Post by onthejob on Jan 4, 2012 11:27:22 GMT -5
The honeymoon is over.
Threatened with another round of job cuts and simmering over the loss of retirement benefits, Newsday's 700 union employees have grown wary of the newspaper's new owners, Cablevision Systems Corp., which acquired the daily over the summer.
Union workers have not received retirement benefits since 2007, when Sam Zell took over Tribune Co., which owned Newsday. But when Newsday was sold to Cablevision, it became the responsibility of the Dolan Family and Local 406 to cut a pension deal. That hasn't happened.
At the same time, non-union workers continue to receive a 5 percent match on their retirement accounts.
According to their contract with Newsday, the newspaper union must renegotiate retirement benefits with each new owner.
So far, talks between Cablevision and Local 406 of the Graphic Communications Conference, a division of the Teamsters Union, which represents print shop, delivery and editorial workers, have gone nowhere.
One Newsday staffer said "weak language" in the union's contract precipitated the pension problem, but ownership could have "acted in good faith" to make it right. Instead, the staffer said, there is a "level of antagonism" from ownership.
"There was a lot of hope when Cablevision took over," the employee said. "Now there's uncertainty."
Local 406 President Mike O'Connor said Newsday management has been "crying the blues" about the economy during recent negotiations and told him there might be more layoffs at the newspaper before the end of the year.
Newsday has already axed more than 150 employees this spring, before Tribune Co. sold the newspaper to Cablevision.
"They said they've got to try to find the money," O'Connor said.
Newsday reported it earned nearly $90 million last year on revenue of about $500 million.
Newsday issued this statement on the pension impasse: "As ruled by arbitration earlier this year, the provision of retirement benefits must be negotiated by the union on behalf of its members, and we are engaged in discussions with them on this topic right now."
Cablevision bought Newsday for $650 million from Zell, a Chicago-based financier, after cable mogul Charles Dolan easily outbid Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman by $70 million. Zell had acquired Tribune, which includes Newsday, The Hartford Courant, Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, for about $8 billion in 2007.
In its purchase, Cablevision took control of Newsday's print, online and affiliated publications. Tribune Co. held onto Newsday's real estate and printing facilities, which were valued at about $20 million.
According to a Newsday report, the deal was financed with $650 million in bonds underwritten by Bank of America. Tribune Co. received $612 million in cash and $18 million in rent payments from Cablevision.
Cablevision serves about 3 million homes in the New York metropolitan area. The company also owns Madison Square Garden and its sports teams, the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. Cablevision also operates Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Chicago Theatre, and owns and operates Clearview Cinemas.
Local 406 represents 2,000 full- and part-time workers throughout the Island.
Credit: David Winzelberg
Threatened with another round of job cuts and simmering over the loss of retirement benefits, Newsday's 700 union employees have grown wary of the newspaper's new owners, Cablevision Systems Corp., which acquired the daily over the summer.
Union workers have not received retirement benefits since 2007, when Sam Zell took over Tribune Co., which owned Newsday. But when Newsday was sold to Cablevision, it became the responsibility of the Dolan Family and Local 406 to cut a pension deal. That hasn't happened.
At the same time, non-union workers continue to receive a 5 percent match on their retirement accounts.
According to their contract with Newsday, the newspaper union must renegotiate retirement benefits with each new owner.
So far, talks between Cablevision and Local 406 of the Graphic Communications Conference, a division of the Teamsters Union, which represents print shop, delivery and editorial workers, have gone nowhere.
One Newsday staffer said "weak language" in the union's contract precipitated the pension problem, but ownership could have "acted in good faith" to make it right. Instead, the staffer said, there is a "level of antagonism" from ownership.
"There was a lot of hope when Cablevision took over," the employee said. "Now there's uncertainty."
Local 406 President Mike O'Connor said Newsday management has been "crying the blues" about the economy during recent negotiations and told him there might be more layoffs at the newspaper before the end of the year.
Newsday has already axed more than 150 employees this spring, before Tribune Co. sold the newspaper to Cablevision.
"They said they've got to try to find the money," O'Connor said.
Newsday reported it earned nearly $90 million last year on revenue of about $500 million.
Newsday issued this statement on the pension impasse: "As ruled by arbitration earlier this year, the provision of retirement benefits must be negotiated by the union on behalf of its members, and we are engaged in discussions with them on this topic right now."
Cablevision bought Newsday for $650 million from Zell, a Chicago-based financier, after cable mogul Charles Dolan easily outbid Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman by $70 million. Zell had acquired Tribune, which includes Newsday, The Hartford Courant, Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, for about $8 billion in 2007.
In its purchase, Cablevision took control of Newsday's print, online and affiliated publications. Tribune Co. held onto Newsday's real estate and printing facilities, which were valued at about $20 million.
According to a Newsday report, the deal was financed with $650 million in bonds underwritten by Bank of America. Tribune Co. received $612 million in cash and $18 million in rent payments from Cablevision.
Cablevision serves about 3 million homes in the New York metropolitan area. The company also owns Madison Square Garden and its sports teams, the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. Cablevision also operates Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Chicago Theatre, and owns and operates Clearview Cinemas.
Local 406 represents 2,000 full- and part-time workers throughout the Island.
Credit: David Winzelberg
"They said they've got to try to find the money," O'Connor said.
Newsday reported it earned nearly $90 million last year on revenue of about $500 million.
Newsday reported it earned nearly $90 million last year on revenue of about $500 million.
