Pulitzer Inc. Wants to Cripple and Kill its Largest Union

PostGreed.com ^ | 2003 | Newspaper Guild

[FairWitness]

Anti-Union actions conflict with P-D's editorial philosophy and past stances.

Management's demands would be the first step to breaking the St. Louis Newspaper Guild, which has represented the bulk of Post-Dispatch employees for over 60 years.

Hypocrisy, pure and simple.

  The Post-Dispatch has a long and honorable history of championing the rights of unions and ordinary working people. The newspaper is proud of the support it has given over the decades to the development of the union movement. That is why the newspaper's current position in bargaining with its own employees is so glaringly contrary to its own stated beliefs, and why our union is compelled to accuse management of hypocrisy in its current strategy.

   Unfortunately, union-busting has implications far beyond hypocrisy. The Guild protects newsroom employees from retaliation if they write hard-hitting investigative stories or if they disagree with the editing of their stories. And the Guild protects journalists from retaliation when they point out ethics breaches by management.

Pulitzer management's insistence on these union-busting only serve to fatten corporate profits and destroy the quality and integrity of the Post-Dispatch.

[FairWitness]

I kept hearing adds, run by "The Newspaper Guild" on KMOX (St. Louis) radio, about how the Post-Dispatch was trying to ruin the Union. I finally looked at their web site., from which the brief "article" above is taken. Anyone interested in the Union's side in this argument can read further on the web site

I don't know (or care) much more about it; as the saying goes, "I have no dog in this fight". I understand that as a union/management dispute, neither side's statements should be taken at face value. I just thought that an accusation of hypocrisy against this paper, which loves to blast hypocrisy in others (as they percieve it) was too good to pass up.

Also, it is worth pointing out that this paper (which is allegedly trying to bust the Union) is one of Dick (I never met a Union or Union action I couldn't support) Gephardt's biggest supporters.