Guild asks Par Ridder to quit 108-2

By Matt McKinney, Star Tribune
The union representing the Star Tribune's newsroom called Tuesday for the resignation of Publisher Par Ridder.

Ridder is being sued by the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which alleges that he took confidential information and a file of noncompete agreements, including his own, from the St. Paul paper, his former employer. Ridder has acknowledged taking the information but says it was not used to harm the Pioneer Press. He also argues that the noncompete agreements were not valid.

About 110 members of the Star Tribune's Newspaper Guild/Typographical Union, about a third of the union's 320-person membership, attended a meeting to vote on the resolution, which said Ridder has damaged the newspaper's credibility.

"People don't take us as seriously," said reporter Dan Browning, calling Ridder's actions "corrosive" to the newspaper's reputation.

Two union members voted against the resolution.

The symbolic vote was dismissed by Star Tribune Chairman Chris Harte.

"This vote is merely union posturing, and it changes nothing," he said in a statement shortly after the vote. "As I have said before, the Guild does not get to decide who is publisher of the Star Tribune. Avista has full confidence in Par Ridder."

Avista Capital Partners owns the Star Tribune.