Philadelphia newspaper racks will remain full, at least for a bit longer.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News's largest union threatened to strike after midnight Friday, but management and union representatives continued contract negotiations through yesterday.
The Philadelphia Newspaper Guild had threatened to strike when the contract ended Friday. However, both the Guild and Philadelphia Media Holdings - which purchased the papers, the city's two largest dailies, this past June - decided to extend talks held late into the night last Thursday, with each side citing positive developments in negotiations.
The Guild represents more than 900 Inquirer and Daily News employees.
"We made good progress today. Everyone is working diligently," Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney said in a statement after talks were extended. Officials declined to comment further.
The Guild's key objections include the management's proposals to take over pensions and eliminate seniority in layoffs, Guild spokesman Stu Bykofsky said.
Currently, a committee with equal union and management representation administers pensions. The company's contribution to pensions equals 6 percent of an employee's wages.
As a result, Bykofsky said, a company freeze of the contributions would force workers to spend 6 percent of their salary to fund their retirement.
"We don't need anyone tinkering with the administration of pensions. It's fine," he said.
The current contract was set to expire August 31, but was extended to October 31 and then to November 30.
Bykofsky said that the process of unions and management extending negotiations past the expiration of a contract, while at the same time continuing to observe the contract, is not unusual in a potential strike situation.
Philadelphia Media Holdings has said that it will not hire replacement workers in the event of a strike.
Other Philadelphia AFL-CIO unions have expressed overwhelming support for the Guild, said Joe Dougherty, president of PhillyUnions.com, the communications and publicity network for the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO.
If the Guild calls a strike, the Communication Workers of America plans to allow striking reporters to run the stories they write online at PhilaPapers.com. The Web site is up, but does not yet provide stories.
If the workers strike and the two papers are still published, Bykofsky said that the content "will not be The Philadelphia Inquirer. It will not be the Daily News. It will be some kind of imitation."
Bykofsky had no prediction of when the talks may end, but if management moves toward the Guild's position on issues of pension and seniority, he said that negotiations "will be wrapped up pretty quickly.
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