Union

The guild at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat rejected a proposed 3 percent pay cut 81% to 19 percent Friday.

The Press Democrat and the Petaluma Argus Courier, both owned by NYT Co., are looking to reduce payroll costs by 10%.

Managers took a 5% pay cut that will go into effect Jan. 1, and nonunion employees have already seen their pay dinged three percent. But the PD union argued that the three percent cut was on top of 2.5% cut instituted in March, and a pay freeze through 2011.

A yes vote would have meant a promise from the company that there would be no more layoffs.

"It's unclear as of this writing where the road leads next...," wrote unit leaders on the guild's blog.

flickr: powerbooktrance

Most of the workers quoted in the piece are working as truck drivers, or in manufacturing, or in nursing, but one southern California unit of the Communications Workers of America guild has reported that AT&T is cracking down on bathroom breaks.

"Managers say 'lost time' should equal no more than two hours a month—about five minutes a day. Local 9503 steward Wynter Hawk says managers keep track, letting workers know how much they've used....

"She says, 'Do they think when they get to the end of the month people will just hold it?'

"Stewards are considering a mass pee-in."

We haven't heard any reports of guild-covered journalists being hit with draconian measures such as these...yet.

that's what you get for firing union-covered workers!

The leader of the Catholic Church wrote:

Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church's social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers' associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level.

He also says that unions should stay the heck out of politics, but:
"Civil society [is] the proper setting for their necessary activity of defending and promoting labour, especially on behalf of exploited and unrepresented workers, whose woeful condition is often ignored by the distracted eye of society."

Even if you're not Catholic you can appreciate the Pope's support of the little guy, whom some news organizations have apparently been ignoring lately.

Oh, and btw? In case you were wondering, this is totally an accurate, photojournalistic photo and not a chop. We create our images with long exposures but without digital manipulation, just like Edgar Martins.