Newspapers' Teamsters forgo raise
Owners of DN, Inquirer asked 11 unions to vote down pay hike
"We want to keep our jobs. We want to retire out of here," declared John Laigaie, president of Teamsters Local 628, representing drivers and other workers for the
Daily News
and
Inquirer.
"I'm too old to look for another job."
Laigaie commented after his union members voted overwhelmingly yesterday - 193-7 - to forgo a $25-a-week raise scheduled to begin Sept. 1.
The request by Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, owner of the two newspapers, is a cost-cutting measure in the face of declining revenue that has afflicted newspapers nationwide.
The raise is scheduled for the final year of a three-year contract.
The Teamsters are the first of the company's 11 unions to approve the request. But all must vote on the request since it would mean amending the contract.
Laigaie said that he and the majority of his members, were motivated to make the concession because the company is locally owned.
The papers were purchased in May 2006 when Brian P. Tierney, a Philadelphia advertising and public-relations executive, put together local investors to buy the papers and Philly.com from the McClatchy Co., which had bought them from longtime owners Knight Ridder.
"This is not Knight Ridder," Laigaie said. "We didn't trust them. We are better served by local ownership than anybody from outside. They made a commitment when they came here to keep both papers. It's better for our continued jobs.
"This guy [Tierney] came in here clean. He can't help it if Boscov's closed. He can't help the price of gas. Give him a chance. Don't kick a guy in the head by demanding more."
Laigaie said that his union members appreciate the wages paid, the benefits that the company maintains while other corporations are cutting back.
"They want to keep both papers in a struggling economy," Laigaie said. "People want their Daily News. People want their Inquirer. I hope we can stay alive until something happens to improve the conditions and we can live to fight another day."
Mark J. Frisby, Daily News publisher and executive vice president of Philadelphia Media Holdings, said that he was gratified that the vote was so overwhelming.
"We're grateful to all the groups who voted today," he said. "Their support is very important to us. John is one of the most widely respected union leaders in the city. He wants to get away from the old way of thinking - us against them - that has been going on too long."
He noted that Laigaie has always been a strong supporter of the Daily News.
When some prospective buyers of the papers said in 2006 that they would close the Daily News,"John told them his union would not support them," Frisby said.
"John's whole thing is saving as many jobs as he can, and have as much work as possible. This goes a long way in securing that.
"John realizes that the local owners are committed to the newspapers. One of the owners [Tierney] is in the building. The others are local and accessible. He wants to see us succeed. His 300 members want to keep working."
"We're going to be OK," Frisby added. "We have a ways to go, but with everybody on board going in the same direction we will go into 2009 a lot stronger." *
