Corporate Tyranny: Gannett Attempts to Quash Labor Struggle at Democrat and Chronicle

On December 1st, the Newspaper Guild of Rochester voted 51 to 4 against the Democrat and Chronicle’s “final, firm and best” offer in a recent exchange in the 14 year old labor struggle.

In response to the vote, Gannett Corporation, the owner of the D&C, sent the union a letter on December 6th, in which Wendell Van Lare, Gannett's senior vice president for labor relations, stated that, “it is the Company’s view that we are at a good faith bargaining impasse,” and further that because of this “good faith impasse”, as the company calls it, they will “implement such portions of the final, firm and best offer as we deem appropriate,” by January 1st, 2007. The company stated it would decline further negotiations.

In the Guild’s newsletter there was a response to the Gannett letter as reported by Krestia DeGeorge in City Paper:

“We won't recite all of Mr. Van Lare's misstatements and mischaracterizations here; they're too numerous. We can only assume that this letter was written with the idea that his corporate bosses would read it and find favor with what he says. (Must have worked. This week, he, along with some others in Gannett, was rewarded with 2,000 shares of Gannett stock for a job well done. Remember that when you're asked to bring your own food to a holiday pot luck next week.)”

It is unclear what the Guild will do now. It may appeal to the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) in an attempt to prove that the company was not negotiating in good faith. It also appears that, according to DeGeorge, a strike seems like an unfeasible option due to the union busting tactics Gannett used against laborers in Detroit.

Feel free to contact the management of the D&C and the owners of Gannett Corporation to express your disgust at the tyrannical actions of this company against its workers.

Additional Information: City Paper coverage by Krestia DeGeorge: The Guild and Gannett (Scroll down) and Gannett Stiffs the D&C Newsroom | Why I Quit the D&C | Rochester Paper's Union Becomes 2nd to Question Gannett's 'Info Center'