City's largest dailies may strike over contracts

Chanting "no contract, no peace" and "in unity: strength!" employees of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News staged an informational picket line with labor representatives at noon yesterday.

With contracts set to expire at midnight, the "Walk for a Fair Contract," headed by the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, was a rallying cry to support the union's position in the ongoing negotiations with local investors' group Philadelphia Media Holdings, which bought the papers after an industry shakeup earlier this year.

A strike by members of the Guild could happen as soon as the contracts expire, though both papers have plans to continue publishing regardless.

The two most hotly contested issues at stake are the management's proposals to allow layoffs without considering seniority and to take over control of the Guild's pension fund.

The current pension plan is administered by three representatives from the company management, three from the union and an impartial party.

The proposals, backed by the company's chief executive, Brian Tierney, follow a drastic downturn in both papers' advertising revenues and a bleak projection for the year ahead.

In a company memo sent on Oct. 20, Tierney cited a drop from $100 million in cash flow in 2004 to $76 million in 2005 and to about $50 million this year.

Circulation rates are also falling quickly. Editor & Publisher, a journal that covers the newspaper industry, reported yesterday that the Inquirer's circulation fell 7.5 percent in six months, the second-largest drop among the country's top 25 daily papers.

Still, union members say they find the company's proposals to cut costs at the expense of its employees unacceptable.

In a meeting last week, the Guild voted overwhelmingly to strike if a fair contract could not be negotiated.

Stu Bykofsky, a spokesman for the Guild and a Daily News columnist, said these two measures are "an attack on present and future security."

"A pension gives you dignity after you retire," Bykofsky said. "You can live with dignity and not eat cat food."

Picketers wearing signs bearing their demands for job security, retirement security and a fair contract cheered speakers who addressed the need for fair collective bargaining.

Patrick Eiding - president of the Philadelphia Council of the AFL-CIO, which represents 120 labor unions in the area - gave the marchers the full support of the labor movement and sent a message to the company.

"If you beat them down, you'll go down with it!" Eiding said.

Henry Holcomb, the president of the Guild and an Inquirer reporter, told picketers that, though they were working hard to reach an agreement, they would strike if necessary.

"We are going to be leaders in our own industry," Holcomb said. "We are willing to back our leadership, even if it means going on strike."

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