Background on the contract dispute

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The Providence Newspaper Guild's view of the dispute with The Providence Journal:

NEGOTIATIONS began Oct. 28, 1999. The current contract expired Feb.1, 2000. The company's "final" offer was rejected Feb. 2-3, 2000 by the union membership in a 354 to 28 vote. Since then, the Guild has modified its proposal several times; the company has failed to make a single positive move, and has refused to returned to the bargaining table since the 19th and last bargaining session on Nov. 14, 2002.

Among the key disputes is the company's refusal offer the Guild parking and pension benefits provided other workers. The company also imposed new medical plans, dropping more flexible and less costly health insurance. The company wants to strip the union of its right to file grievances about changes in a key production department. It has demanded that the union drop pending grievances and arbitration cases in return for signing a new contract. It has taken away one paid holiday and stretched out the time it takes to earn a third vacation week.

After failing to extend the contract beyond Feb. 1, 2000, the company has refused to give the Guild members scheduled pay raises provided other Journal workers. The only raise Guild members have received is a 1.02 percent raise that the Guild won after a two-year arbitration of a dispute about 1999 pay rates - and that was paid this May only after the Guild went to federal court to enforce the arbitrator's "binding'' decision in the case.

THE GUILD believes that its proposals are reasonable. The union is not asking for more than what non-union employees have been given, except we want a contract that protects our right to represent our members. The fight is not over unreasonable union demands, but rather over the company's desire to undermine a reasonable union.

This is the same union, with the same leadership, that successfully reached agreement with the previous management of the newspaper. Instead of working to make the newspaper better and more profitable, the company has decided to devote its resources to battling the union. The union believes that the cost to the Journal to settle on terms the Guild would accept is less than what litigation and government-imposed remedies will cost.

CENSORSHIP is being used by The Journal as a weapon against the Guild, with the newspaper printing only minimal information about the union's issues and the company's misdeeds. This is in contrast to coverage that other media -- the state's smaller newspapers, national trade publications and Rhode Island radio and TV outlets -- have given what they see are legitimate stories. Not only is this a serious breach of journalistic ethics, this censorship corrupts the institution of the newspaper -- the main source of news in Rhode Island -- and undermines public confidence in its impartiality at a time when all media have lost public trust.

AN EXODUS of reporters and editors has weakened the newspaper and demonstrated a crisis of confidence in its future. Initially 40 news staffers left (a total of 56 workers have quit news and advertising departments since mid-1999); by July, 2001, 57 had left news; the buyout claimed another 22 (and 30 in other Guild positions), for a total of 79. In all, in the last 2 1/2 years, at least 122 non-management employees are no longer working at the Journal. Among these names were some of The Journal's most distinguished and promising journalists.

Contact: png@riguild.org