U-T, Guild Negotiations: ‘This Is Not a Happy Place’

Representatives of the San Diego Newspaper Guild and the Union-Tribune Publishing Company are scheduled to meet today with a state-appointed mediator to resume contract negotiations. However, little progress is expected as tension continues to increase between union members and management.

The Guild, which represents more than 1,000 U-T employees, has filed two complaints alleging unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board against U-T management in recent weeks. The first charges management with “surface bargaining,” or negotiating only as a stalling tactic. The second, filed just a few days ago, accuses management of unfairly suspending circulation department employee Nancy Tetrault, a member of the Guild’s bargaining team and executive board. The union believes her indefinite suspension was a direct result of union activities.

“I’m certain that (her union activities) had something to do with it,” Guild President Ed Jahn said.

The Guild called a special meeting for Sunday to discuss, among other things, Tetrault’s case. “It brings home to some of us that maybe something screwy is going on here,” said one reporter.

Tetrault was suspended for “conduct on the job,” Union-Tribune Editor-in-Chief Herbert Klein said, and “it’s not related in the slightest” to her union activities.

For its part, management at the U-T, which publishes the daily Union and Tribune newspapers, has filed three complaints against the Guild, charging the union with harassing employees. Two of the charges were dismissed by an initial labor relations board review.

Meanwhile, several U-T staffers complain that the prolonged negotiations have sent morale plummeting. The Guild has been working without a contract since June. U-T management is also negotiating with unions representing mail-room, typographical and pressroom employees.

“It just confirms that we’re working for people who don’t care that much,” said one reporter, who asked not be named. It is certainly not unusual for newsroom employees to be wary of management, the reporter said, but more and more U-T employees are reluctant to work extra hours or put in any extra effort. “It’s just an attitude,” the reporter said. “People are upset.”

Money is not the primary issue in the negotiations. The Guild is balking at a management demand that the union agree to a far-ranging contract, which includes a loyalty clause, a no-strike clause and provisions designed to cut the percentage of Guild members within the company’s work force.

“Our position is, if you sign a contract you should be willing to follow the contract,” Klein said.

Most Guild members are convinced that management’s sole intent is to break the union, Jahn said. Management’s hiring earlier this year of a law firm with a union-breaking reputation, he said, has only added to distrust within the Guild.

Klein countered that the Nashville firm of King & Ballow was hired solely for its expertise in union negotiations. “You need excellent people in contract negotiations, especially when you’re dealing with a management-rights issue, such as a no-strike clause,” Klein said. “We feel it is better for the employees and better for the company to reach a fair agreement as early as possible.”

Klein said he has seen no evidence of morale problems, and he pointed to the recent Election Night coverage. “Both papers pulled together as a team and did a great job,” he said.

Some employees, though, disagree. The prolonged negotiations, the increased union meetings, the byline strike in September when most staffers at both papers pulled their bylines off stories, and Tetrault’s suspension have increased distrust and tension in the newsrooms, they say. Recently, Jahn said, management has “harassed” members of the union bargaining team over holiday pay, and management initially refused to let union representatives meet with union members in the cafeteria.

“There are some people in management who are very tense, and there are a lot of people who are disgusted with the attitude management has taken,” Jahn said. “This is not a happy place.”

KTTY-TV (Channel 69) is billing itself as “San Diego’s Movie Channel,” which should sound familiar to San Diegans, since XETV (Channel 6) spent six years billing itself as “San Diego’s Movie Station.”

Channel 6 stopped using the slogan more than a year ago when it joined the Fox Broadcasting network. A spokeswoman for Channel 69 pointed out that KTTY calls itself the movie “channel,” not the movie “station.”

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” Channel 6 general manager Martin Colby said. . . .

It’s hard not to chuckle at Channel 8’s sweeps-month ad campaign, boasting “more San Diegans turn to Channel 8 for news.” Well, that’s true, since Channel 8 has more newscasts than its competitors. Of course, when given a choice, more people turn to Channel 10, according to the last ratings. . . .

The 50-foot-high neon majorette that adorned the old College Drive-In for 36 years is set to return to the San Diego landscape. Mann Theaters will display it outside its new nine-theater mega-complex scheduled to open Dec. 16 in the recently renovated Marketplace at The Grove shopping center. With 2,800 seats, including four theaters with more than 400 seats, the complex is expected to be the largest in San Diego.

In The Times’ special section on the Michael Jackson tour, one article was written by Maureen O’Connor. It probably wasn’t the Maureen O’Connor. It’s a little hard to picture Madame Mayor doing the moonwalk. . . .

It’s been a big week for George Bush. On Tuesday he was elected president and on Wednesday the San Diego Weekly ran a banner headline on Page 1 (below the fold) saying, “Congratulations to Pres. Bush and V.P. Quayle.” “We were getting the paper pasted up on Election Night,” said publisher Marti Sterton, “and we were so inspired by the whole thing we just wanted to congratulate him.”