For the second consecutive year, union membership has fallen across Gannett's worldwide workforce, with the sale of The Honolulu Advertiser paving the way.
About 12% of GCI's 32,600 employees were represented by labor unions by the end of 2010, the new annual 10-K report to federal regulators says. That's down from 13% in 2009 and 14% in 2008, company documents show. In 1993, the oldest I can find, the membership rate was 20%.
The 2010 decline is due in part to the loss of 600 jobs at the largely unionized Advertiser. GCI sold that paper last spring to the owner of its cross-town rival, which merged the two papers and hired only some of the 600 former Advertiser workers.
GCI's union membership trend follows the nation's. Last year, the U.S. union membership rate was 11.9%, down from 12.3% in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said in January. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the rate was 20.1%.
Earlier: William Behan named GCI's new labor relations chief.
[Image: the April 30 Advertiser, one of the last editions, Newseum]
The 2010 decline is due in part to the loss of 600 jobs at the largely unionized Advertiser. GCI sold that paper last spring to the owner of its cross-town rival, which merged the two papers and hired only some of the 600 former Advertiser workers.
GCI's union membership trend follows the nation's. Last year, the U.S. union membership rate was 11.9%, down from 12.3% in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said in January. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the rate was 20.1%.
Earlier: William Behan named GCI's new labor relations chief.
[Image: the April 30 Advertiser, one of the last editions, Newseum]
.... and that is why there is now more money and benefits in corporate's pockets that there is in your's. "Unions" love them or hate them, without them, corporations will continue to follow the path of least resistance for profits.
ReplyDeleteCan someone in a unionized Gannett newsroom tell me how you fared better than people in a non-union newsroom over the past few years?
ReplyDeleteWell, for one, we paid more dues. But we also had great leadership, unline elsewhere.
ReplyDelete