Profile of Gannett

Gannett Co. Inc.was founded in 1906 by Frank E. Gannett. It was incorporated in 1923 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967. Its 265 million shares of common stock are held by some 13,700 shareholders. Employees: 51,500 2001 operating revenues: $6,344 million 2001 total assets: $13,096 million Locations of holdings: 43 states and the District of Columbia; the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong and Guam Operations: Newspapers: 95 dailies in the United States, including USA TODAY, with a combined paid circulation of 7.7 million, and non-daily publications, including USA WEEKEND. In the United Kingdom, Gannett owns Newsquest plc, the largest regional publisher in England with more than 300 titles, including 15 daily newspapers and a broad range of non-dailies. Broadcasting: 22 television stations covering 17.7 percent of the United States. Internet: More than 100 websites in the United States and United Kingdom, including USATODAY.com Other operations: Gannett News Service; Gannett Retail Advertising Group; Gannett TeleMarketing Inc.; Gannett New Business and Product Development; Gannett Direct Marketing Services; Gannett Offset, a commercial printing operation; Gannett Media Technologies International; and Telematch, a database marketing company.

No matter how large and profitable Gannett Co. Inc. becomes, it still can't seem to resist trying to squeeze every last drop from its employees.

Thanks to those employees, Gannett has become a multimedia giant. Its $6.3 billion in revenues in 2001 were taken from its 95 daily U.S. papers, USA TODAY, USA WEEKEND, 22 television stations, more than 100 web sites, a news service and many other holdings [see box]. In addition, Gannett has expanded its operations to the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, and Guam.

GCIU members remember well Gannett's anti-union actions in Detroit, where the company, along with its joint operating partner Knight Ridder, forced six local unions, including GCIU locals 13N and 289M, out on strike and then locked them out for more than five years – a strategy which, according to reports, eventually cost them more than $40 million a year in profits primarily due to the loss of advertising and subscription revenues.

Gannett's Detroit News operates in a major market, but the company has taken no fewer anti-union pains in smaller markets.

The latest example involves 40 pressmen at Gannett's Ft. Myers [Fla.] News Press. The pressmen, who have a long contract history with the company, won an organizing victory among a tag-end group of 10 people in the pressroom, International Organizer Robert J. Robinson reported.

However, the company refused to bargain in good faith with the newly organized group. So Robinson helped the pressmen organize a unit of drivers at the newspaper.

The drivers had tried to organize last year but were gulled by the company's promises during the organizing campaign and voted no. With the promises unfulfilled, the drivers this time, after a three-month campaign, overwhelmingly chose the GCIU to represent them despite threats and intimidation from the company.

With the drivers, Gannett not only refused to bargain in good faith; it announced plans to contract out the newly union drivers' jobs, said GCIU Organizing Coordinator Bert Haft.

"After failing at its own vicious, anti-union campaign," Haft said, "Gannett's response was to farm out their jobs to non-union drivers at the Ryder Co."

Haft said Gannett's actions in Ft. Myers are provoking the same kind of labor and community outrage that prevailed during the Detroit contract dispute. He said the AFL-CIO is looking at possible "street heat" and other actions against Gannett in the Ft. Myers area.

While the company stalled in bargaining, Robinson and the Ft. Myers pressmen sought to organize mailers at the News Press. But the mailers were afraid after Gannett threatened the drivers jobs and the union did not get a majority of the mailers' votes, Haft said.

Meanwhile, back in Detroit, Gannett's News and Knight Ridder's Free Press have not recaptured the substantial circulation they lost during the strike and lockout.

Local 13N Pres. Jack Howe reported at the North American Newspaper Conference that the companies appealed to Detroit-area GCIU, Teamsters, and Communications Workers leaders for help in getting back subscriptions.

Howe said the unions in the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions agreed, and the Michigan State AFL-CIO sent letters to union members, urging them to resubscribe to the newspapers. After only a week, he said, the unions received 4,000 subscription cards.

The Detroit unions aren't taking it for granted that Gannett will show its gratitude for union members' help during the next round of contract negotiations. All the subscription forms are first returned to the unions, Howe said. The unions in turn are photocopying the subscription forms before turning them over to the newspapers.

"The purpose of the recirculation program," Howe said, "is to be able to increase circulation for the newspapers while controlling that circulation through the unions. So, when we get into bargaining in the future, we'll have some leverage."

GCIU Organizer Robert J. Robinson, right, congratulates Jack Furlong on the victory among drivers at the Ft. Myers News Press. Robinson credited members-at-large William Sunday, Glenn Lewis, and Charles Oliver of the press unit for their assistance and the strong job by the drivers' unit committee: Jack Furlong, Bruce Dewitt; Jesus Medina, Darrell Howell, and Pete Mcphee. From left are: Sunday, Oliver, Lewis, Furlong, Howell, Mcphee, Dewitt, Robinson, and Medina.