Gannett, which has a longstanding, anti-union history, is creating some tension in the Detroit Free Press newsroom.
Anna Clark writes in Columbia Journalism Review that in late August, Gannett announced it was offering a voluntary buyout plans to staffers in the company 55 and over with at least 15 years service. It amounted to about a year’s pay for a 25-year veteran. Gannett owns television stations and newspapers around the country including USA Today.
But things have gotten messy at the Free Press, which is owned by Gannett, CJR reports.
CJR reports that when the Newspaper Guild , which represents the newsroom bargaining unit, tried to bargain over the terms of the buyout, Gannett withdrew the offer within 24 hours.
That has frustrated some staffers, CJR reports.
“What you folks have now accomplished is this—those who want to leave will be forced to stay, while younger, new employees will soon be forced out,” says reporter L.L. Brasier wrote to Gallagher and two other Guild leaders on August 29, shortly after the offer was withdrawn, CJR reports. “How that benefits ANYBODY is beyond me. You can blame the company all you want, but if you had simply signed off… employees could have addressed the questions you mention … and made their own decisions. If the offer was so bad, we could have all walked away. Now we have no say in the matter. And for that, I remain angry. I am stuck, while Gannett employees around the nation are walking away with buyouts.”
John Gallagher, president of the Newspaper Guild of Detroit and a Free Press reporter, wrote via email to CJR
“The Guild, as is our duty, raised questions about whether retiree health care would apply to folks taking the buyout and similar issues. ":The company refused to meet on those issues and immediately withdrew the plan instead.”
Lou Grieco, the Guild’s administrative officer, said frustration is what the company is “counting on," according to CJR.
“That way,” he wrote in an email to Freep Guild members, “they hope to get us [on] a very slippery slope toward ‘standard’ benefits (with non-organized newsrooms.) The Guild will protect the right and duty to bargain.”
CJR reports that It’s unclear at this point what will happen next.
