A response to George Hearst’s latest letter

Guild members are asking many questions about the company’s proposal and what would happen if we vote it down and an impasse is declared. We will be providing you with detailed answers next week as well as a complete response to the publisher’s latest email.We are also discussing whether it would be helpful to have a membership meeting in advance of the vote so that people could get their questions answered.

We do want to make a couple of quick responses to what George has said today. First, it is absolutely true that no other newspaper union has been asked to give up all protections against outsourcing, not even in San Francisco. It is also true – and George does not rebut this – that no other union in the plant has been asked to surrender seniority and allow any of their jobs to be outsourced.

George also states that the launch of magazines has created new jobs here.  The only new jobs created were two exempt positions. When the union filed a grievance, the company moved one existing employee into a part time position. All of the magazines are entirely written by freelance writers.

George also states, regarding outsourcing, “that certain areas would be more efficiently handled elsewhere.” The company has refused to provide us any information on what jobs or how many would be handled elsewhere and it has set absolutely no limits on the number of positions it could outsource. Again, no other union in the plant has been asked to agree to such language.

Next week, we intend to get all of you a copy of all of the language being proposed so you can review it all for yourselves.