Employees at Eugene Register-Guard struggle for new contract


EUGENE - A struggle between Newspaper Guild Local 194 and the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper for a new contract reached its two-year mark May 1.

The union, an affiliate of Communications Workers of America, has been bargaining since February 1999. The unit has about 155 employees in the newsroom (reporters, photographers, copy editors), advertising (display and classified), business office and circulation.

The Guild has represented workers at the family-owned newspaper for more than 55 years and has never taken a strike vote there. But problems surfaced early in 1999 when the Register-Guard hired a union-busting Tennessee lawyer to direct the negotiations. L. Michael Zinser came in demanding wage rollbacks for many employees and minimal raises for others, and insisted on contract language that would weaken the union's ability to stand up for workers' rights, said Joe Mosley, a Guild Executive Board member and chair of the Action Committee, in an e-mail to the Northwest Labor Press.

The Guild said Zinser promotes his "union-busting victories" prominently on a Web page. Among his "victories," he claims to have busted all of the unions at the Houston Chronicle.

Guild President Suzi Prozanski said the union has a history of getting along with the Baker family. Alton Baker dealt fairly with the unions, as did his son, Alton F. (Bunky) Baker Jr., who took over the paper in 1961. In the late 1980s the newspaper's ownership fell to Alton F. (Tony) Baker III.

"It's only been since the third generation took charge that things have started to change," Prozanski said. "And relations have gotten this contentious only in the last four years, after the union tried to organize the part-timers in 1997 and the company hired Zinser."

At the first bargaining session in February 1999 the Guild made overtures that it wanted a short negotiating period and wouldn't be offering any major changes in the contract, except for a wage increase and a few new benefits, such as expanded sick leave and extra holidays.

The company (and Zinser) responded with a proposal that contained eight pages of new language. Among their proposals were language changes that would spell the end of the Guild in the workplace by allowing the company to hire more part-time employees. The proposal called for pay reductions or freezes for both circulation district managers and advertising sales reps and language that would make it harder for workers to file grievances.

Zinzer's main tactic, though, is to stall and stonewall. His "busy schedule" allows him to meet with the Guild only once every one or two months. The slow pace of bargaining is intended to wear down negotiators and activists, foment dissension among the union's ranks, and delay any pay raises that might eventually be negotiated.

The last bargaining session was held April 20-21.

In the meantime, the Guild has held numerous "job actions" that have included leafletting events sponsored by the Register-Guard; radio ads urging readers to call or write the publisher (by phone at 541-338-2318 or by e-mail at: [email protected]); a speakers' bureau that visits community and union groups to encourage support for the cause; wearing green clothes - and later green armbands - on payday to signify support for the bargaining team; a rally on May 1, 2000, attended by 200 people; a newspaper drill team marching in the Eugene Celebration Parade; holding Bake Sales for Bargainers in the lunch room; an ongoing letters-to-the-editor campaign that has generated at least 100 letters over the two years, none of which has been published in Register-Guard; and a temporary subscription suspension drive at the end of February 2001 that resulted in an estimated 500 cancellations.

Management, on the other hand, has issued a news blackout on letters to the editor on any labor-related subjects and prohibits its employees from participating in any boycott or labor activity against anyone who does business with the newspaper, such as the Bi-Mart boycott by the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters Union.

On Feb. 27, a flier of unknown origin wrapped a protest-oriented false front page arond some issues of the Register-Guard in newspaper boxes. The wraparound explained the ongoing dispute and contained some of the letters the newspaper has refused to print.

Soon after the incident employees came to work to find a copy of the wrap posted next to a sign offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Meantime, the National Labor Relations Board has issued numerous unfair labor practice charges against the newspaper. Last month, Register-Guard owners were ordered by an administrative law judge to begin negotiating with the Teamsters Union on behalf of distribution department employees. Rather than comply with the judge's order and accept the will of employees who voted to join the union, the newspaper and Zinser have indicated they will appeal the ruling.

Pressmen at the Register-Guard represented by the Graphic Communications International Union recently started contract talks and the company immediately put Zinser-style rollbacks of rights on the bargaining table.


May 4, 2001 issue

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