Update, Feb. 26: Our bargaining bulletins are usually brief, but Tuesday’s contained some pretty big news: Company representatives are proposing that we explore merging our new BANG-EB Guild unit with the established Guild unit at the Mercury News.

What does this mean exactly? In a consolidated Guild unit, we would share the same contract with our coworkers at the Mercury News, and managers likely would have more leeway to coordinate operations across our newsrooms.

We’ve always used the term “One Big BANG,” and we think the idea of formally creating a seamless Bay Area News Group deserves a serious look amid our current financial crisis. So our bargaining team and its counterpart from Merc have agreed to talk about the idea. With the help of federal mediator David Weinberg, we’ll enter talks with the company in early March to begin discussing what a merged unit could look like, and how employees might be affected.

This is by no means a done deal: A merger would be a complex undertaking, requiring support from members of all the affected units, and involving separate votes of our members and Guild members at the Mercury News. It won’t happen unless all sides see evidence that it’s in the best interest of our company and its workers.

So we want to hear from you: How would you feel about sharing a union contract with our colleagues in San Jose? What concerns or questions do you have?

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Oct. 21, 2008
JOINT STATEMENT:
Northern California Media Workers Guild
Southern California Media Guild/Local 9400
San Jose Newspaper Guild

A MediaNews proposal to wipe out copy desks at newspapers across the country threatens not only hundreds of jobs, but also quality and credibility – values the beleaguered newspaper industry needs now more than ever, Guild-represented newsroom workers at the company’s California newspapers said Tuesday.

Dean Singleton, CEO of the Denver, Colo., chain, disclosed to a publishers’ group in Florida on Monday that MediaNews management is looking to combine all its news desks into one or more consolidated copy-editing centers at locations yet to be named – possibly overseas.

The company’s holdings include 54 dailies in 11 states. Its California Guild-covered papers include the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, Long Beach Press-Telegram and Los Angeles Daily News.

“One thing we’re exploring is having one news desk for all of our newspapers in MediaNews … maybe even offshore,” Singleton said during his speech, according to an account by the Associated Press.

The speech was the first most MediaNews employees had heard of the idea. There has been no mention of moving to a single national copy desk during current contract negotiations at two of our biggest bargaining units, the Long Beach Press Telegram and Bay Area News Group-East Bay.

“We understand the need for newsrooms to operate more efficiently in tough economic times,” said Sara Steffens, chair of the BANG-EB bargaining unit. “But outsourcing copy-editors is a terrible idea. The move would damage beyond repair the things readers and advertisers value most about newspapers: Our wealth of local knowledge, and our commitment to accuracy and fact-checking.”

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