FeedMedia: Pekin Times workers join union
October 7, 2008 in On the Media Tags: GateHouse Media, Pekin Times, The Newspaper Guild
Welcome to the club:
By a vote of 24 to 7, the 35 person unit of the Pekin Times in Pekin, Illinois, have chosen the St. Louis Newspaper Guild as their bargaining representative.
Folks at the Peoria Journal Star were worried that GateHouse Media would go after the union. Perhaps the company too busy surviving their own poor business plan to right off a union. Methinks the fine folks at TimesNewspapers ought to consider doing the same thing.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:04 am
This was a very smart move by the Times employees.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
This former Peoria Newspaper Guild president salutes Pekin Times workers on their brave and smart decision.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Welcome, union brothers and sisters. Solidarity forever!
October 7th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
This is huge. It takes guts to make a stand for themselves and their paper. Of course, no one votes for a union, they vote against management. Kudos to them!
The Pantagraph is currently doing the same. Perhaps Times Newspapers and the Galesburg Register Mail are next.
October 8th, 2008 at 6:30 am
This is great for union organizing. I think it will get even better when Obama becomes president and congress is elected with Democrat majority. We can potentially have any business becoming a union shop when the Employee Free Choice Act is finally passed under Democrat supremacy. This bill will get rid of the government regulations and strictures on unions by repealing the National Labor Relations Act and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. Good riddens. It takes away the upper hand employers have and gives the upper hand to unions. Can you say 8 Wal-Mart stores in the area instead of 12?
October 8th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Certainly a brave action. In light of the decimation of the Journal Star newsroom staff, one hopes this bold move strengthens local journalism.
October 8th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I am told that not one Guild member has been laid off at the PJStar. Some took the buyout offer, but none have been laid off. There have been layoffs in non-union positions, though.
October 8th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
“I am told that not one Guild member has been laid off at the PJStar. Some took the buyout offer, but none have been laid off.”
I believe that’s true, but the newsroom staff has been reduced considerably by buyouts (two rounds in the past 20 months), and those left are definitely working harder. It’s quite obvious that morale has suffered, too. The phrase I hear most from people I know who are departing is “not fun anymore.”
I know, people will say, “Work isn’t supposed to be fun.” But virtually everyone in the Journal Star newsroom is a college graduate who could have made more money in some other field. Traditionally, people got into journalism because they wanted to do something they think is important for democracy, not for the money.
Many of those people have left for other jobs, and the paper is thereby diminished.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Hrmmmm. The PJStar covered the unionization of the Daily Times with a story, but the Times ignored this significant news item. How shameful!
Or perhaps management has CENSORED them. If so, it’s a slap in the face to the US Constitution, the First Amendment, and democracy in general.
And that would only underscore why they needed a union.
October 10th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Good luck. Let’s all make note of the number of jobs at the paper before unionization and 2 and 5 and 10 years down the road. Let’s see if this turns out to be the workers paradise so many of the commenters seem to think it will be.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Virtually every paper in the country, union and nonunion, has been hemorrhaging jobs at an accelerating rate the past two years, so I’m not sure what good counting jobs will do.
A paradise, it ain’t. The new unit has to negotiate a contract, too. Unions can best be described as a necessary evil.