Toledo Newspaper Guild Administrative Officer Lillian Covarrubias wrote in a letter to guild members on May 15 that a Blade employee strike authorization vote will take place on May 16 from 12-5 p.m.

Covarrubias added that guild members, their family and friends were invited to a “rally/parade” on May 17 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. to protest proposed employee outsourcing by marching around The Blade.

“Members should take no comfort if their job is spared,” Covarrubias wrote. “Without other Unions here to support us, who can predict what will happen next?

It cannot [be] stressed enough how important it is to have people show up for this. Take some time and march.”

Covarrubias confirmed last week that The Blade intends to post a WARN Act notice, which could result in the outsourcing of the production of the paper. As of May 16, there has yet to be a WARN Act posted, which gives employees a 60-day notice of either closings or “mass layoffs.”

In a press release, Covarrubias said that after the unions offered more than $7 million in concessions, The Blade is threatening to get rid of more than 190 employees by outsourcing unless the workers give up $2 million more. She said that the unionized workers absorbed $11 million in cutbacks in 2007, which after these newest cutbacks would reduce wages in some cases by 40 percent since 2007.

The press release, titled “Blade Outsourcing Plan Shames Blocks,” claims the Block family, which own The Blade, is committing actions that “are a betrayal of the trust of the community.”

“This is a paper that has decried the flow of jobs out of the City and encouraged the concept of Buy Local,” Covarrubias wrote. “The Blade simply does not practice what it preaches.”

A message seeking comment was left for Blade President and General Manager Joseph Zerbey on May 16.

Covarrubias also asserted that the lockout of about 200 workers for nearly nine months in 2006 “caused irreparable damage to The Blade’s reader and advertiser base” and plans of outsourcing “will only further alienate readers and advertisers.”

Tags: Blade, Joe Zerbey, Lillian Covarrubias, Media

This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2011 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Community, Media.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

PREVIOUS STORY: Blade seeks cuts in union jobs, wages, benefits

Progress on labor negotiations between The Blade and its unions stalled May 9.

Toledo Newspaper Guild Administrative Officer Lillian Covarrubias confirmed that The Blade intends to post a WARN Act notice, which could culminate in the outsourcing of the production of the paper. WARN is designed to protect workers by requiring employers to provide 60-day notices of either closings or “mass layoffs.”

The Toledo Council of Newspaper Unions offered $7.2 million in concessions but Blade negotiators demanded at least $8.8 million, Covarrubias said. The Blade has also insisted on a 15 percent wage reduction and for employees to pay 33 percent of insurance premium costs.

In a letter to guild members on May 10, Covarrubias questioned The Blade’s spending habits and their effect on current and future employees.

“The savings that the Unions proposed was not enough says the company,” Covarrubias wrote. “But the company does have money to send an entourage of advertising mgt., their spouses and advertising clients to Napa Valley, rent a flat in London for the Royal Wedding, sponsor the Toledo Symphony at Carnegie event, and last year’s 175th anniversary bash. I’d be the first one to say that the company should be allowed to spend its profit how they wish. But according to the company they did not make a profit in 2010 and are on track to lose untold millions this year. So how do they justify their lavish spending habits?! And unless those habits and the way they manage the company changes — all of our past and future givebacks won’t make them profitable.”

Covarrubias said The Blade has now set into motion its “Plan B” proposals to the unions, which it has “threatened to enact since the start of negotiations.” Covarrubias described The Blade’s stance on the negotiations as “beyond unreasonable” and wrote that they gave the union two choices: “Take ‘Plan A,’ or suffer the consequences of ‘Plan B.’”

“The company is being unfair and not negotiating in good faith,” Covarrubias wrote. “Its refusal to move off of such issues as wage cuts and employee insurance premium costs makes it appear to the Council that the company never was interested in getting a deal other than its own.

“We are left with the distinct feeling that we never have heard the full story about why the Blade is taking such a hard line and insisting on cutting employees to the bone.”

A message seeking comment was left for Blade President and General Manager Joseph Zerbey on May 11. In a May 12 Blade report, Zerbey was quoted as saying of Covarrubias’ comments, “What she said happened was taken out of context, her comments were inaccurate, and most of them were, quite frankly, patently false.”

In 2006, The Blade locked out about 200 workers for nearly nine months. The Blade reported on Dec. 23, 2006 that, “The National Labor Relations Board’s regional office in Cleveland said yesterday it has concluded that The Blade’s lockout of more than 200 unionized workers is illegal.”

Covarrubias said the unions will meet on May 11-12 to discuss their next step and make a public statement afterwards.

Tags: Blade, Joseph Zerbey, Lillian Covarrubias, Luann Sharp, Toledo Council of Newspaper Unions, Toledo Newspaper Guild

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 at 11:58 am and is filed under Community, Media.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.