Related: Read the leaflet union members distributed
Friday, September 10, 2010
Phoenix | Press operators picket meeting
Related: Read the leaflet union members distributed
33 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
when Dubow said 12% "across the board", did he mean all of us?
ReplyDeleteIt appears that unionized employees have pushed back hardest during recent Corporate visits this summer: first, in Indianapolis; then, yesterday, in Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteHow many questions did employees ask during the "Town Hall" meetings in Phoenix and, earlier yesterday, in Palm Springs, Calif.?
ReplyDeleteDid management answer all of them?
Was there a limit on the number of questions allowed?
In Phoenix, I think 5 or 6 questions were asked. There was no limit on questions exactly, but Dubow and Martore spoke for so long that there was only about 15 minutes for questions at the end.
ReplyDeleteUnion, yes!
ReplyDeleteThe Pressmen were the only union not to agree to furlough weeks over the last couple of years. In other words everyone else took a pay cut but not them. And now that they are being asked to do their part (the economy is in shambles in case you have not heard)they cry "why me". I do not feel sorry for them all.
ReplyDeleteGood for them. Corporate management should be made to feel unwelcome any time it visits a property. They have quite literally created and "US Vs. THEM" environment, so they might as well see that first hand.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, get really tired of the memos talking about how grateful the company is for our dedicated service. Clearly, all management is grateful for is the fact that enough of us continue to show up to put out a product that they can make money off of. There's no loyalty to either individuals or subsets of the business. If a property loses money even for a short term, it gets gutted.
It was UNSAFE to man the presses without minimun manning, meaning if we did take the furloughs people could of seriously got hurt or lost fingers. 11:47 we work aroung dangerous machinery not with office papercuts and fingers caught in your desk! Apparently you are a company troll without "common sense" , you will go far in this company!
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 11:47 says... "[Pressmen]...they cry "why me". I do not feel sorry for them all."
ReplyDeleteWe have taken major cuts to our manning, all as per contract which Gannett conveniently fails to explain. Fully a third of our board has had to walk away for lack of shifts or pick up one or two here and there. Gannett knows full well the structure of the contract, they pretty much wrote it! Then they ask us to take furloughs. Gannett, you wrote the contract, now respect it. As for having no pity for us, 11:47, we expect that. Gannett's fortunes are sliding but they are making employees bear the bulk of the burden. Your futures from here on out will be a series of wage and benefit cuts. Gannett will make noise about going digital... putting up a good front, like Dubow & Co are doing with these Town Hall meetings, but rest assured, Gannett does not have the "vision" to come up with anything viable. The profits just aren't there with digital. Gannett will continue to pound away at your paychecks to get them where they want to be. Hold on tight! you're in for a bumpy ride!
In as far as no pity for the pressman. One thing I was always told during my apprenticeship was that the generation before us fought for what we have today. Today, we are asking to protect the future. This future includes yourself, that has no pity. Remember Mr. Dubow bragged about how well financial shape this company is. And he said these cuts will be across the board. Someday I hope you will stand with us, to help yourself, and your fellow Gannett employees. This company is trying to hide behind the economy to disguise their greed.
ReplyDelete2:49 Get real. EVERY department, not just the press-room has had to operate with reduced staffing AND unlike the pressroom has had to take furloughs. What makes the press-room different the the rest of the company? Also am I better off trying to make the company vision work or peeing on it? I choose to do what I can to make it work.
ReplyDeleteI rather doubt that Dubow spoke of "across-the-board" wage cuts -- of any size. But perhaps others in the Phoenix and Palm Springs meetings can weigh in on this point?
ReplyDeleteMy hat is off to the pressmens union for standing up to Gannett and shame on the IBEW for caving in. The person who stated "I don't feel sorry for them" we will see what tune they play when benefit time rolls around and once again Gannett takes away that small percentage of a raise they got in health care cost plus more. The bleeding for all but the choosen few has not passed by a long shot. The kicker will be once again the people at the top will reap raises and bonuses that will make us even more demoralized than we already are. Dubow has a lot of balls talking about efficiency. Look at what has happen to Gannett newspapers since he and his cronies have taken over and don't blame all this on the economic down turn. These people were blood suckers way before any down turn occured. GO PRESSMEN YOU DID THE RIGHT THING BY BRING THESE BLOOD SUCKERS INTO THE LIGHT.
