Photos by Susan Zachem

At the newspaper conference, from left are: Philadelphia 16N Bus. Mgr./Secy.-Treas. Joe Inemer; Richard J. Whitworth, executive assistant to the GCIU president; and Pres. Ralph Meers and Secy.-Treas. James Parker, Atlanta 527S.

Newspaper management around the United States apparently is choosing to ignore Newton's third law of motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

According to reports from delegates at the North American Newspaper Conference (NANC) in New York City, management at many of the large newspaper chains is pursuing a policy of forcing grievances and arbitrations over minor issues.

Noting that the policy seems counterproductive to what should be a major management interest of smooth production flow, John Laspina, secretary-treasurer of Nassau County 406C, said his local at Tribune-owned Newsday is "experiencing a significant number of grievances. . . . They have forced the local to file on issues that at one time were cleared up in the foreman's office. . . ."

Laspina said that consequently the local had to file several unfair labor practice charges against the company for non-compliance with the contract.

"We went out of our way to try to make peace and try to make them understand that we've been in existence for 50 some years and we're more than willing to sit down and negotiate and talk things out. But if you're going to take this kind of position, there's no choice but to do what we have to do," Laspina said.

Phoenix 58M Pres. David Laurenzi said that at Gannett's Phoenix Sun "differences that used to be straightened out with a phone call or a fast meeting have to go through the grievance procedure to arbitration."

Paul Garcia, Los Angeles 404M president, joined other delegates in reporting similar management behavior. "I've experienced that a lot," he said. He said his local tracked down the new policy and found that it seemed to come from anti-union seminars run by a Printing Industries of America (PIA) attorney.

On the good news front, delegates praised the coordinated bargaining program for Dow Jones and its Wall Street Journal plants and the Quebecor organizing and bargaining program in the United States and Canada.

Hugh Tague, left, and Vice Pres. Lawrence Manziano, right, of Newark 8N pause with Hugh Scott of the Amal- gamated Bank of New York.

The Dow Jones program that involved eight GCIU locals was led by International Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez and Rep. Joseph M. O'Connor. The locals reached a national agreement with the company on basic issues, such as wages, minimum staffing, and overtime provisions before returning to local negotiations.

Newark 8N Vice Pres. Lawrence Manziano said the coordinated bargaining was instrumental eliminating the company's demand for a two-tier wage and benefit system.

"It was outstanding," said Chicago 7N Pres. John Giannone. He thanked both Martinez and O'Connor. He said O'Connor also helped to negotiate the local's contract with Dow Jones and to get it ratified.

San Francisco 4N Pres. Ed Rosario said the coordinated bargaining program worked so well that he urged that the "GCIU get involved in this same pattern bargaining linking up our common global issues" for other major publishers. Sharing contract information "puts us in a place of strength, so the publisher can't pick one site over the other or lie about contract provisions at other locations," he said.

In the case of Quebecor, British Columbia 525M Pres. Brian Cormier said the coordination of information helped his local to counteract incorrect information that "is coming from the top. . . . It's called communicating—and we're finally communicating," he said. "I think this is the best thing that's happened to the GCIU in a long time."

Another major bargaining-related concern expressed by delegates from U.S. locals is the continuing escalation in health insurance premiums. Many delegates said that with some employers health care was often the only issue on the table.

Delegates also reported an increase in the contracting out or outsourcing of bargaining unit work, mostly to non-union shops. For example, Rosario said, he had a "troubling" incident of outsourcing at the San Francisco Chronicle. He said production management claimed it had no control over the outsourcing because it was being done by the advertising department.

Garcia reported similar problems with the Daily Breeze. He said the company, which also prints The New York Times, notified the local that they are going to subcontract out work for both publications to a nearby non-union printing company.

Other local reports by NANC delegates included: