Holy Toledo! Strike at the Blade?

Strike authorized by Guild members Friday.

Toledo Newspaper Guild members voted overwhelmingly today to authorize a strike at The Blade. | The Newspaper Guild

And of course there's a Facebook page.

Toledo Deserves A Great Newspaper | Facebook

 

Fourteen years without a raise.

If anyone is still there, that isn't the company's fault.

 

They're not getting one now, either. Might lose their jobs though.

 

I left in January....lots of people have bailed on that place. Good people, some terrible people at the top of management.
The saga continues....nothing though since the strike authorization vote.

 

Will this make Toledo a no-newspaper town?

 

Things didn't really start going to hell in this business until 8-9 years ago.

What on earth was the union doing from 2002-2007?

 

I recall them paying moderately well when I interviewed a few years ago. Granted I wasn't making good money at the time.

I also remember them swearing up and down they'd call to tell me if I didn't get the job. Really hammered that point home. I found out I didn't get it from a producer posting on here. I don't expect a callback because of this business, but that seemed pretty odd.

 

That's happened to most of us a few times, I'll bet. ... Once I called a managing editor back after waiting a fucking month to get that phone call he promised, and he said: "Oh, you didn't get the job. I was just about to call you."

I tried to yank his head through the phone line, but it didn't work.

 

Never worked in that newsroom but know plenty about the paper. They used to pay really, really well. Something like mid-$50s for top minimum scale. "Golden handcuffs," some people called it. And then the guild signed a contract sometime in the 2000s that slashed the scale for new employees in exchange for promises of job security. Now I think the top minimum scale is low-$40s.

 

I guess I've been lucky to some extent because I've always gotten a phone call back either offering a job or telling me I didn't make it.

Now, I believe times have changed and people have changed too. Email, texting, ect. has made a lot of people very lazy, so lazy they won't even pick up a phone and make a call. Pretty sad that some people are that lazy. Others, however, have a real hard time telling people "no" because they fear confrontation.

For me, I've never had a problem telling someone why I did or didn't hire them. I always called them back and explained why so that they could use that information to better themselves and have a better chance in their next interview. Every person I've talked to that way has seemed to genuinely appreciate it. My rule is to treat others as you would want to be treated in this situation. Unfortunately, a lot of people doing the hiring these days are either lazy or just don't have the balls.

 

Well, for part of that time, it was looking over its shoulder. At one point, they'd locked out every union but the Guild.

I once found out I didn't get a job -- after I'd done a second interview; it was down to me and another candidate -- by reading about the new hire in the paper.

 

Interviewed for an SE gig in South Dakota in the summer of 2015. Got to have a nice four-day weekend out there. Everyone was so friendly.

Then I find out the paper hired a new SE via Twitter. The new SE was sympathetic to what happened to me, because it'd also happened to her once.