Score another one for the Star Tribune’s management: over the weekend, the paper’s Teamster mailers agreed to job cuts and compensation concessions. Mailers operate the machines that insert ad supplements, and also bundle papers for delivery.
Unlike the Strib pressmen, whose leadership agreed to cuts last week after a bankruptcy judge’s threat, the mailers took their lumps out of court. While the pressmen rank-and-file still must vote on their givebacks, the membership of mailers’ Local 120 narrowly approved the deal, says interplant labor council head Mike Bucsko.
As with the pressmen, no details on the actual terms of the mailers’ deal have been released. (Local 120’s leadership has not returned calls for comments; members, feel free to contact me at dbrauer [at] minnpost.com)
However, in January, the Teamsters for a Democratic Union site reported mailers’ pay would be cut 40 percent, from $25 an hour — about $50,000 a year — to $15 an hour. Bucsko says the deal also includes a so-called “contract re-opener” that mandates new negotiations if the Strib’s revenues fall by a certain amount.
Management has previously announced it would freeze the paper’s pension plan and not offer a 401(k) match, leaving workers to self-fund their retirement. They also want to save money by moving workers from a Teamster-organized health plan to the company’s self-insured plan. However, labor is understandably furious about being tossed into a health plan backed by a bankrupt company.
Meanwhile, officials of the newsroom’s Newspaper Guild say management has not yet presented them with a specific concessions demand. The paper’s creditors have to give unions until April 13 to agree to the cuts, or they will ask the court to prohibit management from spending stored cash to continue operations.
