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Star-Ledger N.J.: buyout of 200 or bust

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by inkfingers, Jul 31, 2008.

  1. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Paulie's driving again? I thought after he tore up his buddy's lawn that he was going to get a driver.
     
  2. FileNotFound

    FileNotFound Well-Known Member

    So they're threatening to sell the paper. Who the hell would buy it, in this environment?
     
  3. goalmouth

    goalmouth Well-Known Member

    Don't fret for Si Newhouse. He's got a major daily serving the richest suburbs in the western hemisphere. It would sell in a matter of days.

    (Disclaimer: The S-L wouldn't be the first NYC metro paper to be shut down by intransigent union leadership.)
     
  4. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    This would be awful if it comes to this. The Star-Ledger hasn't been a model product, but it covers a wide territory and has always done so quite well.
     
  5. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Drivers don't care who owns the paper. As long as someone is printing one, they'll be driving. Why re-negotiate downward?

    Strikes me as infantile to threaten to shut down the place. If the operation is making even modest profits, can't see ownership just pulling plug -- and drivers have to know that.

    Then again, I can't imagine anyone in his right mind buying a major newspaper unless he has ability to just write a check for the total.
     
  6. trifectarich

    trifectarich Well-Known Member

    Why negotiate downward? Because the alternative is having no paycheck at all. What part of the question is too difficult to comprehend?
     
  7. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Agreed. I wasn't backing that position, I was just working it through from their point of view. Drivers probably are a lot less spooked about the state of the news business than journalists, rightly or wrongly. They have decades of muscle, relatively speaking, compared to writers and editors and their "negotiating" power.
     
  8. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Newhouse strong-armed the drivers once -- about 15 years ago, I believe -- by threatening to bring in drivers from New Orleans and other places to take their jobs if they didn't make a deal.
    As I recall, the scab drivers and a secutiry force, were sitting in hotel rooms in Newark on a Saturday with the union contract about to expire at midnight Sunday. The drivers settled very quickly.

    This is just another strong-arm ploy. There is no way the Newhouses are folding or selling their flagship newspaper...NO F-ING WAY!
     
  9. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    Back then, were the drivers able to settle quickly and have a ratification vote before the deadline?

    A part of me wants to think that its a negotiating ploy, but the part of the memo that says they're sending the notices as required by law has me second-guessing that theory. The unions know labor laws and would call the Newhouses on the bluff if they were sending the notices much earlier than the law requires.

    Here's to hoping they reach a last minute settlement.
     
  10. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    And the drivers know it. So it might be another episode of "Unleash the scabs!"

    How do the union folks here on this board feel about that? Would you honor the drivers' picket line and hate the scabs? Or would you just be glad to still be working? I'm just asking.
     
  11. using "scab" labor in jersey is not the smartest move.
     
  12. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    It won't be a case of bringing in scabs.
    I think it will be a case of the Newhouses following through on their threats.
     
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