Union Newsroom Workers Call in Sick in Wake of Strike Authorization Vote

About 40 newsroom employees at the San Diego Union called in sick Friday, one day after San Diego Newspaper Guild members voted to authorize a strike against the Union-Tribune Publishing Co. next week.

“This morning, it looked fairly vacant,” said Union-Tribune Editor-in-Chief Herbert Klein. “ . . . We didn’t expect it. It occurred only in the Union newsroom, and the rest of the plant is operating normally.”

Sources said the absences amounted to about two-thirds of the newsroom staff at the Union’s Mission Valley offices.

Guild officials said the sickout was not planned or sanctioned by the union, but Klein thought otherwise.

“You can’t have it in just one department, where you have a high number of people call in sick,” Klein said.

Guild President Ed Jahn denied that the sickout was engineered by the union.

“We did not condone, authorize or sanction it. I can tell you that unequivocally. We’d rather direct people’s attention in a more productive direction, like planning for a possible strike on Dec. 23,” Jahn said.

The union voted to authorize a strike at the two newspapers at a meeting Thursday night. Guild leaders said the union will strike the papers next Saturday at 12:01 a.m. if there is no progress in the contract talks. The company requested another bargaining session for Monday.

About 1,150 guild members, which include reporters and other newsroom employees, have worked without a contract since June, 1988, and have not had a pay increase in two years. The company is also negotiating contracts with the San Diego Typographical Union No. 221 and the San Diego Mailers Union No. 75. The typographers have worked without a contract since August, 1987, while the mailers’ contract expired in August, 1986. The mailers have not had a pay raise since February, 1986.

Klein called the guild’s strike authorization vote “a tactical move” in the union’s negotiating strategy.

“The main thing is to get back to the bargaining table, and we’re pleased that we’re going to be negotiating again on Monday,” Klein said. “We feel we can reach a conclusion in these talks if they are serious about negotiating.” Management responded to the guild’s strike vote by placing full-page advertisements in both the Union and Tribune calling for replacements in the event of a strike. Klein said the same ads will begin appearing in “large Midwest and East Coast cities” Sunday.

In a telephone interview Friday, Klein acknowledged that there are morale problems in the Union and Tribune newsrooms, but he said the quality of the papers has not suffered because of it.

Guild members have rejected several management proposals that they say are regressive. Typically, labor contracts between newspapers and the guild run for three years. Management has offered a one-year contract, with pay raises of 7% for some employees and 4% for others. In addition, the company wants to do away with severance pay for dismissed employees, which the guild has rejected.

Previous contracts between both sides have included provisions for retroactive pay. But in a letter received by guild members Friday, Oliver Peter, the company’s employee relations director, said publisher Helen Copley “was not receptive to granting retroactive pay.”

Jahn blamed the Nashville law firm of King & Ballow for the stalemated talks. King & Ballow has a reputation in labor circles for being anti-union, and Jahn charged that Copley hired the firm in order to kill the guild.

“The guild and newsroom managers on the other side both want to get on about the business of putting out a good newspaper,” Jahn said. “My feeling is that King & Ballow all along has not been acting in the best interests of the papers. Our feeling is that King & Ballow is in this only to make money and drag out the negotiations to continue receiving the generous paycheck its lawyers are getting from the company.

“There have been numerous times in the past when we could have resolved this contract. I almost feel sorry for Helen Copley. I think the lady has been had by these lawyers.”