Gannett Honolulu union prepares to strike

I not sure even Gannett has the stomach to fly very many people in from the mainland to break the strike, so they had better be able to scrounge up a bunch of locals if the unions walk. Off the top of my head, and assuming double occupancy, hotel space alone will run $600/week per scab. Food, transportation and incidentals will be around another $300 a week. Guaranteed trips back home every two months (a perk that they'll have to allow for in order to keep the strikebreakers happy) will average at least $1,000.

All told, you're looking at $4,000 a month or more per worker (I'm not factoring in salary because they'll stay on their local payroll; the "home" paper won't be allowed to bring in a replacement). If they have to bring in even 150 bodies, that's $600K a month.

If my intuition is right, that's 40-50 percent of their annual operating profit in Honolulu even before a couple of major advertisers boycott the paper in sympathy to the unions (whose members are their customers). That's a major hit, even by Gannett standards, and will cause them to send out a belt-tightening memo to all of their other papers. And in this day and age, trust me that all of the fat in the rank-and-file and production operations is already gone.

 

It makes little sense to me, but historically newspapers have spent lavishly on breaking unions because, although expensive in the short term, they feel it's worth it. I'd be very surprised if Gannett didn't fly in experienced newspaper people from the mainland, especially since there is another daily in Honolulu that could benefit if the Advertiser falters.

 

Hawaii is a strong union state. Does this strike affect both the Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin?

 

No. Here is the Star-Bulletin story:

http://starbulletin.com/2008/02/18/news/story04.html

 

I was really surprised how paltry the big G's offer is. Hawaii is not a cheap place to live. I'd say screw it, I'm not paying more to work here. I don't see how a company with the number of employees that Gannett has can have such a crappy health insurance plan.

 

Gannett gets away with shit, because they are Gannett. I've worked for three other big media companies and Gannett is, by far, the cheapest and most evil of them all. I used to think the others were bad until I worked for Gannett.

The problem is that Gannett is everywhere, so avoiding them is pretty difficult. And my wife doesn't make enough money to support us both.

 

Easier said than done. If you're in the newspaper biz in Honolulu there aren't a lot of other options. And if you're a local who has never lived off the islands chances are you aren't going to move to the Mainland.

 

Latrell Sprewell should have been made to work for Gannett in Hawaii. How's your family eating now, superstar?

 

There's a whole different upside to having Spre on a Gannett payroll.

(paging Mr. Carlesimo . . . Mr. Carlesimo please pick up the white courtesy phone . . . )

 

Damn! I was ready to apply for one of these sweet strikebreaker jobs until pressmurphy went and spoiled my dream. If you've got to be working for Gannett already, then it ain't worth it.

But I'd gladly make myself available as a strikebreaking journalist as an independent contractor, using vacation and comp time for a couple of paid months in Hawaii.

 

The quickest way out of the business, whether you're trying to get a gig at a union or non-union paper, is to take a job as a scab. That kind of stuff is like herpes. Word gets around and management won't trust you, co-workers won't trust you and sources won't trust you.

 

I'm not sure that's the case. I don't think there was a single replacement worker whose career was negatively impacted by their participation in the Youngstown strike-breaking effort. (In many cases, their career prospects have improved within their company and their paper).

That said, I certainly wouldn't recommend strike-breaking (morally or professionally).

And I think Gannett may have a harder time finding a corporate sugar-daddy to pitch in. The Vindicator was family-owned, and they called their Newhouse buddies to help out. I think the Newhouses contributed more out of anti-union solidarity than anything else. Gannett is a very different animal, culturally, and I think the Newhouse folks might be content to sit back and watch 'em squirm.