70 at Daily News Picket Over Talks

About 70 reporters, photographers and other editorial employees of the Daily News picketed the newspaper’s Woodland Hills headquarters Monday to demonstrate their unhappiness with contract proposals made by management.

The Los Angeles Newspaper Guild, a union that the editorial workers elected in April, 1989, to represent them in contract negotiations, organized the lunch-hour informational picket. The workers had previously been non-union.

The union and the newspaper have already held 29 bargaining sessions in an attempt to agree on a contract, with the next meeting scheduled Thursday, said Jim Smith, administrative officer of the guild.

Chief among the workers’ complaints was the wage proposal made by the newspaper, which is owned by financier Jack Kent Cooke of Middleburg, Va. Cooke bought the newspaper for $176 million from Tribune Co. in Chicago in 1985.

The Daily News is offering experienced reporters, copy editors and other editorial employees $650 a week for the first year of a three-year contract, with virtually no increase the second year and a 1.5% hike the third year, said Smith, who dismissed the amount as “ridiculously low.” He said the first-year sum is “about $100 a week less than surrounding papers and $200 a week less than at The (Los Angeles) Times.”

In addition, many experienced Daily News editorial workers already earn between $575 and $650 a week, so for some, there would be virtually no hike, especially after taking inflation into account, Smith said. The guild is seeking $800 a week for the first year, he said.

Bruce Britt, a rock music critic at the newspaper, said as he walked the picket line that the Daily News has “200,000-plus circulation and it pays less than a lot of 100,000-plus papers. That seems like a crime to us.”

The Daily News’ circulation in the six months that ended March 31, the most recent period available, averaged 202,384 weekdays and 214,205 on Sundays, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Maternity leave, severance pay, child-care provisions and affirmative-action policies also are among the topics being negotiated, Smith said.

James Lacher, executive vice president of Cooke Media Group, declined comment on the contract talks or the picketing. The Daily News is part of Cooke Media, a Cooke holding company that also owns several cable television properties and shares the same headquarters building as the Daily News.

However, Cooke is in the process of selling his cable systems. Cooke also formerly owned the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and the Great Western Forum in Inglewood.