The Dayton Newspaper Guild is grateful to its supporters in the community, including the AFL-CIO, other labor unions, many readers and advertisers who have expressed support and the local blogging community.

DaytonOS, a local news blog, has been a particularly helpful and supportive. In fact, DaytonOS has gone farther even than the Guild, calling Sunday for a boycott of Dayton Daily News subscriptions and advertisers.

While we appreciate the sentiment, the Guild wants to make clear that it has not called for a boycott at this time.

The Guild continues to weigh its options, should the Dayton Daily News continue to falsely and illegally state that an impasse exists and maintains its refusal to bargain.

For a video of the Guild’s rally last week at the Dayton Daily News, go here.

See photos of the rally here.

Last week, the Dayton Daily News broke the law when it walked out on talks with the Guild, declared an impasse when none exists and refused to meet with a federal mediator to try to resolve the few remaining issues.

Today more than 50 Dayton Newspaper Guild members and supporters strongly backed the view of the Guild’s bargaining committee that the Dayton Daily News has acted illegally and that it has refused to make a fair contract offer.

On Wednesday, we filed a second unfair labor practice charge, citing the Dayton Daily News for illegal actions. This charge states that the company has still not filled proper information requests by the union and therefore cannot legally declare impasse.The company has falsely claimed that the Guild rejected its last offer. It has not. We want to keep talking. Our managers have falsely claimed the Guild refused to take their offer to a vote. They never gave us the chance. Over the last week, our members gave us significant feedback about the company’s latest offer and its actions. They are strongly behind the Guild bargaining committee in demanding new talks and good faith bargaining from the Dayton Daily News.

This company has been stonewalling its workers for more than 20 years. The Guild and the Dayton Daily News have operated under a contract signed in 1986. Minimum base pay has not increased for 14 years. That is too long. It is now time for that to change.

The Dayton Daily News has never claimed economic necessity while pushing for wage freezes and demanding givebacks from its workers. The Dayton Daily News this year spent millions of dollars to rehabilitate an old NCR building into a Media Center. The Guild’s negotiators already have offered more than $1 million in concessions to the Dayton Daily News. And yet:

–The Dayton Daily News wants the right to freeze base wages for dozens of workers.

–The Dayton Daily News forces nearly all its part-time editorial workers to go without affordable health insurance for them and their families.

–The only way the Dayton Daily News has said it will resolve future disputes is through an unfair and unbalanced arbitration plan that is nothing more than a kangaroo court.

We thought the Dayton Daily News was supposed to stand up for Dayton, its people and its workers. But the actions of this newspaper toward its own workers fall short of its long and proud tradition in this community.

Let’s turn the page on this dark chapter in the newspaper’s history. Let’s get back to the bargaining table and settle this contract.

Here is a summary of the news coverage of the Guild’s press conference today that we know about so far:

–Channel 7 attended. A report will probably air at 6 and then later appear on its Web site.

–Channel 22 also attended. Again their story should be on at 6 and then appear on itsWeb site.

–Channel 2 aired a good report at noon. It should eventually appear on its Web site.

–Dayton Business Journal ran a long story.

–DaytonOS, a local new blog, made us the top story and republished our blog posting.

–Scott Elliott was interviewed by WMUB radio in Oxford for a story to air later today.

–Editor and Publisher ran a long story.

–Poynter’s Romenesko blog linked to the E&P and Biz Journal stories.

–The San Antonio Biz Journal even picked up the DBJ story.

The Dayton Newspaper Guild today was forced to file unfair labor practice charges against the Dayton Daily News. A press conference will be held at 10:30 a.m. in front of the new Dayton Daily News Media Center at 1611 S. Main St.The Guild and the Dayton Daily News are operating under a contract signed in 1986. Minimum base pay has not increased for 14 years.

The company has committed the following violations:

– Refusing to accept responses or counter proposals for their last offer

– Canceling previously scheduled negotiations dates that the company demanded

– Refusing to schedule sessions with a federal mediator

– Unilaterally declaring negotiations to be at impasse when no impasse exists

– Communicating false information to the union membership about the status of negotiations

– Falsely stating that the Guild had rejected the company’s offer

The Guild Bargaining Committee was shocked Thursday when management announced to newsroom workers that:

–the Guild had rejected their latest offer

–that they considered negotiations to be at an impasse

–that they were making what they called their “last, best and final” offer.

This is wrong. The Guild did NOT reject the company’s latest proposal.

In fact, we told the company’s negotiators we were going to evaluate all of our options and they said they would wait to hear from us. Within minutes, the company broadcast its false claims.

