Judge rules for retired printers over BJ health care changes

The Akron Beacon Journal today was ordered to restore retired printers’ health care benefits to retirement-day levels by U.S. Federal District Judge David Dowd in Akron.

The preliminary injunction also ordered the Beacon Journal to reimburse plaintiffs named in the lawsuit for the difference between what the BJ paid and what should have been paid since their retirements.

In a September 2009 lawsuit, the retired printers charged the BJ with a “bait-and-switch” tactic by getting them to take early retirements by promising health care benefits in exchange for the printers giving up their lifetime jobs guarantees and then altering the benefits later.

The lawsuit is labeled “White, et al. v. Akron Beacon Publishing Co., et al.” The “White” is for David and Gina White, former BJ Composing employees who live in Venice, Florida. Others immediately affected by the injunction are former printers and their spouses Hugh and Sharon Downing of The Villages, Fla., and Ruth and Thomas West of Rittman.

When the lawsuit was filed, the Plain Dealer quoted Regina White as saying that the family's out-of-pocket medical costs went from $100 to $6,000 a year when the BJ, by then owned by Black Press of Canada, decreased benefits for International Typographical Union and Guild retirees. The Guild contracts cover both newsroom and maintenance retirees.

The Communications Workers of America, Local 14514, successor to the ITU, joined the lawsuit. Attorneys for the printers are Subodh Chandra and Don Screen of the Chandra Law Firm of Cleveland and Allen Anderson and
Kenneth Petterson of Smith & Johnson in Traverse City, Michigan.

In a press release issued by his firm, Chandra said, “Having cold-heartedly broken promises to these retirees and now been called on it by a federal judge, one would hope that the Akron Beacon Journal would now simply accept responsibility, comply with the order, and not do it again. We suspect, however, that they will continue to drag out this dispute with appeals hoping that the retirees will just die or go away.”