ReplyDelete2:49... I am real. We have a contract that no where states furloughs! It is hard for non-union employees to understand the barganing process. I feel for you that Gannett made you take them... It does hurt.
ReplyDeleteP.S. If it makes any difference, we haven't had a raise in five years. Have you?
Unsatisfied with Dubows answer,Pressmans President and VP walked out the door.I'm sure there some surprized people on that move.
ReplyDeleteYea I feel sorry for the overpaid, pay little for benefits, workers of the press. Yea, like for about a nanosecond.
ReplyDeleteI HATE UNIONS. But kudos to these guys for giving a poke in the eye to Dubow and Martore. It would be different if the still-fat profits were being reinvested in the company, rather than going to multimillion-dollar bonuses for corporate officers. But as long as those two and their coterie slop at the company trough while the rest of us do without, I say, "Bravo, pressmen!"
ReplyDeleteElectritions complied with company request on furlough. Promises were made and broken. They received them same 12% package. Just ask one. They feel betrayed. When Dubow stated Across the Board at Phoenix Town Hall believe it when he said Across the Board. He wasn't talking the board room.
ReplyDeletefurloughs,I've worked in the pressroom for over 15 years and I'm now offered only 3 shifts a week,thats 2 shifts per week,so you want to talk furloughs huh,Debow says 10% to 12% is perportional to other departments,how about perportional benefits then.Do our part,"WE HAVE DONE OUR PART"
ReplyDeleteIt's just tiresome to read comments about "standing up to Gannett."
ReplyDeleteHow clueless are the people who post these sort of comments? You work for a media company but are so near-sighted that you can't see the seismic shift in the economy that is affecting not just media companies?
Or are not connecting the obvious dots between how you use media and how the public wants it?
Protecting the future? It's not about the generation before us that fought to protect us, it's about the generation before us that is keeping us from succeeding in a rapidly changing and fluid environment. It's shameful, really.
P.S. Pressmen? Love you and appreciate the trade, but your days are numbered no matter who owns the company. You're like travel agents. Once people realized they could book their own trips (online, whenever they chose to and the way they wanted them) there was no need for that particular skill.
Dubow and Martore keep talking about how great Digital is because they are afraid someone is going to call them out for not finding a leader for digital to replace saridakis. They don't realize that digital revenues ARE NOT new revenues, but replacement for print and broadcast at a much lower margin.
ReplyDeleteWhen they both spoke (rather read from their scripts), there is nothing about what Gannett will look liken the next five years. No vision, just a lot of job justification.
I can't imagine that these arrogant pigs feel good about having a black man drive them around and fly on a corporate jet to visit us at our newspapers.
They should be ashamed.
Unions suck. They have long outlasted their purpose on the labor scene in America.
ReplyDeleteDubow and Martore are beyond shame. When a so-called executive chops heads and basically gets a bonus based on the number of heads that rolled, how honorable can he/she be.
ReplyDeletePlease, don't give me the crap that the bonuses were not based on per capita personnel reductions. What other justification could there have been? For paying off an unjustifiable debt before it swamped GCI like a rogue wave? For stunning the market with digital genius?
Wake up Board of Directors!
Yes enlightened one (post 4:02 AM) we all know and I mean all newspaper people know are days are numbered not just the pressroom. Does this justify the type of raises and bonuses managers on up receive on the backs of our labor or are you so blind as not to see that you are getting screwed over by this company at every turn. Someone made a point about benefit season and we all know we will be screwed again.
ReplyDeleteLets review what has happen over Dubows reign of terror:
MAJOR DROP IN STOCK PRICE, MASS DEBT, MASS LAYOFFS, REAPPLY FOR YOUR JOBS, PENSION FREEZE, UNEMPLOYMENT TO SUPPLIMENT PART OF SERVERANCE PACKAGE,MAJOR CUTS IN SEVERANCE PACKAGES,WAGES FREEZES, FURLOUGHS, SOARING MEDICAL COST SHOULDERS BY EMPLOYEES, AND THE LIST GOES ON.
Looks at the bright side Dubow an his merry men and women (ROBBINHOOD) steal from the poor to give to the rich. Get there raises and bonuses, golden parachutes, health care, board of directors get there monies for giving these clowns all these benefits even in bad times.
So enlightened yes the end is near for all but the choosen few!!!! Who will reap benefits we can only dream of.
