Daily News Employees Ratify 3-Year Contract

Newsroom employees of the Daily News of Los Angeles averted a strike Wednesday by approving a three-year contract that would raise salaries for most editorial workers, but not by as much as their union had hoped.

Members of the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild voted 125 to 25 to ratify the contract offered last week by the management of the Woodland Hills-based newspaper after 1 1/2 years of negotiations. Union members last month had authorized a strike if the contract was rejected.

The contract provides pay increases for more than 70% of editorial workers, said Jim Smith, executive officer of the guild, which represents about 200 Daily News photographers, reporters, librarians, copy editors and other editorial employees.

Smith said union representatives are expected to sign the contract today. The pay raises take effect in the first complete pay period after the contract is signed, he said.

Smith predicted before Wednesday’s voting that the contract would be ratified because the weakened economy made a strike too risky. “It’s very important right now for people to get that kind of money,” he said.

The contract, the first ever for Daily News editorial workers, establishes grievance procedures for employees, grants maternity leave benefits and reaffirms the paper’s affirmative action hiring goals, among other things. But it falls short of earlier union demands for greater pay increases and union security, Smith said.

During the first year, the contract offers editorial employees with six years experience $650 a week, with no increase the second year and a 1.5% raise the third year.

The union had asked for $800 a week for experienced employees but later lowered its demand to $700, Chandler said.

The union also wanted a 5% annual cost-of-living increase, but under the contract, all raises other than the onetime, 1.5% hike will be merit-based.

Minimum pay under the contract will be $475 a week for employees with a year or less of experience, Smith said.

More than 20 employees will get raises of more than $100 a week, he said. In addition, all newsroom employees will get a onetime bonus based on current pay and merit--ranging from $50 up to $6,000 for a highly valued employee of long service--for approving the contract, Smith said. The average bonus was about $600, Smith said, with about 20 employees getting more than $1,000.