This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about current events, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, politics, anything else that grabs my attention. Take a look around this blog, hope you enjoy it.
Not only is McClatchy slow to respond to our fast-changing society and business models, but the guild is equally slow. Why does it take two weeks to get a vote together? The answer is the same: They're still playing the game like it's 1960. The guild is beyond inept.
This could have been handled in one day. Call a meeting, get a show of hands or do it secret ballot and announce the results that day. Guess these idiots have to make a big production out of an obvious vote outcome. No wonder the company can't keep a straight face when they talk about the guild.
Is there really a need for guild's today? With McClatchy holding all the cards what benefit do you get from your outrageously priced monthly dues? There's no job security and the company cuts benefits and wages as they see fit. Why pay $1,000 a year in guild dues for virtually no benefit?
10:17... great points. I can see unions in the traditional blue collar sector. However guilds, where most of the members are white collar college graduates, do not make a lot of sense.
When you have to deal with contracts and archaic rules it is very difficult for newspapers (or any industry) to respond quickly to changing events. It makes it difficult to experiment with different solutions and hard to implement creative policies and procedures.
Does anyone really think Herb Caen needed a union in his day or Dave Berry needs one now. If you are a talented college graduate you don't need a union representative to speak for you. All the guild accomplishes is protecting the less skilled at the expense of the more skilled.
Unions are more about protecting the incompetent than representing the truly creative and skilled member.
This sentence: "Unions are more about protecting the incompetent than representing the truly creative and skilled member" is the definition of California's SEIU. Those would be the fat, ignorant stooges wearing purple T-shirts who protested during California's budget meltdown.
Newspaper guilds are just embarrassing themselves and deluding members. Their day passed two decades ago but, like print journalism, they still haven't figured it out.
The Sacramento unit of the Newspaper Guild has been pretty effective in winning some gains for its people in a dire situation. Severance pay is a good example. In Gannett's recent layoffs, people got one week of severance per year. And Gannett used the employee's unemployment benefit as part of that, justing "topping off" to equal the pay. At the Sacramento Bee, folks got two weeks per year, plus unemployment, plus two months pay under the WARN Act. Also, Guild members were able to have some control of their own destiny. They voted to take a pay cut to save nearly a dozen coworkers' job.
13 comments:
Not only is McClatchy slow to respond to our fast-changing society and business models, but the guild is equally slow. Why does it take two weeks to get a vote together? The answer is the same: They're still playing the game like it's 1960. The guild is beyond inept.
Gee, I wonder how this will turn out?
This could have been handled in one day. Call a meeting, get a show of hands or do it secret ballot and announce the results that day. Guess these idiots have to make a big production out of an obvious vote outcome. No wonder the company can't keep a straight face when they talk about the guild.
It shouldn't take long because there's probably only 5 or 6 members current on their dues.
The funny part is, they won't even offer the President or Executive Board management jobs for selling out their brothers like they used too.
A total lack of respect. Vote for this and we're going to blame it on you!
"Yes sir, will you please not fire me?"
Newspaper union don't bargain these days, they beg.
Is there really a need for guild's today? With McClatchy holding all the cards what benefit do you get from your outrageously priced monthly dues? There's no job security and the company cuts benefits and wages as they see fit. Why pay $1,000 a year in guild dues for virtually no benefit?
TNG is just another example of a legacy organization passed-by so quickly that it's obituary missed deadline.
10:17... great points. I can see unions in the traditional blue collar sector. However guilds, where most of the members are white collar college graduates, do not make a lot of sense.
When you have to deal with contracts and archaic rules it is very difficult for newspapers (or any industry) to respond quickly to changing events. It makes it difficult to experiment with different solutions and hard to implement creative policies and procedures.
Does anyone really think Herb Caen needed a union in his day or Dave Berry needs one now. If you are a talented college graduate you don't need a union representative to speak for you. All the guild accomplishes is protecting the less skilled at the expense of the more skilled.
Unions are more about protecting the incompetent than representing the truly creative and skilled member.
This sentence: "Unions are more about protecting the incompetent than representing the truly creative and skilled member" is the definition of California's SEIU. Those would be the fat, ignorant stooges wearing purple T-shirts who protested during California's budget meltdown.
Anon 12:28/12:45 Thank you!. Amen Brother!
Newspaper guilds are just embarrassing themselves and deluding members. Their day passed two decades ago but, like print journalism, they still haven't figured it out.
The Sacramento unit of the Newspaper Guild has been pretty effective in winning some gains for its people in a dire situation. Severance pay is a good example. In Gannett's recent layoffs, people got one week of severance per year. And Gannett used the employee's unemployment benefit as part of that, justing "topping off" to equal the pay. At the Sacramento Bee, folks got two weeks per year, plus unemployment, plus two months pay under the WARN Act. Also, Guild members were able to have some control of their own destiny. They voted to take a pay cut to save nearly a dozen coworkers' job.
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