Why is it so many hate every publisher at the company...they are all stupid. And senior management, a bunch of dummies? As a former Gannettoid, I can say it's worse elsewhere. I hate my new job. I miss the company. A lot.
ReplyDeleteAnon said at 5:55...
ReplyDelete"P.S. Pressmen? Love you and appreciate the trade, but your days are numbered no matter who owns the company."
You are absolutely correct! However, Dubow also said at Thursday's meeting that paper will be around for a long time. Seems he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. If our CEO believes that there is a future in "paper" then I must hedge my bets (as he appears to be doing) and protect what I have.
Be-that-as-it-may, this pressman does understand the "seismic shift" coming our way in this digital age. I tell anyone who will listen to pay off debts, save your money and DO NOT invest in a company than does not invest in you! A contradiction, I know.
I applaud the press workers for at least publicly exposing greedy Gannett - as one sign put it - to the buying public.
ReplyDeleteMost people don't even know what Gannett is. It's time they came to recognize its long-honored tradition of union busting, and most recently its sucking the workers dry and padding the executive coffers.
I was at the "town hall" meeting in Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteDubow did NOT say he took a 37% pay CUT! He used some euphemism like downgrade or downturn. If Dubow were to take a 37% pay cut you can bet it would be made up in a much larger percentage in bonuses.
Anon said at 11:44
ReplyDelete"The Pressmen were the only union not to agree to furlough weeks over the last couple of years. In other words everyone else took a pay cut but not them"
What you FAIL to understand is that a furlough is a TEMPORARY wage cut.
The pressman's union is being asked to take a PERMANENT wage cut.
In as much as furloughs are no longer being implemented, those wages are still the same.
Furloughs in the pressroom would have put manning levels at a level that would have been in violation of the contract. Pressmen refused to violate that contract.
5:55 -- I don't want this to sound like a personal attack, but you're the one who's clueless if you don't think it's time for employees to stand up for themselves and continue to demand a fair wage.
ReplyDeleteAt present, Gannett cannot execute it's business plan without journalists, without sales people and without a press crew. That may well change in the future, but right now those jobs are required and if every staff member in Gannett walked simultaneously the business would lose millions.
What you apparently fail to see is that corporate managers are raking in record profits during the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Yet, they are using the poor economy and changing business model as an argument to convince unions and average people to take pay cuts.
The last thing you want to do when your profession is dying is willingly accept less than an equitable raise while your profession still has value. The pressmen need to make all that they can now, while their work still has value ... and we need to support them.
If they haven't taken furloughs, good for them. I don't understand how people can get pissed at their fellow employees for making an extra $100 by refusing to bow to corporate pressure yet not be mad as hell at the corporate fat cats for making millions and taking raises during the same period.
But, hey, say unions suck. Throw your fellow worker bees under the bus. It's that attitude that has led us to the environment we're in now, one where most employees of large corporations are making less (adjusted for inflation) than they were 30 years ago.
Bravo 3:55 a.m.! It couldn't have been said better! And the same goes when your supervisor demands a third story for the day because, well, you know how it is, we eliminated those other two reporters and the managing editor says we've really got to get this other story.
ReplyDeleteThose who run around in circles all day to do the work of two people are whipping themselves to death. They'll get nothing out of it, and their managers will get nice bonuses for showing corporate how "they" managed to accomplish more with less.
And don't worry about getting canned for not coming up with that third story. Management's smart enough, or at least it should be, not to risk an harassment suit.
All of are are getting screwed, I am a Carrier and they have cut my pay $450.00 a month. I am out on the road everyday, Weekends and Holidays.
ReplyDeleteThey say the economy is slow, but let me tell you, they can still pump out the advertising, which I know they make big bucks from. I have the pleasure of having to use more gas because the product is heavier and weighs down my vehicle and puts more pressure on my tires, engine, tranny, and struts. And then they have the balls to print a FREE LOCAL paper! How can they afford to print a FREE LOCAL paper if the company is in such bad shape, I get paid 7 cents to deliver these free papers that weigh more than the Sunday paper, with 420 stops, try loading 420 heavy papers in a small vehicle! Not even making minimum wage after I take off for vehicle expenses. I have been a carrier for 11 years now, and I am thinking of quiting because of all the pay cuts.
FTP, greedy corporate bitches.
ReplyDelete