find new approaches to the way we deliver the news and engage with advertisers.”

Ed Shown, president of the Council of Star-Ledger Unions and head of Teamsters GCC Local 8-N, confirmed the unions finalized the contracts.

“Going forward, we are all hopeful that with the sacrifices and concessions agreed to, and the perpetual savings that resulted because of it, the entire Star-Ledger family will continue to produce our state’s largest and most prestigious newspaper for many years to come,” he said. “It’s been a hell of a year for all, not just for those at the negotiating table, but for everyone employed at the Star-Ledger that had to live these past ten months in apprehension of the unknown.”

The mailers, the largest of the newspaper’s four unions, were the last to settle, reaching an agreement one day before a Sept. 27 deadline set by the paper. Both sides said the talks had been heated and contentious. But the contract ratification passed easily in a 99-4 vote, said Steve Grant, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters-New Jersey Mailers Local Union 1100.

When asked if his members were happy with the deal, Grant said “no.”  “It’s something we have to live with,” he said. Mailers help assemble the newspapers after they leave the presses and prepare the bundles to be loaded on delivery trucks.

According to Shown, a total of 55 jobs among the four unions will be eliminated under the terms of the deals. He said the mailers agreed to buyouts of 35 of the highest-paid members of the union. The union also agreed to freeze members’ pensions and move into The Star-Ledger’s medical plan.

"We compromised on the savings. We came off our number and they came up from theirs."

Grant said The Star-Ledger will need to find less-costly workers to fill nearly 10,000 shifts a year vacated by some of the mailers taking buyouts.

“They are going to hire lower-paid people to replace them — they have to,” Grant said.

Shown said 17 pressmen will take buyouts. The machinists agreed to the elimination of two additional positions and one member of the engraver’s union will take a buyout.

The buyouts were one year of salary plus health benefits, say company officials.

“I think we worked out a fair agreement for everyone,” said Shown.

The resolution of The Star-Ledger’s negotiations with its production unions comes as the future of the newspaper remains uncertain. The paper lost $19 million last year and expects to lose a similar amount this year as print circulation and advertising revenue continue to decline, according to Vezza.

The newspaper had been seeking $9 million in concessions from the four production unions. Vezza would not say where the two sides settled.

“We compromised on the savings,” he said. “We came off our number and they came up from theirs.”

Earlier this year, The Star-Ledger eliminated 34 jobs, including reporters, photographers and editors, in its first ever large-scale layoff. The newsroom, which has 159 remaining full time equivalent positions, is not unionized.

According to Vezza, there are no current plans for further cuts. “We’re just starting the budget process,” he said.

The newspaper is part of the Advance Publications newspaper chain, owned by the Newhouse family, one of the wealthiest in the nation. Advance is a private company and is not required to publicly disclose its earnings. But other papers in the chain have undergone major changes in the last few years designed to cut costs and revamp their news operations to focus on their websites.

The Oregonian in Portland, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and other Advance newspapers have cut their staffs, reduced the number of days the paper is delivered or cut the number of days they publish. Vezza said there are no plans to reduce delivery or cut publication days at The 

Star-Ledger.

Source: Star Ledger