Anyone up for breaking a strike?

Not bad, shot. But I'm guessing that'd be a pretty tall order in today's industry. And hell, if the Daily News guys could do that, more power to 'em. I'd subscribe, and I'm definitely not a union guy.

 

Yeah ... I think I'd be the first one in line in my town for a copy of that paper.

 

More likely, the Daily News disappears if there's a long strike.

 

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16132293.htm

Nine unions at Philadelphia's two largest newspapers agreed Thursday to extend contract talks by another week and are prepared to cross picket lines if editorial employees strike before then, a union leader said.

 

They have to cross the picket line because their contracts contain a very standard (these days at least) clause prhibiting sympathy strikes. Nothing unusual about that.

However, there appears to have been some progress made over the last 24 hours and the situation seems a lot more hopeful than earlier this week.

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=13529

 

Interesting town for a labor dispute. There's a well-known sign in the heart of the city that reads "Welcome to Philadelphia -- A Strong Union Town."

Everything in that city in the last century has been built with the power of union labor. If it didn't have that, Philly would've gone bankrupt 15 years ago. Just ask Ed Rendell.

 

For crying out loud, the plumbers' unions needed to sign off on the new Comcast high-rise putting in self-maintaining toilets, since they were afraid of losing jobs. Unions are wicked powerful in that town.

Here's my issue, though, and I raised it on the Philly strike thread (before I remembered this one was kicking around): Wouldn't the drivers be asking us to not cross the picket lines if they went out on strike? And Cran, the other unions haven't signed their contracts yet, so technically they could strike if they wanted.

 

I suspect there's also a no sympathy strike clause in their current contract. The terms and conditions don't go away at expiration or in the absence of a new deal.

 

Touche.

 

Philly strike on hold -- for now

Just moved a bit ago.



By DEBORAH YAO
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The largest union at Philadelphiaás two biggest newspapers said late Thursday that it was moving toward a contract agreement and would not strike after the midnight deadline, but would continue negotiations if needed.
ààWe are making progress,áá Henry Holcomb, president of The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, said with less than two hours before the Guild contract was to expire. Holcomb said contract talks would continue Friday if no late-night agreement was reached.
ààWe are all working hard and I believe that a great deal of progress is being made,áá Brian Tierney, chief executive of the papersá owner, Philadelphia Media Holdings, said in a statement.

 

Best news I've heard on this topic yet.

 

Yeah ... as long as they don't drop from a 20 percent to 19 percent profit margin, I'm sure they'll keep banging away at it.