In effort to cut costs, head off layoffs, guild for Daily News, Inquirer votes to postpone raise

"Would you be comfortable seeing people losing their jobs?" Diane Mastrull asked a crowded membership meeting of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia last night. "Could you go home at night knowing that was happening?"

Mastrull, an Inquirer reporter and unit chairperson for the Guild, and other union officers appealed to the members to vote for a postponement of a scheduled $25-a-week raise, due Monday, as a cost-cutting measure requested by Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, which owns the Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The members responded, voting 197 to 79 to postpone the raise to Aug. 1, 2009.

Guild Local 10, which represents the newsroom, advertising and clerical employees, is the largest of the company's 11 unions, with 655 members eligible to vote.

In other recent union votes, the Mailers voted to accept the company's request, 110-43, while the Pressmen's Union turned it down, 38-32.

Earlier this month, Teamsters Local 628, the company's second largest union, voted 193-7 to accept the company request.

Bill Ross, Guild administrative officer, said he was glad the membership heeded the advice of the Guild executive board.

"We want to see this company thrive, now and in the future," he said when the ballots had been counted at union headquarters at 1329 Buttonwood St.

The scheduled $25-a-week raise was due in the final year of a three-year contract. Postponing the raise keeps it on the table for future negotiations, Ross said. He said the union will now begin to plan for new contract talks. *

Ross, Mastrull and Neal Goldstein, Guild lawyer and negotiator, had described the union's position to a standing-room-only crowd.

Mastrull might have summed up the union position when she said of the company, "Let's give them a chance."

Mark J. Frisby, Daily News publisher and executive vice president of Philadelphia Media Holdings, said he was "very pleased" with the Guild vote.

"We needed some help and the Guild was willing to help us out," he said. "I'm glad they have enough confidence in what we're doing. We're very appreciative."

In a meeting with the Guild executive board, he said: "We outlined some of the things we're going to do. With help, we can do it."

He said he was disappointed in the Pressmen's vote. At a meeting of the Pressman's executive board, he said he was told the union couldn't do this "unless we gave them something."

"Isn't a job enough?" Frisby asked.

The company is seeking $2.8 million in savings from the unions to help it deal with declining revenue that has afflicted newspapers nationwide with decreases in circulation and advertising revenue, along with rising costs of operation. *