‘Working Strike’ Staged at San Diego Union and Tribune

Union representatives for employees of San Diego’s two largest newspapers urged members Sunday to conduct a “working strike” while continuing preparations for a full-scale walkout.

Editorial and non-editorial employees of The San Diego Tribune and The San Diego Union continued to work past their original strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Saturday, said Ed Jahn, president of the San Diego Newspaper Guild.

Jahn said no further negotiations were scheduled and no new strike deadline has been set since early Saturday, when talks broke off with the company’s rejection of the union’s latest contract proposal.

“We are continuing to work, but we’ll be on a ‘working strike,’ ” Jahn said. “We will be letting (management) know how we feel by increasing the frustration level in the workplace--no unauthorized overtime, no use of personal cars. We will be showing them that they need our good will to put out the paper.”

At the same time, he said: “We are gearing up to strike if we don’t see more progress. We have sent enough signals.”

More than 1,100 editorial and non-editorial workers at the Tribune and the Union voted last week to walk off the job Saturday in a dispute over several contract issues.

Herb Klein, editor-in-chief of Copley Newspapers, said Saturday that both papers were published as normal. “We are hoping talks will be scheduled soon,” he said.

The company has proposed raises of 8% for most departments, including the editorial force, and 5% plus bonus pay for other employees, including those in the advertising and circulation departments. The company wants a one-year contract.

The Guild demanded raises of 10% for all employees in the first year of a three-year contract, followed by raises of 5% over the following two years.

Top-scale reporters at the Union and its evening sister paper, the Tribune, now earn $750 a week. Combined circulation of the papers total about 374,000 in California’s second-largest city.