Not all of the 524 full-time BJ employees attended a meeting at the Akron Summit-County Public Library on Monday evening to learn more about a Guild-backed proposal to buy the 12 left out newspapers in the Knight Ridder sale.But Darren Carroll, a sector representative of the Guild, answered questions for 75 minutes about the proposal which has been discussed in previous blog posts. Carroll admitted he did not have all the answers.
The question he answered with stark reality was what will happen when a new owner takes over one of the newspapers. There are three possibilies, he said.
1. The new owner announces he will accept and abide by the bargaining agreement in force.
2. The new owner says he will not accept the contract, but is willing to negotiate a new one.
3. The new owner tells all current employees they must re-apply for the jobs they hold and agree to certain pay and benefits.
Retirees face a somewhat better prospect. The government apparently will guarantee pensions, but health benefits will be up to the new owner.
John Logue, director of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University who attended the session, said that the plan by Ron Burkle's "worker friendly" Yucaipa Cos. to offer employees a chance to invest in the new company were not unique. He said Ohio has 435 empoyee-owned companies. Among newspapers at least partially owned by employees is the Milwaukee (WI) Journal-Sentinel.
Firms in addition to Yucapia expected to submit bids today include MediaNews Group, Gannett and Lee Enterprises.
County Council member Tom Teodosio announced during the meeting that the Summit County Council had met in special session and unanimously approved the resolution posted below. Council member Tim Crawford was also at the session as was Tom Sawyer who is in a race of 8 Republicans and 9 Democrats for the 13th Congressional District seat.
There will be another session at noon on Tuesday at the library and there also will be a Save the Beacon rally on the High Street side of the Beacon Journal at 6 that evening. The rally is being billed as a community event and not sponsored by the Guild. The Beacon Journal printed a staff report on the council resolution on page B5 on Tuesday, but did not mention the meeting at the library.
1 comment:
The scary part for retirees:
"Retirees face a somewhat better prospect. The government apparently will guarantee pensions, but health benefits will be up to the new owner."
And who thinks the new owner, unless it is a Guild-driven owner, will concern itself with adequate medical coverage for retirees who never worked for the new owner?
Heck, Tony Ridder has backed away from aiding retirees via medical coverage, kicking the in-network out-of-pocket limit from $300 to $2,000 every year.
Medicare is rapidly becoming the only true medical coverage for BJ Guild retirees, and other groups. United Health Care, KR's medical vendor, just sends out notifications of benefits that have the same payout by UHC: $0.00.
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