115 U-T Workers Get Contract

Members of a union that represents about 115 newspaper employees ended four years of labor negotiations Monday by ratifying a three-year contract with the Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

The contract vote came Monday night at a meeting of the Communications Workers of America, Local 9400, which represents Union and Tribune employees who work at the newspapers’ loading dock.

Members had worked without a contract since Aug. 3, 1986. The labor agreement calls for pay raises of $67.50 per week in the first year, $25.10 in the second and $26.10 in the third. The pact also includes a no-strike clause, a management-rights clause and an open shop.

With the mailers agreement, the company has settled disputes with three of the five labor unions representing its employees. Negotiations are still under way between the company and the San Diego Newspaper Guild, Local 95, and the San Diego Typographical Union, Local 221.

Representatives of the company and the guild will meet Jan. 19.

“The pressmen, the (International Brotherhood of) Teamsters and the mailers now have three-year contracts, but with the (Guild) . . . the best offer they’ve made is 16 months,” said local guild President Ed Jahn. “They’re playing a game with us.”

Jahn expressed pessimism about the upcoming negotiating session, which was arranged by a federal mediator who has been involved in the labor dispute for more than a year. Jahn described the company’s most recent labor contract offer as one designed to “push us to sign a weak contract or to strike on their terms.”