Editorial workers want a contract. We have already offered more than $1 million in concessions. We want to keep talking. The company has even refused to meet with a mediator to try to resolve the remaining issues. It’s time for the Dayton Daily News to play fair with its workers.

These are the major sticking points, among other issues:

–The company wants the right to permanently freeze wages for up to a third of our workers. They call this process “redlining.”

–Our part-time workers deserve affordable health care, not a plan they can’t actually use.

–We want a fair, impartial arbitration system. The company wants to tilt the balance unfairly, resulting in a process that is nothing more than a kangaroo court.

The newspaper’s editorial board has a long history of sticking up for working people. The Dayton Daily News needs to practice what it preaches.

As we are sure many of you did today, we on the bargaining committee read Kevin Riley’s message about negotiations with great interest.

We wish we could be as optimistic about the current state of negotiations as the company seems to be. Granted, we have made a lot of significant progress on a lot of issues and we have a great number of tentative agreements that overall are of real benefit to employees and management. Those agreements were the result of cooperative bargaining between the company and the Guild.

However, on the last few issues, the company has been very unwilling to seek mutually acceptable compromises. If Riley is correct in his belief that we are close to an agreement, the company will be making a proposal that will make some very significant moves on the remaining issues. As of our last meeting we were apart on the following issues: Annual wage increases, redlining, part-time health care, arbitration, elimination of fleet vehicles and some details relating to sick time.

These are the positions that troubled the Guild the most, from the last proposal we received from the company:

–Their negotiators are still demanding the right to redline up to a third of editorial workers, with the company having the right to freeze their base pay permanently.

–They apparently want to put off doing anything about part-timer health insurance because, well, it’s just too hard. This despite the fact that the Guild went out and found a union-affiliated plan that would provide affordable coverage if the company would make only a moderate raise in its very modest contribution toward part-time health insurance.

–They insist on arbitration that would rig the process completely in favor of the company. This would make our contract unenforceable, nullifying parts of the contract that protect your rights. The international Guild says it has never seen such draconian arbitration rules as those proposed by the company.

–On the elimination of the fleet cars, they’ve told us they feel that it’s their right to transfer all of the company’s news reporting transportation costs to us because they have now given us “free parking” in trade.

–To help us with the cost of part-time health care, mitigate our costs for the elimination of the fleet and make up for a drastic cut in sick leave, the company is willing to give us $1,000. Not per person. Total. For all of those issues, for 147 members. That’s $6.80 per person. They might as well have offered us a dime.

–They have agreed to a night differential pay allowance for copy editors who worked at the Dayton Daily News prior to May of 2007 but refuse to extend any night differential pay to those who transferred from the Southwest Group or Springfield.

So, pardon us if we are skeptical about the company’s view of how close we are to completing a deal. If they do indeed make positive moves on these critical issues, we will then be looking at taking a complete, fair tentative agreement to Guild members for a vote. But barring a big shift in the company’s posture, the Guild bargaining team does not anticipate an agreement will be in place before Jan. 1. We are open to possibilities, but that all depends on the company coming forward with substantive proposals that truly address the issues.

On a related note, at the request of the company negotiators, the Guild has given the company guidance on pay raises for 2008.

It is not the Guild’s desire to hold up raises for next year. Our position, which we have made clear to the company, is that the company should implement merit raises in accordance with the company’s long-standing past practices. Under the settlement reached earlier this year regarding an unfair labor practice the Guild filed against the company that was resolved in May, the company may not institute a system of pay grades, redlining, cash payments in lieu of regular base increases or any other system not in accord with the prior practices of merit-based pay increases.

Should the company’s next proposal resemble their other proposals, we’ll have two choices: we can accept what most of us think is an absolutely terrible deal which would provide us with the worst working conditions any of us can remember, or we can continue to put pressure on the company to bargain fairly to resolve these last remaining issues.

And if we’re going to put pressure on the company, we need all of you involved. With apologies to JFK: Ask not what our union can do for you, but ask what you can do for our union — because if the company gets its way, the union won’t be able to do much for you at all.

So get involved. Some of you already are, but everyone needs to step up.

Starting this week we will be scaling up our external campaign to inform the community about our struggle to get fair play from the Dayton Daily News at the bargaining table. Please do your part. See one of our mobilization squad captains to find out what role you can play — large or small — to help the cause.

The squad captains are:

Stephanie Gottschlich — Shock and Awe
Ben Sutherly — Money Talks
Ken McCall –Spin Doctors
Mark McGregor — Peeps
Kelli Wynn — Home Front

These groups are meeting regularly, working on efforts to convince the company to play fair.

Again, you will be hearing more from us about upcoming internal and external actions in the next few days. Contact Guild executive board members with any questions.