Washington Post - Guild NewsJuly 11, 2002
Later this month, the home delivery price for the weekday-Saturday Washington Post will increase 3 cents a day. It’s a modest hike that certainly won’t break the bank of any subscriber. Over a month’s time, it wouldn’t even buy a small coffee in the Post cafeteria (assuming you arrive before the 6 p.m. closing). It might buy some peanuts. But over a year’s time, multiplied by roughly a half-million home subscribers, that 3 cents a day becomes close to $5 million. And it comes on the heels of the 10-cent rise, on Dec. 31, of the newsstand price for the daily paper. That will put an additional $6 million or so into the paper’s coffers this year. Looked at another way, the cost for daily-Sunday subscribers is up 6 percent, for daily-Saturday subscribers 12 percent, and for single-copy buyers 40 percent. While price hikes for the paper itself have been infrequent and relatively modest at the consumer level — keeping The Post the best bargain in town — advertising rates have climbed steadily despite the market’s ups and downs. General ad rates have risen 4.5 percent to 5.3 percent on average in each of the years 1999 through 2002. The most recent reported increase, on Jan.1, was 4.8 percent. For most categories of classified and retail advertising, the average annual increase has ranged from 3.7 percent to 4.5 percent. The most recent, on Feb.1, was 4.5 percent. In this light, what Post management advertises as an average 2 percent pay raise for Guild-covered employees (although the first-year lump sum offered is no real "raise " at all) looks like peanuts indeed. Keeping Up With Percentages The Guild opened bargaining this year proposing an annual pay raise of 4.77 percent, in line with what federal workers got this January (not counting their longevity-based step increases). The Guild ’s current position at the table calls for a raise of 3 percent annually. Meanwhile, the key House subcommittee involved in setting federal raises has approved a 4.1 percent boost for next Jan 1. As one of the company’s bargainers has noted, the government doesn’t have to worry about making a profit. Fair enough. So what’s happening in the private sector? Post management points to 2 percent raises in 2002 for Guild-covered workers at the New York Times (without noting the far superior salary scales there) and similar increases at other,smaller papers across the country. The Conference Board, a New York-based research group, reported last month that — for the first time in nine years — average salary increases dropped below 4 percent in 2002 for many white-collar workers. "However, the projected 2003 increases rebound to 4 percent," the group said, based on its survey of 533 major companies in six industry sectors. The report projects Consumer Price Index inflation of 1.5 percent this year and 2.6 percent next year. More to the point, the Inland Press Association on July 3 released its Newspaper Industry Compensation Survey. The bottom line for 2002: "Base pay increased an average of 3.01 percent across all 85 newspaper job positions reported." The survey, based on data from 478 participating newspapers in the United States and Canada, also found that experienced reporters got average base-pay raises of 3.3 percent this year, compared with 3.9 percent last year. Post
management, arguing for concessions, also points to contract provisions
accepted by the much smaller craft unions at The Post, which range
in size from about 30 electricians to about 400 mailers and helpers.
The Guild, in contrast, represents about 1,450 people in The Post’s
news, editorial and commercial departments – the workers who
produce the content and the core revenue. (Management is attempting
to Counting Their Nickels The Post Co.’s routine announcements of quarterly dividends have followed a modest pattern: Each year going back to 1995, they reflected an annual dividend increase of 20 cents. This year, however, the dividend has been frozen at $5.60 — suggesting that belt-tightening begins, to some extent, at the top. That quarterly nickel might not mean much to you and me, even to the extent employees have Post stock in their 401(k)plans. But it does represent a modest chunk of change for the company’s bottom line — approaching $2 million. And it means less change in the pockets of the company’s biggest shareholders — the Graham family and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.\ The company’s outside directors, meanwhile, are also under a pay freeze, but don’t get your handkerchiefs out yet. They made $50,000 last year, when the board held five meetings. Committee chairmen made an additional $5,000. The board members’ last raise was 25 percent — $10,000, on Jan.1, 2000. And should these directors wish to defer that pay to minimize tax liabilities, the company has set up a convenient plan for them to do so. FLASH: Ad Revenue Rises at The Post At the Mid-Year Media Review in New York June 18, Post Co. Chairman and CEO Donald E. Graham told analysts that the Post newspaper was "still suffering from the Recession Blues," pointing to a drop of about 8 percent in ad revenue this year through May, compared with 2001. But there were some bright spots — notably May itself, when revenue rose 1 percent over the prior year. Graham called that "encouraging,"but added, "It’s far too early for us to conclude that we’ve hit bottom or bounced off it." Newsprint expense — the second-biggest category after labor — was down 25 percent, thanks to lower consumption and what one trade journal calls "rock-bottom" prices. A 2 percent decline in most other expenses was attributed to careful management of operating costs and "headcount." In other words, in large part, jobs unfilled. During a question period following the formal presentation, Graham was asked about labor relations at The Post. Though the question could not have been unexpected at an event closely following the June 5-6 byline strike, Graham’s somewhat halting answer conveyed a certain disengagement. He referred to the paper’s "very professional labor negotiating team" and said "the negotiations are going on in good faith" — even though the parties had not met for a month and, until later that day, did not have another session scheduled. "As I say, we wrap up union contracts all the time," he said. (Read the whole presentation or listen to it at www.washpostco.comhttp://www.washpostco.com.) Among
the Washington Post Co.’s stated goals are "to be not just
a good, but an exceptional place for people to work." The bargaining
table is one place where the company, from the top down, should put
this principle into practice. -- Keith Sinzinger, Post Foreign Desk
Fruits of Your Labor I: Post Profits in Perspective -- As another round of collective bargaining between the Newspaper Guild and The Post draws near, Guild member and Foreign Desk editor Keith Sinzinger takes a look at the Post's bottom line. First in a series. Fruits of Your Labor II: Who's Optimistic? -- Guild member and Foreign Desk editor Keith Sinzinger takes a look at spending, acquisitions and allegations of illegal conduct by the Post. Second in a series. Fruits of Your Labor III: Post Profits in Perspective -- Guild member and Foreign Desk editor Keith Sinzinger compares Washington Post CEO and chairman Donald E.Graham's pay freeze (locked in at $399,996) to managment's proposal to freeze employees' pay this year. Third in a series.
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Washington-Baltimore
Newspaper Guild, Local 32035 TNG-CWA, AFL-CIO/ 1100 15th St., NW,
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