TV | Ad sales are rising -- and so are pay cuts

As advertising revenue looks up for Gannett's 23-station television division, more unhappy workers at Cleveland's WKYC are telling me about big pay cuts -- up to 18% -- recently imposed on union members there. The company did so this month, they say, during negotiations over a new contract, and in violation of an existing agreement that extends through June 11.

"While we offered to take the same paycuts as others took throughout the company and [among non-union workers] at our station, 5-6% with a week's furlough, the company rejected that offer and said that wasn't enough,'' one reader told me this weekend. "They demanded we take from 8%-18%, no furloughs, give up vacation time earned. . . . They want to be able to schedule us for a six-hour day if they want us to work a ten-hour day that week, with no overtime after eight hours."

The union rejected those terms in early December, after which Gannett unilaterally put the new rules into effect, starting Jan. 1, the employees tell me.

The TV division's fortunes are brighter this year for two reasons: next month's Winter Olympics in Vancouver are expected to be a windfall for the company's 11 stations affiliated with NBC, which is broadcasting the game. Also, heading into the mid-term elections in November, 2010 will be another contentious year on the campaign trail.

Candidates favor TV advertising, and their spending is likely to grow exponentially this year because the U.S. Supreme Court is expected within days to end decades-old limits on spending by corporations, unions and other interest groups. The end of those restrictions, The New York Times reported Friday, "could unleash a torrent of negative advertisements, help cash-poor Republicans in a pivotal year and push President Obama to bring in more money for his party."

Indeed, TV division President Dave Lougee (left) told Wall Street media analysts last month that Gannett is counting on more campaign-related spending. "Our stations' political footprint is very strong in 2010, and we anticipate heavy spending,'' he told the UBS media conference in a statement. "The only open question is whether the recession will affect fundraising norms in any significant way. That’s a possibility, though the conventional wisdom is that the money will be there because of how polarized the current political environment is."

His statement continued: "We have U.S. Senate races in 15 markets; governors' races in 18 markets; and there will be unprecedented number of contested U.S. House races next year by some accounts, up to 100 by some estimates. We also expect to see a continuation of the year-round spending on national and local issues that we’ve seen this year, only at higher levels."

Readers: What is Gannett's contract bargaining schedule at your TV station? Is the company seeking the same wage and benefit cuts at your site? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.